Possible water-formed gullies cut through sedimentary layers in Terby Crater
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Terby Crater, a 170-km-wide (100-mile-wide) crater located on the northern edge of the vast Hellas Planitia basin in Mars’ southern hemisphere, is edged by variable-toned layers of sedimentary rock – possibly laid down over millennia of submersion beneath standing water. This image (false-color) from the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a portion of Terby’s northern wall with what clearly looks like liquid-formed gullies slicing through the rock layers, branching from the upper levels into a main channel that flows downward, depositing a fan of material at the wall’s base.
But, looks can be deceiving…
Terby Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Dry processes – especially on Mars, where large regions have been bone-dry for many millions of years – can often create the same effects on the landscape as those caused by running water. Windblown Martian sand and repetitive dry landslides can etch rock in much the same way as liquid water, given enough time. But the feature seen above in Terby seem to planetary scientists to be most likely the result of liquid erosion… especially considering that the sedimentary layers themselves seem to contain clay materials, which only form in the presence of liquid water. Is it possible that some water existed beneath Mars’ surface long after the planet’s surface dried out? Or that it’s still there? Only future exploration will tell for sure.
“While formation by liquid water is one of the proposed mechanisms for gully formation on Mars, there are others, such as gravity-driven mass-wasting (like a landslide) that don’t require the presence of liquid water. This is still an open question that scientists are actively pursuing.”
– Nicole Baugh, HiRISE Targeting Specialist
Terby Crater was once on the short list of potential landing sites for the new Mars Science Laboratory (aka Curiosity) rover but has since been removed from consideration. Still, it may one day be visited by a future robotic mission and have its gullies further explored from ground level.
Pitted "swiss cheese" terrain at Mars' south pole hints at sublimation of underground CO2
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Scientists have spotted an underground reservoir near Mars’ south pole the size of Lake Superior… except that this lake is filled with frozen carbon dioxide – a.k.a. “dry ice”!
A recent report by scientists at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, CO reveals variations in Mars’ axial tilt can change how much carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere, affecting factors from the stability of water on its surface to the power and frequency of dust storms.
Thickness Map of Buried CO2 Ice Deposit
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s ground-penetrating Shallow Radar identified a subsurface deposit of frozen material, confirmed as carbon dioxide ice by its radar signature and visual correlation to the surface pitting seen above. As the polar surface warms during the Martian spring, underground CO2 deposits evaporate (or “sublime”) leaving behind round depressions in the frozen ground. (This has been aptly dubbed “swiss cheese terrain” by researchers on the HiRISE imaging team.)
While scientists were aware of seasonal CO2 ice layers atop the water ice this new discovery brings to light nearly 30 times more frozen CO2 than was previously believed to exist. In fact this particular deposit alone contains 80% the amount of CO2 currently present in the planet’s entire atmosphere.
The importance of this finding is how the carbon dioxide ultimately affects the global Martian climate as it freezes and thaws. When the CO2 is frozen and locked away in subsurface deposits like this, it’s not free to enter the atmosphere and do what CO2 does best: warm the planet… as well as increase atmospheric pressure. This means that liquid water cannot last as readily on the surface since it will either freeze or boil away. Also with less air pressure the strength of wind is decreased, so dust storms are less frequent and less severe.
When factored in with the axial tilt difference – and thus variations in the amount of sunlight hitting the poles – researchers’ models show that Mars’ average atmospheric pressure may at times be 75% higher than it is today.
These shifts in the orientation of the Red Planet’s axis occur on 100,000-year intervals… long by human standards but geologically very frequent. Mars may have had liquid water existing on its surface fairly recently!
Mars' south polar ice cap, seen in April 2000 by Mars Odyssey. NASA/JPL/MSSS
Although this may sound that Mars has had its own share of global warming due to CO2 emissions in its history, it must be remembered that Mars and Earth have very different atmospheric compositions. Earth’s atmosphere is much thicker and denser than Mars’, so even when doubling its CO2 content Mars’ atmosphere is still too thin and dry to create a strong greenhouse effect… especially considering that the polar caps on Mars increase cooling more than additional CO2 in the atmosphere raises global temperature. Without oceans and atmosphere to collect and distribute heat, the effect of any warming quickly radiates out into space…and eventually the planet swings back into a freeze-dried state.
“Unlike Earth, which has a thick, moist atmosphere that produces a strong greenhouse effect, Mars’ atmosphere is too thin and dry to produce as strong a greenhouse effect as Earth’s, even when you double its carbon-dioxide content.”
– Robert Haberle, planetary scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center
The Juno spacecraft passes in front of Jupiter in this artist's depiction. Juno, the second mission in NASA's New Frontiers program, will improve our understanding of the solar system by advancing studies of the origin and evolution of Jupiter. The spacecraft will carry eight instruments to investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet's auroras. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Juno, NASA’s next big mission bound for the outer planets, has arrived at the Kennedy Space Center to kick off the final leg of launch preparations in anticipation of blastoff for Jupiter this summer.
The huge solar-powered Juno spacecraft will skim to within 4800 kilometers (3000 miles) of the cloud tops of Jupiter to study the origin and evolution of our solar system’s largest planet. Understanding the mechanism of how Jupiter formed will lead to a better understanding of the origin of planetary systems around other stars throughout our galaxy.
Juno will be spinning like a windmill as it fly’s in a highly elliptical polar orbit and investigates the gas giant’s origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere with a suite of nine science instruments.
Technicians at Astrotech's payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. secure NASA's Juno spacecraft to the rotation stand for testing. The solar-powered spacecraft will orbit Jupiter's poles 33 times to find out more about the gas giant's origins. Credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
During the five year cruise to Jupiter, the 3,600 kilogram probe will fly by Earth once in 2013 to pick up speed and accelerate Juno past the asteroid belt on its long journey to the Jovian system where it arrives in July 2016.
Juno will orbit Jupiter 33 times and search for the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter’s intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet’s auroras.
The mission will provide the first detailed glimpse of Jupiter’s poles and is set to last approximately one year. The elliptical orbit will allow Juno to avoid most of Jupiter’s harsh radiation regions that can severely damage the spacecraft systems.
Juno was designed and built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, and air shipped in a protective shipping container inside the belly of a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster cargo jet to the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla.
Juno undergoes acoustics testing at Lockheed Martin in Denver where the spacecraft was built. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin
This week the spacecraft begins about four months of final functional testing and integration inside the climate controlled clean room and undergoes a thorough verification that all its systems are healthy. Other processing work before launch includes attachment of the long magnetometer boom and solar arrays which arrived earlier.
Juno is the first solar powered probe to be launched to the outer planets and operate at such a great distance from the sun. Since Jupiter receives 25 times less sunlight than Earth, Juno will carry three giant solar panels, each spanning more than 20 meters (66 feet) in length. They will remain continuously in sunlight from the time they are unfurled after launch through the end of the mission.
“The Juno spacecraft and the team have come a long way since this project was first conceived in 2003,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator, based at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, in a statement. “We’re only a few months away from a mission of discovery that could very well rewrite the books on not only how Jupiter was born, but how our solar system came into being.”
Juno is slated to launch aboard the most powerful version of the Atlas V rocket – augmented by 5 solid rocket boosters – from Cape Canaveral, Fla. on August 5. The launch window extends through August 26. Juno is the second mission in NASA’s New Frontiers program.
NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover will follow Juno to the Atlas launch pad, and is scheduled to liftoff in late November 2011. Read my stories about Curiosity here and here.
Because of cuts to NASA’s budget by politicians in Washington, the long hoped for mission to investigate the Jovian moon Europa may be axed, along with other high priority science missions. Europa may harbor subsurface oceans of liquid water and is a prime target in NASA’s search for life beyond Earth.
Technicians inside the clean room at Astrotech in Titusville, Fla. guide NASA's Juno spacecraft, as it is lowered by overhead crane, onto the rotation stand for testing. Credit: NASA/Jack PfallerTechnicians at Astrotech unfurl solar array No. 1 with a magnetometer boom that will help power NASA's Juno spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter. Credit: NASAJuno's interplanetary trajectory to Jupiter. Juno will launch in August 2011 and fly by Earth once in October 2013 during its 5 year cruise to Jupiter. Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL
Curiosity Mars Rover almost complete at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Side View. The rover for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, named Curiosity, is about 3 meters (10 feet) long, not counting the additional length that the rover's arm can be extended forward. The front of the rover is on the left in this side view. The arm is partially raised but not extended. Rising from the rover deck just behind the front wheels is the remote sensing mast. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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NASA’s massive ‘Curiosity’ rover is almost ready to begin the first leg of its long trek to the surface of the Red Planet. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California are nearly finished with assembling and testing all the components of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission (see photos above and below).
The MSL team plans to ship Curiosity as well as the cruise stage, descent stage and back shell to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in May and June. After arriving at KSC, all the pieces will be integrated together and tested during final assembly in a clean room. The rover will then be installed inside a 5 meter diameter nose cone, shipped the short distance to Cape Canaveral and then bolted atop an Atlas Vrocket (photo below).
Top of Mars Rover Curiosity's Remote Sensing Mast.
The remote sensing mast on NASA Mars rover Curiosity holds two science instruments for studying the rover's surroundings and two stereo navigation cameras for use in driving the rover and planning rover activities. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The launch window for Curiosity extends from Nov. 25 to Dec. 18, 2011. The first stage of the powerfulAtlas V rocket will be augmented with four solid rocket boosters. The Atlas V has previously launched two planetary missions; the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the New Horizons mission to Pluto.
Take a long gander at the 3 meter long rover because its appearance is now very much how it will look while it’s roving along intriguing martian landscapes for at least two earth years after landing in August 2012.
NASA Mars Rover Curiosity at JPL, View from Front Left Corner.
Support equipment is holding the Mars rover Curiosity slightly off the floor. When the wheels are on the ground, the top of the rover's mast is about 2.2 meters (7 feet) above ground level. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The goal is to search for clues to environmental conditions favorable for microbial life and for preserving evidence about whether Martian life ever existed in the past or today. NASA is scrutinizing a list of four potential landing sites for the best chance of finding a habitable zone.
Arm and Mast of Curiosity Mars Rover.
Curiosity's arm and remote sensing mast carry science instruments and other tools for the mission. This image, taken April 4, 2011, inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at JPL shows the arm on the left and the mast just right of center. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechAtlas V rocket at pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
An Atlas V rocket similar to this one with a 5 meter diameter nose cone – but with 4 solid rocket boosters added - will launch Curiosity to Mars in late 2011. Credit: Ken KremerAtlas V launch vehicle will blast Curiosity to Mars
This view across western Candor Chasma on Mars was created with data from the 2001 Mars Odyssey. Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University, R. Luk
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A 2001 space odyssey indeed! On this day in 2001, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft launched, and now, 3,333 days later, the robotic spacecraft is still going strong. In orbit around the Red Planet, Mars Odyssey has collected more than 130,000 images and continues to send information to Earth about Martian geology, climate, and mineralogy. Last December, Mars Odyssey broke the record for the longest-serving spacecraft at Mars, besting the Mars Global Surveyor, which operated in orbit of Mars from 1997 to 2006.
An artist's impression of the Odyssey orbiter around Mars. . Image Credit: NASA
Measurements by Odyssey have enabled scientists to create maps of minerals and chemical elements and identify regions with buried water ice. Images that measure the surface temperature have provided spectacular views of Martian topography.
Early in the mission, Odyssey determined that radiation in low-Mars orbit is twice that in low-Earth orbit. This is an essential piece of information for eventual human exploration because of its potential health effects — Odyssey has provided vital support to ongoing exploration of Mars by relaying data from the Mars rovers to Earth via the spacecraft’s UHF antenna.
Odyssey will support the 2012 landing of the Mars Science Laboratory and surface operations of that mission. Mars Science Laboratory, a.k.a Curiosity, will assess whether its landing area has had environmental conditions favorable for microbial life and preserving evidence about whether life has existed there. The rover will carry the largest, most advanced set of instruments for scientific studies ever sent to the Martian surface.
Mars Odyssey carries three main science instruments: The Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS), the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), and the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE).
Mars volcanoes Ceraunius Tholus and Uranius Tholus, as seen by Mars Express. Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum). Click for larger version.
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Looking like Mars’ version of Land of the Lost, these two mist-capped volcanoes are located in the Tharsis region in Mars’ northern hemisphere. In this latest set of images released by the Mars Express team, a desolate looking landscape is softened by icy clouds drifting past the summit of Ceraunius Tholus, with the smaller Uranius Tholus to the right. No dinosaurs or Sleestaks are visible, but it looks like Uncle Jack could show up any minute!
The image was created from three different passes over the region by the spacecraft, and – surprisingly – during the middle orbit the clouds showed up. By the time Mars Express crossed again and took the final strip of data needed for this image, the clouds had long since dispersed and so there is a sharp line across them in the finished mosaic.
See below for a 3-D, perspective view of these two volcanoes.
Mars' volcanoes Ceraunius Tholus and Uranius Tholus in 3-D. Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum). Click for larger version.
Tharsis region — often called the Tharsis Bulge — is a continent-size volcanic plateau in Mars’ western hemisphere. The region is home to the largest volcanoes in the solar system, including the three enormous shield volcanoes Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Ascraeus Mons. The tallest volcano on the planet, Olympus Mons, is way off to the western side of the Tharsis plateau.
Lockheed Martin’s Space Operations Simulation Center in Littleton, Colorado, simulates on-orbit docking maneuvers with full-scale Orion and International Space Station mockups. The spacious center includes an 18,000 square-foot high bay area used to validate Orion’s new relative navigation system (STORRM), which will be tested on orbit during the STS-134 mission set to blast off on April19, 2011. Credit: Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is aiming for a first unmanned orbital test flight of Orion as soon as 2013, said John Karas, vice president and general manager for Lockheed Martin’s Human Space Flight programs in an interview with Universe Today . The first operational flight with humans on board is now set for 2016 as stipulated in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010.
Orion manned capsule could launch in 2016 atop proposed NASA heavy lift booster from the Kennedy Space Center This Orion prototype capsule was assembled at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans, LA and shipped by truck to Denver. At Denver, the capsule will be put through a rigorous testing program to simulate all aspects of a space mission from launch to landing and examine whether the vehicle can withstand the harsh and unforgiving environment of deep space.
Orion was originally designed to be launched by the Ares 1 booster rocket, as part of NASA’s Project Constellation Return to the Moon program, now cancelled by President Obama. The initial Orion test flight will likely be atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket, Karas told me. The first manned flight is planned for the new heavy lift rocket ordered by the US Congress to replace the Project Constellation architecture.
The goal is to produce a new, US-built manned capsule capable of launching American astronauts into space following the looming forced retirement of NASA’s Space Shuttle orbiters later this year. Thus there will be a gap of at least three years until US astronauts again can launch from US soil.
“Our nation’s next bold step in exploration could begin by 2016,” said Karas in a statement. “Orion was designed from inception to fly multiple, deep-space missions. The spacecraft is an incredibly robust, technically advanced vehicle capable of safely transporting humans to asteroids, Lagrange Points and other deep space destinations that will put us on an affordable and sustainable path to Mars.”
Jim Bray, Director, Orion Crew & Service Module, unveils the first Orion crew module to guests and media at the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company Waterton Facility in Denver, CO. The vehicle is temporarily positioned in the composite heat shield before installation begins. Following installation of the heat shield and thermal backshell panels, the spacecraft will undergo rigorous testing to validate Orion’s ability to endure the harsh environments of deep space. Credit: Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for Orion under a multiyear contract awarded by NASA worth some $3.9 Billion US Dollars.
The SOSC was built at a cost of several million dollars. The 41,000 square foot facility will be used to test and validate vehicles, equipment and software for future human spaceflight programs to ensure safe, affordable and sustainable space exploration.
Mission scenarios include docking to the International Space Station, exploring the Moon, visiting an Asteroid and even journeying to Mars. Lockheed has independently proposed the exploration of several challenging deep space targets by astronauts with Orion crew vehicles which I’ll report on in upcoming features.
Orion capsule and Abort rocket mockups on display at Kennedy Space Center.
Full scale mockups of the Orion capsule and emergency abort rocket are on public display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Orion crew capsule mockup (at left) and Launch Abort System (LAS) at right. The emergency rocket will be bolted atop an Orion spaceship for the initial orbital test flight currently slated for 2013 launch. The LAS mockup was used in launch pad exercises at the New Mexico launch site of the LAS rocket blast-off in May 2010. Credit: Ken Kremer
The SOSC facility provides the capability for NASA and Lockheed Martin engineers to conduct full-scale motion simulations of many types of manned and robotic space missions. Demonstrations are run using laser and optically guided robotic navigation systems.
Inside the SOSC, engineers can test the performance of a vehicles ranging, rendezvous, docking, proximity operations, imaging, descent and landing systems for Earth orbiting mission as well as those to other bodies in our solar system.
“The Orion spacecraft is a state-of-the-art deep space vehicle that incorporates the technological advances in human life support systems that have accrued over the last 35 years since the Space Shuttle was designed.” says Karas. “In addition, the Orion program has recently been streamlined for additional affordability, setting new standards for reduced NASA oversight. Orion is compatible with all the potential HLLVs that are under consideration by NASA, including the use of a Delta IV heavy for early test flights.”
The Orion flight schedule starting in 2013 is however fully dependent on the level of funding which NASA receives from the Federal Government.
This past year the, Orion work was significantly slowed by large budget cuts and the future outlook is murky. Project Orion is receiving about half the funding originally planned by NASA.
And more deep cuts are in store for NASA’s budget – including both manned and unmanned projects – as both political parties wrangle about priorities as they try to pass a federal budget for this fiscal year. Until then, NASA and the entire US government are currently operating under a series of continuing resolutions passed by Congress – and the future is anything but certain.
Orion prototype crew cabin with crew hatch and windows
built at NASA Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, LA. Credit: Ken KremerLockheed Martin team of aerospace engineers and technicians poses with first Orion crew cabin after welding into one piece at NASA Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, LA. Credit: Ken KremerOrion and ISS simulated docking
Yuma Outlook at Santa Maria Crater on Sol 2476, Jan 10, 2011. Opportunity arrived at the hydrated mineral deposits located here at the southeast rim of the crater. Self portrait of Opportunity at left, casts shadow of rover deck and mast at right. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell, Marco Di Lorenzo, Kenneth Kremer High resolution version on APOD, Jan. 29, 2011 ; http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110129.html
Opportunity made landfall at the western edge of Santa Maria on Dec. 15, 2010 (Sol 2450) after a long and arduous journey of some 19 kilometers since departing from Victoria Crater nearly two and one half years ago in September 2008. Santa Maria is the largest crater that the rover will encounter on the epic trek between Victoria and Endeavour.
Robotic arm at work on Mars on Sol 2513, Feb 17, 2011. Opportunity grinds into rock target Luis De Torres’ with the RAT. Credit: NASA/JPL/CornellThe science team decided that Santa Maria would be the best location for an intermediate stop as well as permit a focused science investigation because of the detection of attractive deposits of hydrated minerals. The stadium sized and oval shaped crater is some 80 to 90 meters wide (295 feet) and about nine meters in depth.
Opportunity has since been carefully driven around the lip of the steep walled crater in a counterclockwise direction to reach the very interesting hydrated sulfates on the other side. The rover made several stops along the way to collect long baseline high resolution stereo images creating 3 D digital elevation maps and investigate several rocks in depth.
Opportunity was directed to Santa Maria based on data gathered from Mars orbit by the mineral mapping CRISM spectrometer – onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) – which indicated the presence of exposures of water bearing sulfate deposits at the southeast rim of the crater.
Opportunity rover panoramic photomosaic near lip of Santa Maria Crater on Sol 2519, Feb. 23, 2011. Opportunity drove to exposed rock named Ruiz Garcia to investigate hydrated mineral deposits located here at southeast portion of crater. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell, Kenneth Kremer, Marco Di Lorenzo
“Santa Maria is a relatively fresh impact crater. It’s geologically very young, hardly eroded at all, and hard to date quantitatively,” said Ray Arvidson from Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is the deputy principal investigator for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.
The rover had to take a pause anyway in its sojourn to Endeavour because of a restrictive period of solar conjunction. Conjunction is the period when the Sun is directly in between the Earth and Mars and results in a temporary period of communications disruptions and blackouts.
During conjunction – which lasted from Jan. 28 to Feb. 12 – the rover remained stationary. No commands were uplinked to Opportunity out of caution that a command transmission could be disrupted and potentially have an adverse effect.
Advantageously, the pause in movement also allows the researchers to do a long-integration assessment of the composition of a selected target which they might not otherwise have conducted.
By mid-January 2011, Opportunity had reached the location – dubbed ‘Yuma’ – at the southeast rim of the crater where water bearing sulfate deposits had been detected. A study of these minerals will help inform researchers about the potential for habitability at this location on the surface of Mars.
Opportunity at rim of Santa Maria crater as imaged from Mars orbit on March 1, 2011, Sol 2524.
Rover was extending robotic arm to Ruiz Garcia rock as it was imaged by NASA’s MRO orbiter.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
The rover turned a few degrees to achieve a better position for deploying Opportunity’s robotic arm, formally known as the instrument deployment device or IDD, to a target within reach of the arms science instruments.
“Opportunity is sitting at the southeast rim of Santa Maria,” Arvidson told me. “We used Opportunity’s Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to brush a selected target and the Moessbauer spectrometer was placed on the brushed outcrop. That spot was named ‘Luis De Torres’, said Arvidson.
Ruiz Garcia rock imaged by pancam camera on Sol 2419. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell‘Luis De Torres’ was chosen based on the bright, extensive outcrop in the region in which CRISM sees evidence of a hydrated sulfate signature.”
Opportunity successfully analyzed ‘Luis De Torres’ with all the instruments located at the end of the robotic arm; including the Microscopic Imager (MI), the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) and then the Moessbauer spectrometer (MB) for a multi-week integration of data collection.
After emerging in fine health from the conjunction, the rover performed a 3-millimeter deep grind on ‘Luis De Torres’ with the RAT in mid-February 2011 to learn more about the rocks interior composition. Opportunity then snapped a series of microscopic images and collected spectra with the APXS spectrometer.
The rover then continued its counterclockwise path along the eastern edge of the crater, driving northwards some 30 meters along the crater rim to a new exposed rock target – informally named ‘Ruiz Garcia’ to collect more APXS spectra and microscopic images. See our mosaic showing “Ruiz Garcia” at the lip of the crater (above).
Opportunity finished up the exploration of the eastern side of Santa Maria in March by snapping a few more high resolution panoramas before resuming the drive to Endeavour crater which lies some 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) away.
Endeavour is Opportunity’s ultimate target in the trek across the Martian dunes because it possesses exposures of a hitherto unexplored type of even more ancient hydrated minerals, known as phyllosilicates, that form in neutral water more conducive to the formation of life.
Raw image from Opportunity's front hazard-avoidance camera on Sol 2524 ( March 1, 2011)
showing the robotic arm extended to Ruiz Garcia rock target. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
NASA’s Curiosity Rover inside a high vacuum environmental testing chamber at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Engineers placed Curiosity inside the chamber to simulate the surface conditions on Mars that the rover will experience after landing in August 2012. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity, also known as the Mars Science Laboratory or MSL, is the size of a mini-Cooper. It was placed inside a 7.6 meter (25 foot) diameter high vacuum chamber at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Engineers are now conducting an extensive regimen of tests that will check out the performance and operational capabilities of the rover under Mars-like conditions.
Curiosity enters the 7.6-meter-diameter space-simulation chamber on March 8, 2011 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The rover is fully assembled with all primary flight hardware and instruments. The test chamber's door is still open in this photo. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechSince the atmosphere of Mars is very thin – roughly 0.6% compared to Earth – most of the air was pumped out to simulate the meager atmospheric pressure on the surface of Mars.
The internal chamber temperature was decreased to minus 130 degrees Celsius (minus 202 degrees Fahrenheit) using liquid nitrogen flowing through the chamber walls to approximate the Antarctic like bone chilling cold. Martian lighting conditions are being simulated by a series of powerful lamps.
Upon successful completion of the testing, all components of the MSL spacecraft system will be shipped to the Kennedy Space Center for final integration. This includes the cruise stage, descent stage and back shell.
MSL will land using a new and innovative sky crane system instead of airbags. Using the helicopter-like sky crane permits the delivery of a heavier rover to Mars and with more weight devoted to the science payload. Indeed the weight of Curiosity’s science payload is ten times that of any prior Mars rover mission.
Artist's concept illustrates Mars rover Curiosity traversing across martian surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
MSL also features a precision landing system to more accurately guide the rover to the desired target than past missions, to within an ellipse about 20 kilometers long. After extensive evaluation, four landing sites where water once flowed have been selected for further evaluation. The final decision will come sometime in 2011.
Curiosity is about twice the size and four times the weight compared to NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity Mars Explorations Rovers which landed on Mars back in 2004. Opportunity continues to stream back science data from Mars after seven years. The fate of Spirit is unknown at this time as the plucky rover has been out of contact since entering hibernation in March 2010.
The science goal of Curiosity is to search the landing site for clues about whether environmental conditions favorable for microbial life existed in the past or even today on Mars and whether evidence for life may have been preserved in the geological record.
The rover is being targeted to an area where it is believed that liquid water once flowed and may be habitable. In particular the science teams hope to sample and investigate phyllosilicate clays, which are minerals that form in neutral watery conditions more favorable to the formation of life compared to the more acidic environments investigated thus far by Spirit and Opportunity.
Engineers work on the six wheeled Curiosity rover in a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A composite image of how the Spirit rover probably looks, stuck in Gusev Crater. Credit: NASA, image editing by Stu Atkinson.
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Still no response from Spirit, the Mars Exploration Rover that became stuck in a sand trap on the Red Planet, and went into hibernation without sufficient solar power. March 10 was the point at which the rover should have received its maximum amount of sunshine – i.e. power — for this Martian year, and with the passage of that date, optimism is dimming for being able to revive Spirit. But, the rover teams have not yet given up all hope and have a few unique strategies up their sleeves to try and wake the sleeping rover.
Over the past few months, engineers at JPL said they used strategies to contact Spirit based on the possibility that increasing energy availability might wake the rover from hibernation. Now, the team has switched to communication strategies designed to address more than one problem on the rover.
“The commands we are sending starting this week should work in a multiple-fault scenario where Spirit’s main transmitter is no longer working and the mission clock has lost track of time or drifted significantly,” said JPL’s John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity.
No one probably wants to hear this, but if no signal is heard from Spirit in the next month or two, the rover will officially be declared as lost, and the rover teams will shift to single-rover operations, continuing to operate Spirit’s active twin, Opportunity.
The Spirit rover, as seen by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA, image enhanced by Stu Atkinson.
Spirit has not communicated for almost one Earth year — since March 22, 2010. Being stuck as the Martian winter approached, the rover could not move into a favorable position for its solar panels to gather enough energy from the Sun to keep the rover completely “alive,” and it eventually went into a low-power hibernation mode.
Officials from JPL said that during the Martian winter with most heaters turned off, Spirit experienced colder internal temperatures than in any of its three previous winters on Mars. The cold could have damaged any of several electronic components that, if damaged, would prevent reestablishing communication with Spirit.
But the rover teams have worked for more than 8 months to try and regain contact, just in case the increased solar power available would have awoken Spirit. NASA’s Deep Space Network of antennas in California, Spain and Australia has been listening for Spirit daily. The rover team has also sent commands to elicit a response from the rover even if the rover has lost track of time, or if its receiver has degraded in frequency response.
With the available solar energy at Spirit’s site estimated to peak on March 10, revised commanding then began March 15, including instructions for the rover to be receptive over UHF relay to hailing from the Mars orbiters for extended periods of time and to use a backup transmitter on the rover.
We’ll wait patiently, and hope to hear from Spirit.
She landed on Mars waaaay back on Jan. 4, 2004, for a mission originally designed to last for three months.
Spirit and Opportunity both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Opportunity landed three weeks after Spirit.
