As a matter of fact I do! I’ll share various images with you below, as well as throw out some basic information concerning Mars’ lovely moons for those who aren’t familiar.

“On Mars, Phobos would be easily visible to the naked eye at night, but would be only about one-third as large as the full Moon appears from Earth. Astronauts staring at Phobos from the surface of Mars would notice its oblong, potato-like shape and that it moves quickly against the background stars. Phobos takes only 7 hours, 39 minutes to complete one orbit of Mars. That is so fast, relative to the 24-hour-and-39-minute sol on Mars (the length of time it takes for Mars to complete one rotation), that Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east. Earth’s moon, by comparison, rises in the east and sets in the west. The smaller martian moon, Deimos, takes 30 hours, 12 minutes to complete one orbit of Mars. That orbital period is longer than a martian sol, and so Deimos rises, like most solar system moons, in the east and sets in the west.” via NASA Mars rover gallery.

The first image below, taken by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, shows both Deimos and Phobos, labeled for your convenience, and is titled Two Moons Passing in the Night, which was taken on the night of sol 585 (Aug. 26, 2005). [Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M - view full sized images here.]

The second image, also taken by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, titled Two Moons and the Pleiades from Mars, clearly shows a labeled and unlabeled version displaying  both Phobos and Deimos, again, along with the PLeiades and Aldebaran. This image was taken on the evening of martian day, or sol, 590 (Aug. 30, 2005). [Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M - view full sized images here.]

Next we have Phobos Viewed from Mars. “Spirit acquired the first two images with the panoramic camera on the night of sol 585 (Aug. 26, 2005). The far right image of Phobos, for comparison, was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express, a European Space Agency orbiter. The third image in this sequence was derived from the far right image by making it blurrier for comparison with the panoramic camera images to the left.”[Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M - view full sized images here.]

Below are two images, very similar, taken by Spirit. The first, The Night Sky on Mars, which is a time-lapse composite, and was captured the evening of Spirit’s martian sol 590 (Aug. 30, 2005). The second below is named The Two Moons of Mars As Seen from Husband Hill. “Spirit took this succession of images at 150-second intervals from a perch atop “Husband Hill” in Gusev Crater on martian day, or sol, 594 (Sept. 4, 2005).” [Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M - view full sized images here.]

Next we have some wonderful images [via the Daily Mail] of Deimos and Phobos traveling in front of the sun to create a partial solar eclipse, viewed from Mars, taken by Curiosity. The first shows Deimos and it’s small stature in comparison with our star. The second shows Phobos beginning to eclipse the Sun, as it makes it’s path across the Martian sky. 

I’ll leave you with a sped-up GIF of another eclipse, caused by Phobos, observed by Opportunity on  the afternoon of the rover’s 3,078th Martian day, or sol (Sept. 20, 2012). [via NASA]

You can view a video of Phobos eclipsing the sun on November 9, 2010 here, as captured by Opportunity. You can view more rover-captured images of both moons here, and here. I hope this answered your question sufficiently, and gives you a good place to start when looking for images of these moons taken from the Martian surface. Enjoy!

electricspacekoolaid:

Wow! Ancient Mars Could Have Supported Primitive Life 

It’s official: Primitive life could have lived on ancient Mars, NASA says.

A sample of Mars drilled from a rock by NASA’s Curiosity rover and then studied by onboard instruments “shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes,” NASA officials announced today (March 12) in a statement and press conference.

The discovery comes just seven months after Curiosity landed onMars to spend at least two years determining if the planet could ever have hosted primitive life. To be clear, the new find is not evidence that Martian life has ever actually existed; Curiosity carries no life-detection instruments among its scientific gear.

“A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “From what we know now, the answer is yes.”

Curiosity drilled into a rock on Feb. 8, boring 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) into an outcrop called John Klein using its arm-mounted hammering drill — deeper than any robot had ever dug into the Red Planet before.  

Two weeks later, the rover transferred the resulting gray powder sample into two onboard instruments called Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM.

CheMin and SAM identified some of the key chemical ingredients for life in this dust, including sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon, researchers said. Intriguingly, the mix also suggested a possible energy source for indigenous Martian life, if any ever existed in the area.

“The range of chemical ingredients we have identified in the sample is impressive, and it suggests pairings such as sulfates and sulfides that indicate a possible chemical energy source for micro-organisms,” Paul Mahaffy, SAM principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement.

Mars Rock Takes Unusual Form

“On Mars, as on Earth, sometimes things can take on an unusual appearance. A case in point is a shiny-looking rock seen in a recent image from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover.

Some casual observers might see a resemblance to a car door handle, hood ornament or some other type of metallic object. To Ronald Sletten of the University of Washington, Seattle, a collaborator on Curiosity’s science team, the object is an interesting study in how wind and the natural elements cause erosion and other effects on various types of rocks.

Find out what likely caused the shiny appearance of the Martian rock, and see some examples of similar phenomena found on Earth above in the images, via this pdf from JPL/NASA.”

Mars: Shadow at Point Lake 

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, Mastcam

“What if you saw your shadow on Mars and it wasn’t human? Then you might be the robotic Curiosity rover currently exploring Mars. Curiosity landed in Gale Crater last August and has been busy looking for signs of ancient running water and clues that Mars could once have harbored life. Pictured above, Curiosity has taken a wide panorama that includes its own shadow in the direction opposite the Sun. The image was taken in November from a location dubbed Point Lake, although no water presently exists there. Curiosity has already discovered several indications ofdried streambeds on Mars, and is scheduled to continue it”s exploration by climbing nearby Mt. Sharp over the next few years.”

First X-ray Vision of Martian Soil.

“This graphic shows results of the first analysis of Martian soil by the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) experiment on NASA’s Curiosity rover. The image reveals the presence of crystalline feldspar, pyroxenes and olivine mixed with some amorphous (non-crystalline) material. The soil sample, taken from a wind-blown deposit within Gale Crater, where the rover landed, is similar to volcanic soils in Hawaii.”

Continue…

An Ancient Stream Bank on Mars - APOD

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS

“Fresh evidence of an ancient stream has been found on Mars. The robotic rover Curiosity has run across unusual surface features that carry a strong resemblance to stream banks on Earth. Visible in the above image, for example, is a small overhanging rock ledge that was quite possibly created by water erosion beneath. The texture of the ledge appears to be a sedimentary conglomerate, the dried remains of many smaller rocks stuck together. Beneath the ledge are numerous small pebbles, possibly made smooth by tumbling in and around the once-flowing stream. Pebbles in the streambed likely fell there as the bank eroded. Circled at the upper right is a larger rock possibly also made smooth by stream erosion. Curiosity has now discovered several indications of dried streambeds on Mars on its way to itspresent location where it will be exploring the unusual conjunction of three different types of landscape.”

Curiosity on Mars: A Wall of Gale Crater - APOD

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS

“If you could stand on Mars, what would you see? The above image is a digitally re-colored approximation of what you might see if the above Martian landscape had occurred on Earth. Images from Mars false-colored in this way are called white balanced and useful for planetary scientists to identify rocks and landforms similar to Earth. The image is a high resolution version of a distant wall of Gale Crater captured by the Curiosity rover that landed on Mars last week. A corresponding true color image exists showing how this scene actually appears on Mars. The robotic Curiosity rover continues to check itself over and accept new programming from Earth before it begins to roll across Mars andexplore a landscape that has the appearance of being an unusually layered dried river bed.”

A gif showing alternating views taken by the Hazard-Avoidance cameras on the Mars rover Curiosity. This image is showing evidence of an impact plume due to Curiosity’s sky crane when it fell onto the Martian surface. The two images shown in this gif are taken 45 minutes apart. “They are one-quarter of full resolution (256 by 256 pixels).” [x]

View full resolution image here.

[Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]

The First Color Panorama from Mars by Curiosity - APOD
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS

“You’ve just landed on Mars and opened your eyes — what do you see? If you’re the Curiosity rover, you see a strange gravelly place with a large mountain in the distance. You’ve landedon target near the edge of 150-km wide Gale Crater, with Mount Sharp on the horizon being the rise in the crater’s center. As a car-sized rover with six wheels and a laser, you prepare yourself to go on a two-year mission of exploration, climbing Mt. Sharp, and looking for signs that Mars once harbored life. Currently you sit motionless, check yourself over, and receive a detailed briefing from Earth on things you will need to know while rolling around, trying to avoid flipping over or getting your wheels stuck in sand. Your rolling explorations will likely start in a few days. What will you find? What’s out there?”

rationalhub:

Ernst Stuhlinger’s response in 1970, to a woman who asked him how he could suggest spending billions of dollars on his ongoing research into a piloted mission to Mars at a time when so many children were starving on Earth.

Mars Rover Update: Curiosity’s Self Portrait & First 360-Degree Panorama.

1. “This Picasso-like self portrait of NASA’s Curiosity rover was taken by its Navigation cameras, located on the now-upright mast. The camera snapped pictures 360-degrees around the rover, while pointing down at the rover deck, up and straight ahead. Those images are shown here in a polar projection. Most of the tiles are thumbnails, or small copies of the full-resolution images that have not been sent back to Earth yet. Two of the tiles are full-resolution. ”
2. “The first two full-resolution images of the Martian surface from the Navigation cameras on NASA’s Curiosity rover, which are located on the rover’s “head” or mast. The rim of Gale Crater can be seen in the distance beyond the pebbly ground. The topography of the rim is very mountainous due to erosion. The ground seen in the middle shows low-relief scarps and plains. The foreground shows two distinct zones of excavation likely carved out by blasts from the rover’s descent stage thrusters.”

[Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]

First Color Image of the Martian Landscape Returned from Curiosity!

[Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems]

“This view of the landscape to the north of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the afternoon of the first day after landing (The team calls this day Sol 1, which is the first Martian day of operations; Sol 1 began on Aug. 6, 2012).

In the distance, the image shows the north wall and rim of Gale Crater. The image is murky because the MAHLI’s removable dust cover is apparently coated with dust blown onto the camera during the rover’s terminal descent. Images taken without the dust cover in place are expected to during checkout of the robotic arm in coming weeks.

The MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm. At the time the MAHLI Sol 1 image was acquired, the robotic arm was in its stowed position. It has been stowed since the rover was packaged for its Nov. 26, 2011, launch.

The MAHLI has a transparent dust cover. This image was acquired with the dust cover closed. The cover will not be opened until more than a week after the landing.”

Continue…

Huge Mars Robot Armed With Laser, Cameras, Curiosity

(Infographic)Credit: karl Tate, SPACE.com

“The nuclear-powered mobile science laboratory Curiosity is to rove across the surface of Mars for years, searching for the conditions that may have once made Mars an abode of life.”

View more of the 1st photos from Mars Rover Curiosity Landing on Space.com.

Screenshots I got from Ustream broadcast. First images from Mars! You can see the horizon AND the rover’s wheel!! As well as it’s shadow!! Another congratulations to NASA’s JPL crew!