Category: Mars

Well, here it is, the picture we’ve all been waiting for – the first colour image from the surface of Mars taken by Spirit. I can’t believe the resolution this rover has. I’ve taken a big chunk of the image and processed it to be a 1280 x 1024 wallpaper. To set this image as your desktop wallpaper, click the following link, and then right-click anywhere in the image and select “Set as Wallpaper”.

Click here to download the first colour image of Mars taken by Spirit. (156 KB)

If you want to access the original, high-resolution image from NASA, click here instead. I’ll warn you, though, it’s more than 4 MB… and that’s just the medium resolution version.

Enjoy!

Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today

Image credit: NASA/JPL

NASA scientists are chomping at the bit to get Spirit rolling, and they’ve already found what will probably become the rover’s first target: a nearby depression in the ground the scientists have called “Sleepy Hollow”. This shallow bowl could be an impact crater, and provide scientists with a deeper look into the structure of the Martian surface. Spirit’s next task is to extend its front wheels, which are curled up on the platform to give it a smaller size for the journey. Full colour pictures of Mars are expected later today.

“Sleepy Hollow,” a shallow depression in the Mars ground near NASA’s Spirit rover, may become an early destination when the rover drives off its lander platform in a week or so.

That possible crater and other features delighted engineers and scientists examining pictures from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit’s first look around.

“Reality has surpassed fantasy. We’re like kids in a candy store,” said Art Thompson, rover tactical activity lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “We can hardly wait until we get off the lander and start doing fun stuff on the surface.”

A clean bill of health from a checkout of all three science instruments on Spirit’s robotic arm fortified scientists’ anticipation of beginning to use those tools after the rover gets its six wheels onto the ground.

Also, Spirit succeeded Sunday in finding the Sun with its panoramic camera and calculating how to point its main antenna toward Earth by knowing the Sun’s position.

“Just as the ancient mariners used sextants for ‘shooting the Sun,’ as they called it, we were successfully able to shoot the Sun with our panorama camera, then use that information to point the antenna,” said JPL’s Matt Wallace, mission manger.

Within sight of Spirit are several wide, shallow bowls that may be impact craters, said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, principal investigator for the spacecraft’s science payload. “It’s clear that while we have a generally flat surface, it is pockmarked with these things.

The mission’s scientists, who are getting little rest as they examine the pictures from Spirit, chose the name “Sleepy Hollow” for one of these circular depressions. This one is about 9 meters (30 feet) across and about 12 meters (40 feet) north of the lander, Squyres said.

“It’s a hole in the ground,” he said. “It’s a window into the interior of Mars.”

One of the next steps in preparing Spirit for rolling onto the soil is to extend the front wheels, which are tucked in for fitting inside a tight space during the flight from Earth.

Spirit arrived at Mars Jan. 3 (EST and PST; Jan. 4 Universal Time) after a seven month journey. Its task is to spend the next three months exploring for clues in rocks and soil about whether the past environment at this part of Mars was ever watery and possibly suitable to sustain life.

Spirit’s twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, will reach its landing site on the opposite side of Mars on Jan. 25 (EST and Universal Time; Jan. 24 PST) to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet from Gusev Crater.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington. Additional information about the project is available from JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and and from Cornell University at http://athena.cornell.edu.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

Image credit: ESA

On January 7 and for the following three days, Mars Express will attempt to communicate with the missing Beagle 2 lander. Now that it’s modified its orbit, Mars Express will pass directly over the region that Beagle 2 was thought to have landed. Previous attempts to reach the lander have been unsuccessful; however, Mars Express and Beagle 2 have been extensively tested to communicate with one another. The first attempt will happen on January 7 at 1215 UTC (7:15 pm EST January 6). The European Space Agency will announce their results a few hours later.

As of Wednesday 7 January 2004, and for the following three days, ESA?s Mars Express orbiter will be as little as 315 kilometres above the landing area of the still-silent Beagle 2.

Since Christmas attempts to communicate with the tiny lander through NASA?s Mars Odyssey orbiter and radio telescopes on Earth have been unsuccessful. However, Mars Express and Beagle 2 are the only systems tested end-to-end, giving ESA more confidence of establishing contact with the lander in the coming days.

The Ultra High Frequency (UHF) receivers on Mars Express are ready to communicate with Beagle 2. On 7 January, at precisely 13:15 CET, ESA?s Mars Express orbiter will be in both an ideal flight path and an ideal communication configuration, right over the Beagle 2 landing area, at about 86 degrees, allowing ground controllers at ESA?s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, to catch the slightest beep from the Martian surface.

The results of this first search attempt will be announced at a press briefing at ESA/ESOC by David Southwood, Director of Science, Rudolf Schmidt, Mars Express Project Manager, and Michael McKay, Deputy Flight Director, starting at 16:00 CET.

Original Source: ESA News Release

Image credit: ESA

The European Space Agency’s Mars Express performed another five minute burn of its engine to change its orbit around the Red Planet. The lowest point of its orbit is now 250 km, and the high point is 40,000 km. Two more maneuvers are scheduled which will bring the spacecraft down to its final orbit by January 11. Mars Express will be in position to help search for Beagle 2 very soon. Teams from Beagle 2 and Mars Express are working through various scenarios that could explain why the lander went missing.

Today at 14:13 CET, ESA?s Mars Express spacecraft successfully executed an essential planned manoeuvre to reduce its orbit around the Red Planet.

A five-minute burn of its main engine brought Mars Express from an orbit apocentre (highest point) of 190 000 kilometres to 40 000 kilometres with a pericentre (lowest point) of about 250 kilometres.

Mars Express will reach its final operational orbit of about 11 000 kilometres by 300 kilometres towards the end of the month after two more scheduled orbit adjustments (using main engine burns) on the nights of 6/7 and 10/11 January.

Today?s key move enables ESA to pursue its Mars mission as planned. First, scheduled scientific observations can begin mid-January and, second, the search for the Beagle 2 lander will become much more accurate.

Michael McKay, Mars Express Deputy Flight Director in Darmstadt, Germany, said: ?From the second half of January 2004, the orbiter’s instruments will be prepared to scan the atmosphere, the surface and parts of the subsurface structure of Mars with unprecedented precision.

“The High Resolution Stereo Camera, for example, will take high-precision pictures of the planet and will begin a comprehensive 3D cartography of Mars. The MARSIS radar will be able to scan as far as four kilometres below the surface, looking for underground water or ice.

“Also, several spectrometers will try to unveil the mysteries of Martian mineralogy and the atmosphere, as well as influences from the solar wind or seasonal changes.?

On 7 January 2004, at 13:15 CET, the lowest point of the Mars Express flight path will be as close as 315 kilometres to the landing area of the still-silent Beagle 2.

The NASA Mars Odyssey orbiter and several radio telescopes on Earth have been unable to obtain a signal since Christmas, but chances will rise with the approach of the ‘mothership’ to its ‘baby’ Beagle 2.

Mars Express and Beagle 2 are the only end-to-end tested systems, giving ESA more confidence of establishing contact with the lander.

Today, 4 January, ESA specialists are meeting with Beagle 2 staff at ESA?s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt to define a strategy for modes of interaction between the ESA orbiter and the lander.

Mars Express has Ultra High Frequency (UHF) receivers ready to communicate with Beagle 2. Mars Express Project Manager Rudolf Schmidt and his ESA colleagues are very much looking forward to 7 January 2004.

Dr Schmidt said: ?At this precise time, our Mars Express orbiter is in both an ideal flight path and an ideal communication configuration, right on top of the Beagle 2 landing area, at about 86 degrees. In this situation, we should be able to discern the slightest beep from the Martian surface.?

Today?s manoeuvre was another step towards the European exploration of Mars, ensuring both orbiter operations as planned and a precise search of the Beagle 2 lander. ESA is looking forward to an exciting Mars exploration in the next months. The latest news will be posted, as always, at: at http://mars.esa.int

Original Source: ESA News Release

Image credit: NASA/JPL

With Spirit safely on the surface of Mars, engineers at NASA are starting to get a sense of the environment around it. So far, it looks like the rover couldn’t have landed in a better spot. The platform holding the rover is only tilted a few degrees, and there are no large rocks blocking the ramps. The terrain has lots of rocks to examine, but they’re well spaced out, which should let Spirit travel at a fairly high speed across the ground. Spirit will remain on the landing platform for another nine days or so before it ventures out onto search the area for evidence of past water.

NASA’s Spirit Rover is starting to examine its new surroundings, revealing a vast flatland well suited to the robot’s unprecedented mobility and scientific toolkit.

“Spirit has told us that it is healthy,” Jennifer Trosper of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said today. Trosper is Spirit mission manager for operations on Mars’ surface. The rover remains perched on its lander platform, and the next nine days or more will be spent preparing for egress, or rolling off, onto the martian surface.

With only two degrees of tilt, with the deck toward the front an average of only about 37 centimeters (15 inches) off the ground, and with apparently no large rocks blocking the way, the lander is in good position for egress. “The egress path we’re working toward is straight ahead,” Trosper said.

The rover’s initial images excited scientists about the prospects of exploring the region after the roll-off.

“My hat is off to the navigation team because they did a fantastic job of getting us right where we wanted to be,” said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science payload. By correlating images taken by Spirit with earlier images from spacecraft orbiting Mars, the mission team has determined that the rover appears to be in a region marked with numerous swaths where dust devils have removed brighter dust and left darker gravel behind.

“This is our new neighborhood,” Squyres said. “We hit the sweet spot. We wanted someplace where the wind had cleared off the rocks for us. We’ve landed in a place that’s so thick with dust devil tracks that a lot of the dust has been blown away.”

The terrain looks different from any of the sites examined by NASA’s three previous successful landers — the two Vikings in 1976 and Mars Pathfinder in 1997.

“What we’re seeing is a section of surface that is remarkably devoid of big boulders, at least in our immediate vicinity, and that’s good news because big boulders are something we would have trouble driving over,” Squyres said. “We see a rock population that is different from anything we’ve seen elsewhere on Mars, and it comes out very much in our favor.”

Spirit arrived at Mars Jan. 3 (EST and PST; Jan. 4 Universal Time) after a seven month journey. Its task is to spend the next three months exploring for clues in rocks and soil about whether the past environment at this part of Mars was ever watery and suitable to sustain life.

Spirit’s twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, will reach its landing site on the opposite side of Mars on Jan. 25 (EST and Universal Time; Jan. 24 PST) to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet from Gusev Crater.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington. Additional information about the project is available from JPL at: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University at: http://athena.cornell.edu.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

Image credit: NASA/JPL

NASA controllers confirmed that the Spirit rover successfully landed on Mars today. The spacecraft passed through the atmosphere, deployed its parachute, fired its retrorockets, and then bounced along the Martian surface protected by airbags – its landing time was January 4 at 0435 UTC (11:35 pm EST January 3). Pictures from the Martian surface are expected soon. Spirit will spend at least 90 days traveling around the surface of Mars, searching for evidence of past water with several scientific instruments. The next rover, Opportunity, is expected to land on January 24.

A traveling robotic geologist from NASA has landed on Mars and returned stunning images of the area around its landing site in Gusev Crater.

Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully sent a radio signal after the spacecraft had bounced and rolled for several minutes following its initial impact at 11:35 p.m. EST (8:35 p.m. Pacific Standard Time) on January 3.

“This is a big night for NASA,” said NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe. “We’re back. I am very, very proud of this team, and we’re on Mars.”

Members of the mission’s flight team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., cheered and clapped when they learned that NASA’s Deep Space Network had received a post-landing signal from Spirit. The cheering resumed about three hours later when the rover transmitted its first images to Earth, relaying them through NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter.

“We’ve got many steps to go before this mission is over, but we’ve retired a lot of risk with this landing,” said JPL’s Pete Theisinger, project manager for the Mars Exploration Rover Project.

Deputy project manager for the rovers, JPL’s Richard Cook, said, “We’re certainly looking forward to Opportunity landing three weeks from now.” Opportunity is Spirit’s twin rover, headed for the opposite side of Mars.

Dr. Charles Elachi, JPL director, said, “To achieve this mission, we have assembled the best team of young women and men this country can put together. Essential work was done by other NASA centers and by our industrial and academic partners.

Spirit stopped rolling with its base petal down, though that favorable position could change as airbags deflate, said JPL’s Rob Manning, development manager for the rover’s descent through Mars’ atmosphere and landing on the surface.

NASA chose Spirit’s landing site, within Gusev Crater, based on evidence from Mars orbiters that this crater may have held a lake long ago. A long, deep valley, apparently carved by ancient flows of water, leads into Gusev. The crater itself is basin the size of Connecticut created by an asteroid or comet impact early in Mars’ history. Spirit’s task is to spend the next three months exploring for clues in rocks and soil about whether the past environment at this part of Mars was ever watery and suitable to sustain life.

Spirit traveled 487 million kilometers (302.6 million) miles to reach Mars after its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on June 10, 2003. Its twin, Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, was launched July 7, 2003, and is on course for a landing on the opposite side of Mars on Jan. 25 (Universal Time and EST; 9:05 p.m. on Jan. 24, PST).

The flight team expects to spend more than a week directing Spirit through a series of steps in unfolding, standing up and other preparations necessary before the rover rolls off of its lander platform to get its wheels onto the ground. Meanwhile, Spirit’s cameras and a mineral-identifying infrared instrument will begin examining the surrounding terrain. That information will help engineers and scientists decide which direction to send the rover first.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington. Additional information about the project is available from JPL at:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov , www.nasa.gov and from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., at http://athena.cornell.edu.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

When Pathfinder arrived at Mars back in 1997, I kept a tiny video window open on my desktop to watch every moment of the mission – all thanks to the Internet. It was pretty choppy at times, so hopefully NASA has more bandwidth this time.

Spirit is expected to arrive in Gusev Crater on Mars on January 4 at 0435 UTC (11:35 pm EST, 8:35 pm PST January 3). Live coverage on NASA television begins about two hours before landing and will continue all through Sunday and into Monday. You can access the NASA television page here. The main NASA TV link will probably overwhelmed, so I highly recommend you try out some of the alternative links. We’ll try and keep track of links to video streams in the forum which are able to handle the bandwidth.

Come on Spirit!

Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today

Image credit: Beagle 2

The search for Beagle 2 continues. Operators announced on December 31 that the British lander had failed to report in for the eighth time. At this point, the lander will have switched to a new mode where it tries to communicate twice a day. Although unlikely, it’s possible that Beagle 2’s onboard timer was reset during the landing, which would mean it was trying to communicate out of sync with Mars Odyssey and Earth-based radio telescopes. Mars Express will start searching on January 5, which operators believe will bring their best chances of finding it.

News on the outcome of today’s communication attempt via Mars Odyssey was delayed for several hours because NASA’s Deep Space Network is also being used for the Mars Exploration Rover and Stardust missions, which will be reaching their climax in the next few days.

As from last night, Beagle 2 should have switched to an emergency mode known as ‘ communication search mode 1′ (CSM 1). When the lander switches to CSM 1, it attempts to communicate twice every Martian day (sol), during the best daytime and best night-time pass by an available orbiter.

Meanwhile, ESA’s Mars Express orbiter was successfully inserted into a polar orbit around the Red Planet yesterday morning. This manoeuvre means that Mars Express will be ideally placed to communicate with Beagle 2 when it passes over the landing site in Isidis Planitia in a few days’ time.

An updated list of future opportunities to communicate with Beagle 2, including pre-programmed sessions with Mars Express, is posted on the Beagle 2 Web site.

The next Beagle 2 press briefing is scheduled to take place at the Media Centre in Camden on Sunday 4 January. Details will be confirmed on the Web sites at a later date.

Original Source: PPARC News Release

Image credit: NASA/JPL

NASA’s Spirit rover made a slight correction to its trajectory on December 26, when it fired its thrusters for 3.4 seconds. The maneuver went flawlessly, and put the lander right on course to land in Mars’ Gusev Crater on January 4 at 0435 UTC (11:35 pm EST January 3). This was Spirit’s fourth trajectory correction maneuver since its launch on June 10, and two more might still happen in the final days if its flight is a little off-target. As with Beagle 2, the most dangerous part of the mission will happen when the rovers have to pass through Mars atmosphere and land safely on the planet.

NASA’s Spirit rover spacecraft fired its thrusters for 3.4 seconds on Friday, Dec. 26, to make a slight and possibly final correction in its flight path about one week before landing on Mars.

Radio tracking of the spacecraft during the 24 hours after the maneuver showed it to be right on course for its landing inside Mars’ Gusev Crater at 04:35 Jan. 4, 2004, Universal Time (8:35 p.m. Jan. 3, Pacific Standard Time.) Spirit’s twin, Opportunity, will reach Mars three weeks later.

“The maneuver went flawlessly,” said Dr. Mark Adler, Spirit mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

This was Spirit’s fourth trajectory correction maneuver since launch on June 10. Two more are on the schedule for the flight’s final three days, if needed. Adler said, “It seems unlikely we’ll have to do a fifth trajectory correction maneuver, but we’ll make the final call Thursday morning after we have a few more days of tracking data. Right now, it looks as though we hit the bull’s-eye.”

The adjustment was a quick nudge approximately perpendicular to the spacecraft’s spin axis, said JPL’s Chris Potts, deputy navigation team chief for the NASA Mars Exploration Rover project. “It moved the arrival time later by 2 seconds and moved the landing point on the surface northeast by about 54 kilometers” (33 miles), Potts said. The engine firing changed the velocity of the spacecraft by only 25 millimeters per second (about one-twentieth of one mile per hour).

For both NASA rovers approaching Mars, the most daunting challenges will be descending through Mars’ atmosphere, landing on the surface, and opening up properly from the enclosed and folded configuration in which the rovers arrive. Most previous Mars landing attempts, by various nations, have failed.

Each rover, if it arrives successfully, will then spend more than a week in a careful sequence of steps before rolling off its lander platform. The rovers’ mission is to examine their landing areas for geological evidence about past environmental conditions. In particular, they will seek evidence about the local history of liquid water, which is key information for assessing whether the sites ever could have been hospitable to life. Opportunity will land halfway around Mars from Spirit.

As of 13:00 Universal Time (6 a.m. PST) on New Year’s Day, Spirit will have traveled 481.9 million kilometers (299.4 million miles) since launch and have will have 5.1 million kilometers (3.2 million miles) left to go. Opportunity will have traveled 411 million kilometers (255 million miles) since its July 7 launch and will have 45 million kilometers (27.9 million miles) to go, with three remaining scheduled opportunities for trajectory correction maneuvers.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington.

Additional information about the project is available from JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., at http://athena.cornell.edu.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

Image credit: ESA

The European Space Agency’s Mars Express completed a major orbit maneuver, bringing the spacecraft from an equatorial orbit to a polar orbit around Mars. The spacecraft’s main engine was fired for four minutes. Now that it’s in a polar orbit around Mars, the spacecraft will be able to begin its scientific analysis of Mars, using its MARSIS radar to search up to several kilometres under the surface for reserves of water and ice. Mars Express will fly directly over the Beagle 2 landing site on January 7, 2004 and attempt to communicate with it.

This morning, at 09:00 CET, the first European mission to Mars registered another operational success. The Mars Express flight control team at ESOC prepared and executed another critical manoeuvre, bringing the spacecraft from an equatorial orbit into a polar orbit around Mars.

All commands were transmitted to Mars Express via ESA’s new Deep Space Station in New Norcia, Australia. This morning, the main engine of Mars Express was fired for four minutes to turn the spacecraft into a new direction, at a distance of 188 000 kilometres from Mars and about 160 million kilometres from Earth. On 4 January 2004, this new polar orbit will be reduced even further.

Fascinating ESA science mission ahead
In a polar orbit, Mars Express can now start to prepare its scientific observation mission as planned, working much like an ‘Earth-observation satellite’ but around Mars. From the second half of January 2004, the orbiter’s instruments will be able to scan the atmosphere, the surface and parts of the subsurface structure of Mars with unmatched precision.

The MARSIS radar, for example, will be able to scan as far as four kilometres below the surface, looking for underground water or ice. The High Resolution Stereo Camera will take high-precision pictures of the planet and will begin a comprehensive 3D cartography of Mars. Also, several spectrometers will try to unveil the mysteries of Martian mineralogy and the atmosphere, as well as influences from the solar wind or seasonal changes.

Mars Express closes in on Beagle 2 landing area
The change of orbit by the Mars Express orbiter will allow increasingly closer looks at the Beagle 2 landing site, which measures 31 kilometres by 5 kilometres. In this narrowing polar orbit, the orbiter will fly directly over the landing site at an altitude of 315 kilometres on 7 January 2004, at 13:13 CET. The reduced distance, the ideal angle of overflight and originally foreseen communication interfaces between the ‘mother’ and ‘baby’ will increase the probability of catching signals from the ground.

Ongoing European co-operation and international support
The Mars Express flight control team of ESA in Darmstadt, Germany, is in regular contact with its colleagues of the Beagle 2 team and with NASA ground stations. In addition, ESA receives regular support or offers of support from the Jodrell Bank radio telescope in the UK, Westerborg telescope in the Netherlands, Effelsberg telescope in Germany and Stanford University’s telescope in the USA. ESA is grateful for this spirit of dynamic international co-operation on its first mission to Mars.

Original Source: ESA News Release