Red Moon, Red Mars. Top - Dec 21, 2010 Lunar Eclipse photos of the Red Moon taken near Princeton, NJ on an exquisitely clear night with a 250 mm lens and 1 sec exposure. Credit: Ken Kremer. Bottom Left: Red Mars from the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA. Right: Red Mars through a telescope in 2010 from The Plantation in Florida (not to scale). Credit: Ernie Rossi
[/caption]
In this season of Christmas tidings, many of us were blessed to witness the eerie Red Moon of the total lunar eclipse a few nights ago on Dec. 21. Here in “bonechilling” New Jersey, it was miraculously crystal clear the entire night from the beginning around 1:30 a.m. EST to the end – about three and one half hours later at around 5 a.m.
UPDATE: Check out more readers “Red Moon, Red Planet” astropix contributions below !
The eclipse occurred as the moon passed through the Earth’s inner dark shadow, or umbra and changed dramatically to varying shades of red, orange and brown.
Lunar Eclipse 12-21-2010 from The Plantation in Florida. Credit: Ernie RossiDuring totality – when the moon was completely immersed in the umbral shadow for about 72 minutes – the red moon changed from a faint red glow to a brilliant crimson red. At times it appeared to be blood red and as though the surface was stirring and oozing droplets of warm and viscous blood. It was surreal and looked to me as though it had been magically and majestically painted up into the night sky.
Well all this redness hanging in the sky during totality caused me to ponder Mars – the Red Planet – especially with the avalanche of good news streaming back lately.
And the wispy white light at near total eclipse harkened to the Martian polar ice caps.
Mars at Opposition in 2003 from New Jersey. 3.5 in Questar 0.1 seconds. Credit: Robert Vanderbei
Bright red Mars at Opposition in 2003 - The year that Spirit and Opportunity launched.
So please send your telescopic shots and descriptions of the Red Planet and/or the Red Moon and I’ll post them here. Email kremerken at yahoo dot com or post as comments to add here.
Lunar Eclipse from New Jersey 12-21-2010. Credit: Robert Vanderbei
Despite the shadow the moon does not completely disappear. The red moon’s glow was caused by sunlight refracted through the earth’s atmosphere and cast upon the lunar surface. The hue varies depending on a variety of atmospheric conditions and can be intensified by floating clouds of volcanic ash and dust. The recent volcanic eruptions at Mount Merapi in Indonesia in October and at Mount Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland last April sent massive plumes of particles skyward which may have influenced the thrilling event.
Red Moon, Red Planet. One day we’ll journey there and back again.
———
Send me your astropix of Red Moon and/or Red Mars to post here:
Check out these gorgeous views of Mars in January 2010 from Efrain Morales Rivera at the Jaicoa Observatory in Aquadilla, Puerto Rico Efrain writes; On this session (01/21/10) on Mars of this years apparition many details could be seen for its size. Image at left at closest to Earth and at the limb (L) Mount Olympus largest volcano in our system, Image at right (01/27/10) closest to the Sun. Credit: Efrain Morales Rivera, Jaicoa Observatory, Aquadilla, Puerto Rico
From Robert Vanderbei of Amateur Astronomers Association Of Princeton in New Jersey; A Lunar Eclipse Montage ! Just ahead of the monster blizzard which struck the northeast Corridor of the US on Dec 26.
Dec. 21, 2010 Lunar Eclipse Montage as imaged from New Jersey. Credit: Robert Vanderbei
Some pictures of the eclipse put together as a composite from beginning to totality by Russell King of Willingboro Astronomical Society, New Jersey.
All pictures were taken with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi from my home in Neptune, New Jersey. I used my Canon 75 to 300MM lens and shot all exposures at 300MM. Camera was set on a fixed photo tripod. The pictures range from 1/2500 second at full moon to 1 second during totality. Images were processed in Photoshop 2 and Ulead. Credit: Russell King. http://www.rddnj.com
The Long Journey to Santa Maria: This collage of two maps and a new close up panorama of Santa Maria crater (bottom right) shows the route traversed by the Opportunity Mars rover during her nearly 7 year long overland expedition across the Meridiani Planum region of Mars. Opportunity arrived at the rim of Santa Maria Crater on Dec. 16, 2010 on Sol 2451. The rover has been on a crater tour since landing inside Eagle crater on Jan. 3, 2004. During her more than 26 km long journey she made numerous scientific discoveries along the way at Endurance and Victoria Craters. The rovers next destination is Endurance Crater - some 22 km wide - to investigate water bearing minerals at Cape York and Cape Tribulation which she will reach sometime in 2011. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell, Marco Di Lorenzo, Kenneth Kremer
[/caption]
The Opportunity rover is now sending back a plethora of awesome views of Santa Maria Crater since just arriving at the western edge of the crater on Dec. 15 (Sol 2450). This intermediate stop on the rovers 19 km long journey from Victoria Crater to giant Endeavour Crater looks to be well worth the trip and affords another fine feather in the science teams cap.
Santa Maria appears to be “relatively unweathered and fresh”, according to Ray Arvidson, of Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is the deputy principal investigator for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. A bounty of boulders and rocks from the ejecta ring the rim. The crater is roughly 90 meters in diameter with an estimated depth between 9 to 14 meters. It is somewhat oval in shape, not perfectly circular.
Opportunity looks back to the long road to Santa Maria
After initially driving to a distance of about five meters from the rim on Dec. 16 (Sol 2451), Opportunity has now carefully crawled even nearer to the precipice of the craters steep cliffs. At each spot the rover snaps a series of panoramic images to document the site scientifically and esthetically and plan the next sols drive.
The team back on Earth – and millions of kilometers away – must tread with extreme caution as Opportunity creeps ever closer to the edge lest she fall off a cliff. Whereas the cameras revealed a dramatic gaping hole on Dec. 16, Opportunity is now positioned close enough to point her cameras directly at the steep walled cliffs and towards the sand dunes at the crater floor crater unveiling another stunningly gorgeous Martian vista.
Compare the panoramas from Sols 2451 and 2454 above and below as Opportunity pulled up to the rim in stages and began exploring the crater environment from different vantage points.
Panoramic view of Santa Maria Crater taken by Opportunity Mars rover about 5 meters from the rim on Dec 16, 2010 on Sol 2451. CRISM results suggest water bearing materials are located at the southeastern edge of the rim located roughly at the center of this image. Portions of distant Endeavour Crater are faintly visible as bumps on the horizon in the background. The northern and eastern rims are located from left to center. Cape Tribulation is to the right. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell, Kenneth Kremer, Marco Di LorenzoThe complete panoramic view of Santa Maria Crater taken by Opportunity Mars rover about 5 meters from the rim on Dec 16, 2010 on Sol 2451. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell, Jan van DrielPeering into Santa Maria Crater. Opportunity drove closer to within 5 meters of the rim and snapped this gorgeous panoramic vista unveiling the whole interior on Sols 2453 & 2354. Note the steep walls and sand dunes on the floor. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell, James CanvinPanoramic view revealing interior steep cliffs and sand dunes of Santa Maria Crater was taken within 5 meters of the rim on Sol 2454. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell, Marco Di Lorenzo, Kenneth Kremer
The rover handlers are highly adept at precisely maneuvering the 175 kg vehicle back and forth inside the danger zone at crater rims. After all Opportunity has been on a crater tour for her entire 7 year extended mission to the red planet and controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have honed their driving techniques at countless locales both treacherous and dazzling, especially about the precipitous 50 meter cliff drops at Victoria Crater.
High priority activity on the west side of Santa Maria includes collecting the first pair in a series of long-baseline, high resolution stereo panoramas which will be used to create a digital elevation map in 3 D, according to Guy Webster, the Public Affairs Officer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., which manages the Mars Rover mission for NASA.
The newly assembled crater maps – see the first mosaics herein – will be scrutinized and utilized for planning the best locations to visit during the upcoming multi-week science campaign. .
JPL engineers will move Opportunity in a counterclockwise direction around the rim from the Sol 2450 approach point.
“One last drive before the Christmas break will take us ~ 20m away to a lookout point, to set us up for another drive next week,” tweeted JPL Rover driver Scott Maxwell. “Last weekend’s drive around Santa Maria took us to this gorgeous new outlook. It’s grand here.”
“There are no plans to enter the crater.” Webster confirmed to me. There is no reason to take a risk when Opportunity is so close to those phyllosilicate clays at Endeavour which formed in water and have never before been directly analyzed on the Martian surface.
“Fisheye view of Santa Maria from the front hazcam camera with robotic arm instruments and two wheels. The RAT science drill is pointing to the left. . Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
The current plan calls for Opportunity to stay at Santa Maria through the upcoming Solar conjunction which starts in late January and ends in mid-February,” Webster stated.
The rover will remain stationary during that period and conduct a lengthy focused investigation of a specific spot using the instruments on the robotic arm – which include a rock drill, microscope and spectrometers.
“We will use the ‘no-new-commanding’ time of conjunction for a long-integration assessment of the composition of a selected target,” added Webster.
“The team plans to use Opportunity’s RAT- or Rock Abrasion Tool – on a target at Santa Maria,” says rover project manager John Callas of JPL. The RAT is a high tech device that uses a grinding wheel to cut into martian rocks and has performed far beyond expectation. The diamond embedded abrader teeth still have some life left, and the team wants to save some abrasion capability for the Endeavour rim targets.
Orbital Observations at Santa Maria Crater. Opportunity arrived at the western rim of Santa Maria Crater, some 90 meters wide, on Dec. 16, 2010. Researchers are using data collected by a powerful mineral mapping spectrometer (CRISM) aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to direct the route which Opportunity is traversing on Mars during the long term journey to Endeavour crater. Spectral observations recorded by CRISM indicates the presence of water-bearing sulfate minerals at the location shown by the red dot on the southeast rim crater whereas the crater floor at the blue dot does not. This image was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera also on MRO. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
The Opportunity rover’s latest accomplishments? Cinematographer. Two new movies created by images taken by the long-lasting rover show a blue-tinted Martian sunset, while another clip shows the Mars’ moon Phobos passing in front of the sun. “These visualizations of an alien sunset show what it must have looked like for Opportunity, in a way we rarely get to see, with motion,” said rover science team member Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University. Dust particles make the Martian sky appear reddish and create a bluish glow around the sun. Continue reading “Rover Captures Sunset, Eclipse on Mars”
This map indicates geological units in the region of Mars around a smaller area where Opportunity has driven from early 2004 through late 2010. The blue-coded unit encompassing most of the southern half of the mapped region is ancient cratered terrain. In the northern region, it is overlain by younger sediments of the Meridiani Plains, punctuated by the even younger Bopulu impact. At Endeavour Crater, in the upper right near the gold line of Opportunity's traverse, ancient cratered terrain is exposed around the crater rim. Locations where orbital observations have detected clay minerals are indicated at the western edge of Endeavour and at two locations in the southern portion of the map. The mineral mapping was done by Sandra Wiseman and Ray Arvidson of Washington Universty in St. Louis based on observations by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
[/caption]
NASA is using its powerful science surveyor orbiting more than 241 kilometers above Mars to target the surface explorations of the long lived Opportunity rover to compelling science targets on the ground. Opportunity is currently on a long term trek to the giant crater named Endeavour, some 22 kilometers in diameter, which shows significant signatures of clays and water bearing sulfate minerals which formed in the presence of flowing liquid water billions of years ago.
An armada of orbiters and rovers from Earth are carrying out a coordinated attack plan to unlock the mysteries of the red planet, foremost being to determine whether life ever arose on Mars.
On Dec. 15 (Sol 2450), Opportunity arrived at Santa Maria crater which is just 6 km distant from the western rim of Endeavour. Over the past 2 years, the rover has traversed more than two thirds of the 19 km distance from Victoria crater -her last big target – to Endeavour.
High resolution spectral and imaging mappers aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) are enabling researchers on the rover team to prioritize targets and strategically guide Opportunity to the most fruitful locations for scientific investigations.
The on board CRISM mapping spectrometer has detected clay minerals, or phyllosilicates, at multiple locations around Endeavour crater including the western rim closest to Opportunity. CRISM is the acronym for Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars. Images from MRO’s HiRISE camera are utilized to scout out the safest and most efficient route. See maps above and below.
“This is the first time mineral detections from orbit are being used in tactical decisions about where to drive on Mars,” said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is the deputy principal investigator for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers and a co-investigator for CRISM.
Clay minerals are a very exciting scientific find because they can form in more neutral and much less acidic aqueous environments which are more conducive to the possibility for the formation of life. They have never before been studied up close by science instruments on a landed mission.
Opportunity may soon get a quick taste of water bearing sulfate minerals at Santa Maria because spectral data from CRISM suggest the presence of sulfate deposits at the southeast rim of the crater. Opportunity has previously investigated these sulfate minerals at other locations along her circuitous traverse route – but which she discovered without the help of orbital assets.
“We’ve just pulled up to the rim of Santa Maria, and the workload is very high,” Steve Squyres informed me. Squyres, of Cornell University, is the Principal Scientific Investigator for NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers.
Opportunity drove to within about 5 meters of the crater rim on Dec. 16 (Sol 2451). JPL Mars rover driver Scott Maxwell tweeted this message ; “Today’s NAVCAM mosaic of Santa Maria Crater. Woo-hoo! Glorious and beautiful!” and this twitpic
Orbital Observations at Santa Maria Crater.
Opportunity just arrived at the western side of Santa Maria Crater, some 90 meters wide, on 15 December 2010. Researchers are using data collected by a powerful mineral mapping spectrometer (CRISM) aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to direct the route which Opportunity is traversing on Mars during the long term journey to Endeavour crater. Spectral observations recorded by CRISM indicates the presence of water-bearing sulfate minerals at the location shown by the red dot on the southeast rim crater whereas the crater floor at the blue dot does not. This image was taken by the the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera also on MRO. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
The rover will conduct an extensive science campaign at Santa Maria by driving to different spots over the next several weeks and gathering data to compare observations on the ground to those from CRISM in orbit.
Opportunity Navcam camera view of Santa Maria Crater just 5 m from the rim on Sol 2451, Dec. 16, 2010. Click to enlarge
Santa Maria crater appears to be relatively fresh and steep walled and was likely created by a meteor strike only a few million years ago. Endeavour is an ancient crater with a discontinuous rim that is heavily eroded at many points. By exploring craters, scientists can look back in time and decipher earlier geologic periods in Mars history.
Scientists believe that the clay minerals stem from an earlier time period in Martian history and that the sulfate deposits formed later. Mars has experiences many episodes of wet environments at diverse locations in the past and climate-change cycles persist into the present era.
After the upcoming Solar Conjunction in February 2011, Opportunity will depart eastwards for the last leg of the long march to Endeavour. She heads for a rim fragment dubbed Cape York which spectral data show is surrounded by exposures of water bearing minerals. Cape York is not yet visible in the long distance images because it lies to low. See maps below.
Thereafter, Opportunity alters direction and turns south towards her next goal –
Cape Tribulation – which is even more enticing to researchers because CRISM has detected exposures of the clay minerals formed in the milder environments more favorable to life. Cape Tribulation has been clearly visible in rover images already taken months ago in early 2010.
Opportunity could reach Endeavour sometime in 2011 if she can continue to survive the harsh environment of Mars and drive at her current accelerated pace. Opportunity arrived at Mars in January 2004 for a planned 90 day mission. The rover has far surpassed all expectations and will soon celebrate 7 earth years of continuous operations on the red planet. Virtually all the data from Spirit and Opportunity are relayed back to Earth via NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter.
Opportunity used its panoramic camera in a super-resolution technique to record this view of the horizon on Sol 2298 (July 11, 2010) which shows the western rim of Endeavour Crater, including the highest ridge informally named “Cape Tribulation”. CRISM data revealed exposures of clay minerals at Cape Tribulation.
Opportunity’s Path on Mars Through Sol 2436
The red line shows where Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 — inside Eagle Crater, at the upper left end of the track — to where it reached on the 2,436th Martian day, or sol, of its work on Mars (Nov. 30, 2010). The map covers an area about 15 kilometers (9 miles) wide. North is at the top. Subsequent drives brought Opportunity to Santa Maria Crater, which is about 90 meters (295 feet) in diameter. After investigating Santa Maria the rover heads for Endeavour Crater. The western edge of 22-kilometer-wide (14-mile-wide) Endeavour is in the lower right corner of this map. Some sections of the discontinuous raised rim and nearby features are indicated with informal names on the map: rim segments “Cape York” and “Solander Point”; a low area between them called “Botany Bay”; “Antares” crater, which formed on sedimentary rocks where the rim was eroded down; and rim fragment “Cape Tribulation,” where orbital observations have detected clay minerals. The base map is a mosaic of images from the Context Camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Opportunity arrived at Santa Maria crater on Sol 2450 (Dec 15, 2010) and will spend the next few weeks exploring around the 80 meter wide crater. In the background is Endeavour crater, 6 km away. This mosaic was assembled from pancam images. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/ Ken Kremer, Marco Di Lorenzo
[/caption]
NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover arrived today (Dec .15) at Santa Maria crater on Sol 2450. She sits just 20 meters from the crater rim. A multitude of inviting rocks and boulders are strewn about the 80 meter diameter crater, making this a Martian geologists dream.
And so it goes too for a Martian photographer with lots to shoot and with the giant 14 km wide Endeavour crater serving as backdrop and coming into ever clearer focus.
Santa Maria is just 6 km from the western rim of Endeavour (see panoramic mosaics above and below).
MRO image of Santa Maria crater from orbit with Sol markers. Credit: NASA/JPL/UA/MSSS/Eduardo Tesheiner
Opportunity has been on a swift advance since departing from Intrepid crater in mid-November and driven about 1.5 km over very smooth terrain. The rover continues to benefit from a bounty of solar power and upgraded software enabling longer and more frequent days of drives. Opportunity has now driven a total of 26.4 km.
Opportunity Sol 2450 (Dec 15, 2010) 90 degree perspective projection around Santa Maria crater. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Midnight Mars Browser
The rover team is planning for an extensive and multi week science campaign at Santa Maria using all the instruments and cameras at their disposal.
Opportunity will spend the holiday season and the upcoming Solar conjunction exploring around Santa Maria according to Matt Golembek, Mars Exploration Program Landing Site Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
There will be no uplink commanding to the spacecraft around the actual conjunction period from Jan. 28 to Feb. 12 (UTC) out of caution that the command transmission could be disrupted.
The team plans a sophisticated wide-baseline stereo-imaging survey of Santa Maria by having Opportunity drive to several positions halfway around the crater. A mineral survey will be carried out using the spectrometers, microscope and drill – known as the RAT or rock abrasion tool – located at the terminus of the rover’s robotic arm.
3 D view of the feature resembling an “Alligator’s Tail” near the rim of Santa Maria crater on Sol 2450. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Stu Atkinson
See several additional amateur mosaics below – including 3 D images – from all of us at unmannedspaceflight .com.
The rover is now at the two thirds mark of a 19 km (12 mile) journey from Victoria crater on the road to reach the rim of the scientifically rich environs of Endeavour crater sometime later in 2011. Opportunity explored the rim and interior of Victoria from mid-2006 to mid-2008.
Santa Maria is the largest feature that Opportunity will explore between Victoria and Endeavour craters. The team assigns informal names to craters visited by Opportunity based on the names of historic ships of exploration in human history. See Opportunity traverse maps below.
Noctis Vista: West of Valles Marineris lies a checkerboard named Noctis Labyrinthus, which formed when the Martian crust stretched and fractured. As faults opened, they released subsurface ice and water, causing the ground to collapse. This westward view combines images taken during the period from April 2003 to September 2005 by the Thermal Emission Imaging System instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. It is part of a special set of images marking the occasion of Odyssey becoming the longest-working Mars spacecraft in history. The pictured location on Mars is 13.3 degrees south latitude, 263.4 degrees east longitude. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
[/caption]
At 3,340 days and counting, NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter established a new record for longevity as of Dec. 15 and thereby worked longer at the red planet than any other spacecraft in human history.
The previous Martian record holder was the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) orbiter which operated in orbit from Sept. 11, 1997 to Nov. 2, 2006 until contact was lost following a computer glitch.
Odyssey has made numerous high impact scientific discoveries along the way. The probe also relayed most of the science data from Spirit, Opportunity and Phoenix and will continue that task for NASA’s upcoming Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover named Curiosity.
The spacecrafts name – 2001 Mars Odyssey – was chosen as a tribute to the vision and spirit of space exploration as embodied in the works of renowned science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke – including the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
It was way back on Oct. 24, 2001 that the Odyssey spacecraft fired its main engine to brake the crafts speed and allow it to be captured by Mars and enter a highly elliptical orbit. A technique known as aerobraking was used over the next three months to fly through the upper atmosphere and utilize drag to gradually lower the crafts altitude and eventually enter its mapping orbit.
Ares Vallis: In Ares Vallis, teardrop mesas extend like pennants behind impact craters, where the raised rocky rims diverted the floods and protected the ground from erosion. Scientists estimate the floods had peak volumes many times the flow of today's Mississippi River. The pictured location on Mars is 15.9 degrees north latitude, 330 degrees east longitude. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Science operations began in earnest in February 2002. Within a few months, Odyssey made the key discovery of the entire mission when it found that the polar regions harbored substantial caches of water ice within a meter of the dry surface of Mars.
The detection of water – in the form of hydrogen — from orbit using the crafts Gamma Ray Spectrometer led directly to the proposal for the Phoenix mission which confirmed the discovery in 2008. Phoenix landed directly on top of vast sheets of frozen water ice in the northern polar region of Mars and scooped up samples of ice for analysis by the landers science suite.
Another notable achievement by Odyssey during the primary mission phase was to complete a survey of the radiation environment to determine the radiation-related risk to any future human explorers who may one day go to Mars.
In another first, Odyssey’s instruments globally mapped the amount and distribution of many chemical elements and minerals that make up the martian surface. Such data helps explain how the planet’s landforms developed over time, provides clues to the geological and climatic history of Mars, informs about the potential for finding past or present life and where are the best locations to search for life and send future landers such as the Curiosity rover set to launch in November 2011.
Artist concept of Mars Odyssey probe in orbit since Oct. 24, 2001
Mars Odyssey is equipped with three primary science instruments to accomplish the goals set out in NASA Mars Exploration Program:
• THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System), for determining the distribution of minerals, particularly those that can only form in the presence of water;
• GRS (Gamma Ray Spectrometer), for determining the presence of 20 chemical elements on the surface of Mars, including hydrogen in the shallow subsurface (which acts as a proxy for determining the amount and distribution of possible water ice on the planet); and,
• MARIE (Mars Radiation Environment Experiment), for studying the radiation environment.
The primary mission lasted until August 2004. Since then the mission lifetime has been extended several times and further extensions are in the works according to Guy Webster, the Public Affairs Officer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., which manages the Odyssey mission.
“We are currently in the fourth extended mission which is funded through the end of September 2012,” Webster told me. “Extended missions are funded for about a one-Mars-year period, which is approximately equal to two years. The next extended mission period will be during the MSL’s prime surface mission and Odyssey is an integral part of the effort to relay MSL’s data from the surface and back to Earth.”
MSL is slated for an August 2012 landing on Mars. “It is expected that Odyssey will be approved for a fifth extended mission,” said Webster.
“The total investment in this mission so far — including development, assembly & test, launch, and operations — is $508 million,” added Webster.
Udzha Crater: Although it is 45 kilometers (28 miles) wide, countless layers of ice and dust have all but buried Udzha Crater. Udzha lies near the edge of the northern polar cap, and only the topmost edges of its crater rim rise above the polar deposits to hint at its circular shape. The pictured location on Mars is 81.8 degrees north latitude, 77.2 degrees east longitude. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
A huge bonus of scientific accomplishments has been enabled during the extended mission phase that otherwise would not have been possible.
“The extra years have allowed us to build up the highest-resolution maps covering virtually the entire planet,” said Odyssey Project Scientist Jeffrey Plaut of JPL.
The maps were constructed using nearly 21,000 images taken by the THEMIS camera which was built and is operated by Arizona State University, Tempe. Surface details as small as 100 meters (330 feet) wide are visible. Check out this slide show of some of Odyssey’s greatest hits as compiled by the camera team and NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/odyssey/images/all-stars.html
Chasma Boreale is a long, flat-floored valley that cuts deep into Mars' north polar icecap. Its walls rise about 1,400 meters (4,600 feet) above the floor. Where the edge of the ice cap has retreated, sheets of sand are emerging that accumulated during earlier ice-free climatic cycles. Winds blowing off the ice have pushed loose sand into dunes and driven them down-canyon in a westward direction, toward our viewpoint. This scene combines images taken during the period from December 2002 to February 2005 by the Thermal Emission Imaging System instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. The pictured location on Mars is 84.9 degrees north latitude, 359.1 degrees east longitude. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
The ability to monitor seasonal changes on Mars from year-to-year, such as the cycle of carbon-dioxide freezing out of the atmosphere in polar regions during each hemisphere’s winter, is another example of bonus science from the extended mission.
“It is remarkable how consistent the patterns have been from year to year, and that’s a comparison that wouldn’t have been possible without our mission extensions,” Plaut said.
The science team comprises numerous additional partners including the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, the University of Arizona, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Odyssey has served as the primary means of communications for NASA’s Mars surface explorers in the past decade and will continue that role for the upcoming Curiosity rover.
“More than 95 percent of the data from Spirit and Opportunity and approximately 79 percent of the data from Phoenix was relayed by Odyssey,” Webster stated.
Given the propellant reserves on board, Odyssey could continue operating until at least about 2016 and perhaps even well beyond if the ships systems remain healthy.
“21.6 kg of propellant remains with an average consumption rate of about 1.4 kg per year,” according to Webster. “However, there are other elements of the spacecraft that might suggest that Odyssey’s life expectancy could be closer to six years. Lifetime issues are extremely difficult to estimate. The best policy is to reevaluate the spacecraft’s health at regular intervals, and prior to important events, and determine if we’re up to a given task. So far we have been.”
Odyssey remains in good shape overall and will continue to actively pursue many science investigations in the years ahead.
Among the top priorities are extended coverage of Mars with mid-afternoon imaging by THEMIS. The orbit was adjusted last year to enable surface observations in mid-afternoon instead of late afternoon. Another goal is to extend year-to-year comparisons of seasonal changes on Mars.
Concerning the status of the science instruments, Webster informed me, “THEMIS and two parts of the GRS suite — the neutron spectrometer and the high-energy neutron detector — are currently in use. The third sensor for that suite — the gamma ray detector — is no longer in use. The payload’s MARIE radiation experiment stopped taking measurements several years ago.”
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver built the Odyssey spacecraft which is operated in partnership with JPL.
Mars Odyssey was launched on April 7, 2001. For more information visit the mission website: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/
Noctis Canyon: A false-color mosaic focuses on one junction in Noctis Labyrinthus where canyons meet to form a depression 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) deep. Dust (blue tints) lies on the upper surfaces, while rockier material (warmer colors) lies below. The pictures used to create this mosaic image were taken from April 2003 to September 2005 by the Thermal Emission Imaging System instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. The pictured location on Mars is approximately 13 degrees south latitude, 260 degrees east longitude. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU Bunge Crater Dunes: Fans and ribbons of dark sand dunes creep across the floor of Bunge Crater in response to winds blowing from the direction at the top of the picture. The frame is about 14 kilometers (9 miles) wide.The pictured location on Mars is 33.8 degrees south latitude, 311.4 degrees east longitude. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASDual Crater: If a meteorite breaks in two shortly before hitting the ground, the typical bowl shape of a single impact crater becomes doubled. The two circular blast regions intersect, creating a straight wall separating the two craters. At the same time, 'wings' of ejected debris shoot out to the side. The image covers an area 13 kilometers (8 miles) wide. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Opportunity arrived at ‘Intrepid’ Crater on Mars during November 2010 and drove around crater rim. See rover wheel tracks at left. Intrepid crater was named in honor of the Apollo 12 lunar module named “Intrepid” – which landed two men on the moon on 19 November 1969. This false color mosaic was assembled from pancam images taken by Opportunity on Sol 2420 (Nov 14, 2010). Mosaic Credit: Kenneth Kremer, Marco Di Lorenzo NASA/JPL/Cornell
[/caption]
NASA recently celebrated the anniversary of the historic Apollo 12 lunar landing mission with another history making craft – the long lived Opportunity Mars rover. Opportunity traversed around and photographed ‘Intrepid’ crater on Mars in mid November 2010. The crater is informally named in honor of the ‘Intrepid’ lunar module which landed two humans on the surface of the moon on 19 November 1969, some forty one years ago.
Apollo 12 was only the second of NASA’s Apollo missions to place humans on the Earth’s moon. Apollo astronauts Pete Conrad and Gordon Bean precisely piloted their lunar landing spacecraft nicknamed ‘Intrepid’ to a safe touchdown in the ‘Ocean of Storms’, a mere 180 meters (600 feet) away from the Surveyor 3 robotic lunar probe which had already landed on the moon in April 1967. The unmanned Surveyor landers paved the way for NASA’s manned Apollo landers.
As Conrad and Bean walked on the moon and collected lunar rocks for science, the third member of the Apollo 12 crew, astronaut Dick Gordon, orbited alone in the ‘Yankee Clipper’ command module and collected valuable science data from overhead.
On the anniversary of the lunar landing, the rover science team decided to honor the Apollo 12 mission as Opportunity was driving east and chanced upon a field of small impact craters located in between vast Martian dune fields. Informal crater names are assigned by the team to craters spotted by Opportunity in the Meridiani Planum region based on the names of historic ships of exploration.
Opportunity rover took first panorama of Intrepid crater on Sol 2417 (Nov.11, 2010) which shows the rim of distant Endeavour crater in the background. Mosaic Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
Rover science team member James Rice, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., suggested using names from Apollo 12 because of the coincidental timing according to NASA. “The Apollo missions were so inspiring when I was young, I remember all the dates. When we were approaching these craters, I realized we were getting close to the Nov. 19 anniversary for Apollo 12,” Rice said. He sent Bean and Gordon photographs that Opportunity took of the two craters named for the two Apollo 12 spaceships.
Bean wrote back the following message to the Mars Exploration Rover team: “I just talked with Dick Gordon about the wonderful honor you have bestowed upon our Apollo 12 spacecraft. Forty-one years ago today, we were approaching the moon in Yankee Clipper with Intrepid in tow. We were excited to have the opportunity to perform some important exploration of a place in the universe other than planet Earth where humans had not gone before. We were anxious to give it our best effort. You and your team have that same opportunity. Give it your best effort.”
On November 4, Opportunity drove by and imaged ‘Yankee Clipper’ crater. After driving several more days she reached ‘Intrepid’ on November 9. The rover then traversed around the crater rim and photographed the crater interior from different vantage points, collecting two panoramic views along the way.
Opportunity soon departed Intrepid on Sol 2420 (Nov. 14) to resume her multi-year trek eastwards and took a series of crater images that day – from a very different direction – which we were inspired to assemble into a panoramic mosaic (in false color) in tribute to the Apollo 12 mission (see above).
Our mosaic tribute clearly shows the rover wheel tracks as Opportunity first approached Intrepid on Nov. 9 – which is fittingly reminiscent of the Apollo 12 astronauts walking on the moon 41 years ago as they explored a lunar crater. By comparison, the arrival mosaic from Sol 2417 shows distant Endeavour crater in the background.
Intrepid crater is about 16 meters in diameter, thus similar in size to ‘Eagle’ crater inside which Opportunity first landed on 24 January 2004 after a 250 million mile ‘hole in one shot’ from Earth. Eagle was named in honor of the Apollo 11 mission.
“Intrepid is fairly eroded with sand filling the interior and ejecta blocks planed off by the saltating sand”, said Matt Golembek, Mars Exploration Program Landing Site Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. Asked about the age of Intrepid crater, Golembek told me; “Based on the erosional state it is at least several million years old, but less than around 20 million years old.”
Opportunity is blazing ahead towards a huge 22 km (14 mile) wide crater named ‘Endeavour’, which shows distinct signatures of clays and past wet environments based on orbital imagery thus making the crater a compelling science target.
“Intrepid is 1.5 km from Santa Maria crater and about 7.5 km from Endeavour.”
“We should be at Santa Maria crater next week, where we will spend the holidays and conjunction. Then it will be 6 km to Endeavour,” Golembek said.
The road ahead looks to be alot friendlier to the intrepid rover. “The terrain Opportunity is on is among the smoothest and easiest to traverse since Eagle and Endurance. Should be smooth sailing to Endeavour, averaging about 100 meters per drive sol. We should easily beat MSL to the phyllosilicates,” Golembek explained.
Phyllosilicates are clay minerals that form under wet, warm, non-acidic conditions. They have never before been studied on the Martian surface.
MSL is the Mars Science Lab, NASA’s next Mars lander mission and which is scheduled to blast off towards the end of 2011. Golembek leads the landing site selection team.
The amazing Opportunity rover has spent nearly seven years roving the Martian surface, conducting a crater tour during her very unexpectedly long journey at ‘Meridiani Planum’ on Mars which now exceeds 26 km (16 miles). The rovers were designed with a prime mission “warranty” of just 90 Martian days – or sols – and have vastly exceeded their creators expectations.
“What a ride. This still does not seem real,” Rob Manning told me. Manning headed the Entry, Descent and Landing team at JPL for both the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. “That would be fantastic if Opportunity could get to the phyllosilicates before MSL launches.”
Stay tuned.
This map of the region around NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the relative locations of several craters and the rover location in May 2010. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/WUSTLAS12-48-7133 (20 Nov. 1969) --- This unusual photograph, taken during the second Apollo 12 extravehicular activity (EVA), shows two U.S. spacecraft on the surface of the moon. The Apollo 12 Lunar Module (LM) is in the background. The unmanned Surveyor 3 spacecraft is in the foreground. The Apollo 12 LM, with astronauts Charles Conrad Jr. and Alan L. Bean aboard, landed about 600 feet from Surveyor 3 in the Ocean of Storms. The television camera and several other pieces were taken from Surveyor 3 and brought back to Earth for scientific examination. Here, Conrad examines the Surveyor's TV camera prior to detaching it. Astronaut Richard F. Gordon Jr. remained with the Apollo 12 Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit while Conrad and Bean descended in the LM to explore the moon. Surveyor 3 soft-landed on the moon on April 19, 1967.
A landform on Mars that looks like a naturally occuring bridge across a chasm. Credit: NASA/JPL/U of Arizona/ colorization by Stu Atkinson.
[/caption]
The HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took an image of a thin channel, and a portion of it contains a naturally occurring bridge over the chasm. Kelly Kolb from the HiRISE team says it is probably a remnant of the original surface, the rest of which has collapsed downward. It isn’t likely there’s a opening underneath the formation, but if there were, it would look very similar to a rock bridge formation found in Jordan in the Wadi Rum, the Valley of the Moon. See an image below.
Kolb also said this is unlikely to be a channel formed by a running water, as there are no obvious source or deposit regions. The channel is probably a just a collapse feature.
And see the full HiRISE image of the thin channel, found in Mars northern hemisphere between some “knobs” called Tartarus Colles, below.
Any chance the Mars rockbridge could look like this one in Wadi Rum, Jordan -- also known as the Valley of the Moon?Small Winding Channel in Tartarus Colles. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Proctor Crater Dune Field on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
I just got lost on Mars. I saw this intriguing image, above, on the HiRISE camera website, and ended up spending a large chunk of my morning just wandering through the dunes of Mars — actually wandering through images of dunes on Mars. These striking features have to be one of the most intriguing areas of study on the Red Planet since they are one of the most dynamic geologic processes going on currently on Mars.
The dark dunes are composed of basaltic sand, and scientists believe the dunes in the image above have formed in response to fall and winter westerly winds. Also superimposed on their surface are smaller secondary dunes that are commonly seen on terrestrial dunes of this size.
See below for more intriguing dunes on Mars that I came across in my wanderings…
North Polar Dunes. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.Chocolate dunes? Credit: NASA/JPL/University of ArizonaDunes and Layered Bedrock on Floor of Large Crater in Xanthe Terra. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of ArizonaSeasonal Frost on Dunes. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of ArizonaDune Symmetry. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of ArizonaMartian Barchan Dunes. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of ArizonaFalling Material Kicks Up Cloud of Dust on Dunes. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
We’ve posted this image before, as it really is a weird-looking landscape, but it is worth seeing again.
Polar Sand Dunes. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
This volcanic cone in the Nili Patera caldera on Mars has hydrothermal mineral deposits on the southern flanks and nearby terrains. Two of the largest deposits are marked by arrows, and the entire field of light-toned material on the left of the cone is hydrothermal deposits. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL/Brown Univ.
[/caption]
Evidence of a past “hot spring” environment on Mars has shown up in images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Scientists say light-colored mounds of hydrated silica on the side of a volcano are likely deposits from steam fumaroles, or hot springs, which may have provided a habitable environment on the Red Planet about three billion years ago. Concentrations of hydrated silica have been identified on Mars previously, including an ancient hot springs environment that the Spirit rover stumbled across in 2007.
“The heat and water required to create this deposit probably made this a habitable zone,” said J.R. Skok from Brown University, lead author of a paper about these findings published online today by Nature Geoscience. “If life did exist there, this would be a promising type of deposit to entomb evidence of it — a microbial mortuary.”
While it is not direct evidence of life on Mars, it adds to the mounting evidence of past habitable environments for at least microbial life on the planet, and is the most intact ancient hot springs region ever found. This specific spot in the Syrtis Major volcanic region on Mars would have been hospitable to life when most of Mars was already dry and cold.
Skok said, “You have spectacular context for this deposit. It’s right on the flank of a volcano. The setting remains essentially the same as it was when the silica was deposited.”
The small cone rises about 100 meters (100 yards) from the floor of a shallow volcanic caldera named Nili Patera and covers about 50 kilometers (30 miles) of Syrtis Major, which is near Mars equator. The collapse of an underground magma chamber from which lava had emanated created the bowl, and subsequent lave flows tell a story of how the cone formed.
“We can read a series of chapters in this history book and know that the cone grew from the last gasp of a giant volcanic system,” said John Mustard, Skok’s thesis advisor at Brown and a co-author of the paper. “The cooling and solidification of most of the magma concentrated its silica and water content.”
Orbital images revealed patches of bright deposits near the summit of the cone, fanning down its flank, and on flatter ground in the vicinity. The Brown researchers partnered with Scott Murchie of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., to analyze the bright exposures with the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument on the orbiter.
Silica can be dissolved, transported and concentrated by hot water or steam. Hydrated silica identified by the spectrometer in uphill locations — confirmed by stereo imaging — indicates that hot springs or fumaroles fed by underground heating created these deposits. Silica deposits around hydrothermal vents in Iceland are among the best parallels on Earth.
Murchie said, “The habitable zone would have been within and alongside the conduits carrying the heated water.” The volcanic activity that built the cone in Nili Patera appears to have happened more recently than the 3.7-billion-year or greater age of Mars’ potentially habitable early wet environments recorded in clay minerals identified from orbit.
