Scientists caused quite a stir in 1996 when they announced a meteorite had been found in Antarctica that might contain evidence for microscopic fossils of Martian bacteria. While subsequent studies of the now famous Allen Hills Meteorite shot down theories that the Mars rock held fossilized alien life, both sides debated the issue and the meteorite is still being studied. Now, Craig Covault in Spaceflightnow.com reports that a new look at ALH84001 provides “evidence that supports the existence of life on the surface of Mars, or in subsurface water pools, early in the planet’s history.” Covault says we can expect a public announcement by NASA Headquarters within a few days.
Research using a more advanced High Resolution Electron Microscopy than was in existence when the initial findings were made 13 years ago has provided the new evidence. Covault reported that the “laboratory sensors are being focused directly on carbonate discs and associated tiny magnetite crystals present inside the meteorite Allen Hills ALH 84001.” The data reveal information that counters a “wide range of opposing theories as to why the finding should not be supported as biological in origin.”
The new findings were reported in the November issue of the respected journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, the journal of the Geochemical and Meteoritic Society. The authors include Kathie Thomas-Keprta, Simon Clement, David McKay (who led the original team), Everett Gibson and Susan Wentworth, all of the Johnson Space Center.
Covault said the new work centers on what is called magnetic bacteria that on Earth, and Mars as well, leave distinctively-shaped remnants in the rock. These features test with a high chemical purity more like a biological feature than geological.
Caption: One frame from an animation of weather patterns around the south pole of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
If you think about it, those hypnotizing patterns of swirling clouds you see in TV weather reports are pretty amazing: satellites let us see what’s happening in the skies all over the world. But these days, that kind of global vision even goes beyond the Earth. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter makes daily weather observations of the Red Planet, and mission scientists regularly compile the pictures into movies that are available online. The result is that anyone can follow along as fierce dust storms rage across the plains of Mars, clouds cling to the peaks of towering volcanoes and polar ice advances and retreats.
On board the MRO is a wide-angle camera called the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) that scans the face of Mars in both visible and ultraviolet light. MARCI views Mars from pole to pole, snapping dozens of images every day that are combined into a global map with resolution comparable to weather satellites at home.
This daily weather report helps Mars explorers understand day-to-day events, as well as seasonal and annual changes on the Red Planet. Sometimes the weather watch also gives rover drivers a crucial warning when a storm might be headed in the direction of Spirit or Opportunity.
The weather images can be striking and intriguing. This animation shows the south pole of Mars during a period of about a month earlier this year, when storms raged along the retreating edge of frost in the polar cap. You can see giant, swirling clouds of dust, as well as the changing shape of the cap as it shrinks with the approach of Summer.
Malin Space Science Systems is the firm that built and operates MARCI for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They post weekly movies that show a spinning, global view of the most recent Martian weather. You never know what you’ll see each week, but a careful look often turns up water ice clouds, wind storms or the giant canyon Valles Marineris filled to the brim with dust.
The descriptions that Malin scientists write to accompany each movie are fascinating. They sound both as exotic as a science fiction novel–and as routine as your local weatherman’s report on the evening news. One sample:
“A large dust storm moved south down the Acidalia/Chryse/Xanthe corridor, partially spilling into eastern Valles Marineris at the beginning of the week. From there the storm moved over Thaumasia and Argyre, picking up intensity as it moved into the subtropics of Aonia and Icaria/Daedalia… Dust storms and water-ice clouds also formed in the northern mid-latitudes, with more notable activity occurring over Deuteronilus and Utopia. The increased amount of dust activity on the planet has created a haze that lingers in the atmosphere and has caused skies over both Opportunity and Spirit to be hazy during the past week.”
That’s why Mars fascinates. It’s an alien world that in some ways is tantalizing similar to home.
MARCI will be turned back on in early December after a hiatus of a few months. Previous weather movies are still online.
An enhanced network of river valleys on Mars. Credit: NIU, LPI
Did Mars once have a vast network of river valleys – “canals” if you will – and an ocean that covered most of the planet’s northern hemisphere? A new computer-generated map of the Red Planet provides a more detailed look at the valley networks on Mars, and indicates the networks are more than twice as extensive as had been previously depicted in the only other planet-wide map of the valleys. “All the evidence gathered by analyzing the valley network on the new map points to a particular climate scenario on early Mars,” said Wei Luo, from Northern Illinois University (NIU). “It would have included rainfall and the existence of an ocean covering most of the northern hemisphere, or about one-third of the planet’s surface.”
This is a global map depicting the dissection density of valley networks on Mars, in relation to the hypothesized northern ocean. Credit: NIU, LPI
NIU and the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston used an innovative computer program to produce the new map that shows regions dissected by the valley networks roughly form a belt around the planet between the equator and mid-southern latitudes, consistent with a past climate scenario that included precipitation and the presence of an ocean covering a large portion of Mars’ northern hemisphere.
Scientists have previously hypothesized that a single ocean existed on ancient Mars, but the issue has been hotly debated.
Luo and Tomasz Stepinski, a staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, publish their findings in the current issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research — Planets.
“The presence of more valleys indicates that it most likely rained on ancient Mars, while the global pattern showing this belt of valleys could be explained if there was a big northern ocean,” Stepinski said.
The researchers created an updated planet-wide map of the valley networks by using a computer algorithm that uses topographic data from NASA satellites and recognizes valleys by their U-shaped topographic signature. “The basic idea behind our method is to flag landforms having a U-shaped structure that is characteristic of the valleys,” Stepinski added. “The valleys are mapped only where they are seen by the algorithm.”
Valley networks on Mars exhibit some resemblance to river systems on Earth, suggesting the Red Planet was once warmer and wetter than present.
The networks were discovered in 1971 by the Mariner 9 spacecraft, but scientists have debated whether they were created by erosion from surface water, which would point to a climate with rainfall, or through a process of erosion known as groundwater sapping. Groundwater sapping can occur in cold, dry conditions.
The large disparity between river-network densities on Mars and Earth had provided a major argument against the idea that runoff erosion formed the valley networks. But the new mapping study reduces the disparity, indicating some regions of Mars had valley network densities more comparable to those found on Earth. A zoomed-in area comparing the old map of valley networks and the new one. (Left) A satellite image, with color indicating elevation; (center) the old map of valley networks; (right) the new map of valley networks. Credit: Wei Luo, Northern Illinois University
“It is now difficult to argue against runoff erosion as the major mechanism of Martian valley network formation,” Luo said. “When you look at the entire planet, the density of valley dissection on Mars is significantly lower than on Earth,” he said. “However, the most densely dissected regions of Mars have densities comparable to terrestrial values. The relatively high values over extended regions indicate the valleys originated by means of precipitation-fed runoff erosion—the same process that is responsible for formation of the bulk of valleys on our planet.”
“The only other global map of the valley networks was produced in the 1990s by looking at images and drawing on top of them, so it was fairly incomplete and it was not correctly registered with current datum,” Stepinski said. “Our map was created semi-automatically, with the computer algorithm working from topographical data to extract the valley networks. It is more complete, and shows many more valley networks.”
The Martian surface is characterized by lowlands located mostly in the northern hemisphere and highlands located mostly in the southern hemisphere. Given this topography, water would accumulate in the northern hemisphere, where surface elevations are lower than the rest of the planet, thus forming an ocean, the researchers said.
“Such a single-ocean planet would have an arid continental-type climate over most of its land surfaces,” Luo said.
The northern-ocean scenario meshes with a number of other characteristics of the valley networks.
“A single ocean in the northern hemisphere would explain why there is a southern limit to the presence of valley networks,” Luo added. “The southernmost regions of Mars, located farthest from the water reservoir, would get little rainfall and would develop no valleys. This would also explain why the valleys become shallower as you go from north to south, which is the case.
“Rain would be mostly restricted to the area over the ocean and to the land surfaces in the immediate vicinity, which correlates with the belt-like pattern of valley dissection seen in our new map,” Luo said.
If you’ve ever dreamed of exploring Mars, but are worried about all that pesky radiation exposure and being cramped in a capsule for the two-year flight – or about never coming back – then your dream may be realized with NASA’s “Be a Martian” web site. In the spirit of other citizen scientist collaborations such as Galazy Zoo and Stardust@Home, NASA has created a site that allows you to view and categorize images to help map the Martian surface from the safety of your own home here on Earth.
The Be a Martian site is a collaboration between NASA and Microsoft that uses the tool of crowsourcing to sift through the hundreds of thousands of photos sent back by Mars rovers and orbiters. The format of the site is much like a game, where you complete tasks to earn points and badges.
There are two types of classifying activities to do on the site: count craters and match up images. Counting craters is just like it sounds: you are presented with an image, and place markers on any craters that you see. Counting craters in small regions on the Martian surface will help scientist determine the relative age of these regions – the more craters, the older an area is likely to be.
The image mapping is a bit trickier, though, because you have to match up 2-3 small, but high resolution images onto the background of a larger, much lower resolution image. The user starts in Vallis Marinaris, but can move onto other parts of Mars from there. By helping map the surface, better maps of the surface can be made to help scientists interpret the changing conditions of Mars.
Being a Martian citizen also has some civic responsibilities, too. There is a forum on the site where one can ask questions, vote on questions and make comments to earn “Curiousity Points”. NASA Mars experts will read the questions to see what the virtual Martian community is interested, and will host town hall-type meetings in the future where members can participate.
“We really need the next generation of explorers. And we’re also accomplishing something important for NASA. There’s so much data coming back from Mars. Having a wider crowd look at the data, classify it and help understand its meaning is very important,” Michelle Viotti, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory told BBC News.
Extras are also available on the site, including wallpapers, mission overviews, and videos. You’ll need to have Microsoft’s Silverlight application for the games and videos on the site to work.
So, if you aren’t already completely addicted to Galaxy Zoo or any other citizen scientist site, now’s your chance! Oh, and if you want your Martian name to be Marvin, too bad – I tried, and it’s already been taken!
Mission managers sent the drive commands to the Spirit rover at 4 a.m. EST (0900 GMT) today, — Nov. 17, 2009 and Sol 2088 for the rover — but the data back from the rover indicates the rover stopped less than one second after it began moving its wheels when the rover automatically sensed more lateral tilt than permitted. A tight limit on vehicle roll and pitch of less than 1 degree change was set for this first drive, and as the rover began its first move, it sensed that its roll was outside the allowed limit and safely stopped the drive. Those driving the rover say they are starting cautiously, setting initial parameters with very tight limits with the knowledge that these hair triggers may stop the rover frequently. As the project gains confidence with extrication, these limits may be relaxed. From this limited drive the team now has a more accurate measurement of vehicle roll and pitch that will be used for subsequent drive planning. Analysis is continuing. The team hopes to completion their planning of the next drive on Wednesday, Nov. 18, with possible wheel movement again on the 19th (Sol 2090)
At last week’s press conference about the attempt to extricate Spirit from the Martian sand trap, the rover team stressed this procedure could take weeks or months, with the likelihood of not being successful.
Learn more about the process in this video footage of the rover testing and planning teams.
On Monday, Nov. 16, NASA will begin transmitting commands to the Spirit rover on Mars to begin the extrication process to free the rover from where she has been stuck since April 23rd of this year. While members of the rover team have not given up on getting the rover to rove again, they were very guarded at a press conference Thursday in showing any optimism about removing Spirit from her predicament. “Spirit is facing the most challenging situation we have seen on Mars,” said Doug McCuistion director, Mars Exploration Program. “We know a lot of people view Spirit with great affection, and have followed along with the mission and seen new vistas and landscapes along with the rover to uncover new knowledge about our sister planet. But I want everybody to be realistic. This is a serious situation and if it cannot make the great escape from this sandtrap its likely this lonely spot might be where Spirit ends its adventures on Mars.”
John L. Callas, project manager for the rovers said the commands will be sent to Spirit on Monday night, the first drive will be executed early Tuesday, and they should find out later on Tuesday if any progress was made. But don’t expect anything to happen fast. “This is going to be like watching grass grow,” Callas said. “We’ll drive and then follow each drive with detailed analysis to see if it is on trend to what we are expecting. The reality is, we will see very little motion at least initially.”
Callas added that although the rover team has worked for months in the a test bed on Earth with an engineering model of the rover to develop a technique for extricating Sprit, there is no Earth analog for what is going on at Mars. “Spirit is on a planet with almost no atmosphere, 3/8 gravity of Earth, and a vehicle with hard metal wheels that only goes about 2 inches a second. We can’t rock back and forth and take advantage of momentum, and spin the wheels as we steer, like someone would do to get a stuck car out on Earth.” Spirit's location. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Ohio State University/University of Arizona
The plan is to attempt to drive the rover forward, which is actually backward, since the rover was driving in reverse when it entered this area where it broke through a “duricrust” and fell through to the talcum powder-like soil. Rover driver Ashley Stroupe said going forward is better because the rover won’t have to break new ground; it will just follow the tracks back out. Plus, then the rover doesn’t have to climb vertically, and if it makes enough progress, eventually it will be heading downhill.
The team did have some good news to share: the “amnesia” Spirit has been experiencing with its flash memory may have been fixed, at least for now. The drive was reformatted and at appears to be working well.
The team said they would try working to remove the rover at least until February before throwing in the towel. A mission review is scheduled at that time.
However, if the rover is destined to remain in this spot forever, lead scientist Ray Arvidson says that’s not all bad. “No place is a nice place to be embedded, but this place is a geological treasure trove,” he said. “The soil is coarse sand with highest sulfate content we have found yet on Mars. Spirit is sitting astride a geological boundary, (see top image — they believe Spirit is sitting on the edge of a small impact crater) and it’s an exciting area to be in scientifically.” Bright soil stirred up by the rover wheels. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Callas said the solar panels are currently at about 60% performance and if no big dust accumulation occurs, Spirit should be able to make it through the next winter if she remains where she is. “But if environmental things change, that could be a problem,” Callas said. “We’re ok now but we really have no margin on that.”
The Spirit Rover, which has had its wheels stuck for 145 Martian sols, has finally moved! Though she’s far from being extricated from her current position, this is the first time that she’s budged in quite a while. The Mars rover driving team is working on ways to get Sprit out, and this recent move was just them getting Spirit’s wheels in alignment for an upcoming procedure to free her from the sand trap she’s stuck in. But it’s a start!
As Emily reported over at the Planetary Society Blog, this is the “First drive sequence in 145 sols”, according to the rover driver Scott Maxwell on Twitter. The team is getting ready to start extricating Spirit.
The rover team has been working diligently on ways to get Spirit free from the sand that the rover has been stuck in since April. Given that the rover has been having memory problems – the most recent was October 30th – this will be an extraordinary challenge.
Here are some more animations of Spirit’s most recent move:
This is from Spirit's forward hazcam, from sols 2078 and 2079. You can see the buried wheel in the bottom left portion of the image. Credit: NASA / JPL / animation by Damien Bouic Spirit's right rear hazcam from sols 2072 to 2078. Image Credit: NASA / JPL / animation by fredk
NASA will be giving out further details of their plan at a press conference this Thursday, November 12th , so be sure and check back here for more specific information on the escape plan for Spirit!
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have officially agreed to combine their efforts in the exploration and study of Mars. The heads of both agencies, NASA administrator Charles Boden and ESA director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain signed an agreement that officially binds the two agencies together for upcoming orbiter and rover missions. Discussions of this cooperation began in December of 2008, and culminated in a meeting in June 2009, out of which came the official agreement signed last week.
The new “letter of intent” outlines the Mars Exploration Joint Initiative (MEJI), under which mission engineers will cooperate in the design and launch of rovers, orbiters and landers into the 2020s, with the ultimate goal of returning rocks from Mars to Earth for study. The first collaborative mission is a European-led orbiter that will also place a meteorological station on Mars planned for 2016. This will be followed by surface rovers to keep Spirit and Opportunity company (c’mon, you know they’ll still be ticking!) in 2018, and possibly a network of landers shortly after in 2018, one of which will include the ESA’s ExoMars Lander.
NASA will take care of the launching rockets for 2016 and 2018, and the ESA will cover the entry, descent and landing for the first mission in 2016.
The signing of this document makes official the talks held in Plymouth, UK this past June. Since the talks, most of the fine print has been worked out on the collaboration – this signing just seals the deal.
The ESA and NASA, both under financial constraints in their Mars exploration programs, envision this new union to allow both to to launch vehicles in the window that opens every 26 months for missions to Mars. NASA’s most recently planned mission to the Red Planet, the Mars Science Laboratory, missed the October 2009 window because of technical problems, so will have to be launched in 2011 instead. The same fate befell the ESA ExoMars lander, which has been postponed three times – until 2018 – from the initial launch date of 2009. This joint initiative aims at preventing such delays by sharing both engineering and financial responsibilities.
NASA’s associate administrator for science, Dr Ed Weiler, told the BBC back in July,”We have very similar scientific goals, maybe we ought to consider working together jointly on all our future Mars missions, so that we can do more than either one of us can do by ourselves.”
Hopefully, this collaboration will provide both administrations with the opportunity to get more science done for cheaper, and extend further the already amazing capabilities of proposed missions to the Red Planet.
Opportunity has come upon another big rock on Mars. But what is it? Another meteorite? A big clump of ejecta from an old impact? There’s lots of other debris scattered around this area as well. The rock has been named “Marquette Island,” staying with the island theme for the other meteorites Oppy has come across, and the rover may take the “opportunity” to get closer to this rock and check it out, given the sand dunes surrounding it don’t provide too much of an obstacle. So maybe next week we’ll find out what it is. But in the meantime, enjoy these color and 3-D images (see more below) of the rock via Stu Atkinson from Unmannedspaceflight.com. Check out more great looks at Marquette Island at Stu’s blog about Oppy’s travels, Road to Endeavour.
Oh, and rumor has it that the extrication process may have begun to free the Spirit rover. Latest images show she has moved every so slightly. More as it becomes available….
Marquette Island, from a distance. Credit: NASA/JPL, color by Stu AtkinsonMarquette Island in 3-D. Credit: NASA/JPL, 3-D by Stu Atkinson
Future Mars astronauts. Image Credit: Patrick McGuire
Ever heard of a ‘Cyborg Astrobiologist’? Probably not. But I bet you’ll want to be one after learning that future exploration of Mars (and other planets, for that matter) may employ the use of artificial intelligence integrated into spacesuits to enhance the ability of astronauts in taking scientific data while exploring. The AI assistance could help future astronauts exploring planets to recognize differences in their surroundings as being due to the presence of life. Does this sound like something from 50 years from now? Well, a prototype model has already been tested, and has shown the principle behind this idea to be sound.
University of Chicago geoscientist Patrick McGuire and his team have developed the basic systems needed for such a spacesuit, using mostly off-the shelf technology. The system uses a Hopfield neural network to analyze data taken in by a either a camera phone or a microscope. The AI system employs a ‘novelty detection algorithm’ which analyzes images from either imaging device, and is able to identify features in images that are out of place.
The Hopfield system compares patterns against ones it has already seen, and learns from this process to correctly identify novel patterns that could be of interest. The full prototype spacesuit has a wearable computer that houses the AI system, which uses Bluetooth to receive data from a cell phone camera or is connected to a USB digital microscope.
The system was tested at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in the San Rafael Swell of Utah, which is maintained by the Mars Society. The MDRS is a semi-arid desert with “greenish, grey or light gray mudstone,
limestone, siltstone and sandstone, partially inter-bedded by white sandstone layers”. For the last two weeks of February 2009, two members of McGuire’s team tested the wearable technology, which was able to successfully learn to identify patches of lichen from a background of rock, and identify different color patterns that signified different rock formations.
Another test, conducted in September of 2005 at Rivas Vaciamadrid in Spain, utilized a USB digital microscope to image rocks with lichen on them. As you can see in the image below, the AI system was able to identify as uncommon the spores of the lichen, which are about 1mm in diameter.
There are still some bugs to be worked out, though, as the system detected cast shadows in rough terrain our low standing Sun as novel features, the researchers wrote in their paper, The Cyborg Astrobiologist: Testing a Novelty-Detection Algorithm on Two Mobile Exploration Systems at Rivas Vaciamadrid in Spain and at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, available on Arxiv. The researchers also tested a head-mounted digital microscope display, but instead opted for a tripod due to the blurriness associated with the head movement of the researcher wearing the suit.
Though it may be a while until there are any Martian astronauts utilizing such a system – let alone Martian astronauts with the title of ‘Cyborg Astrobiologist’ – the combination of the AI with imaging systems could start to prove very useful on future orbital surveyors of Mars. Additionally, these systems could be used to collect and analyze data outside of the visible light spectrum, which could be incredibly useful for both robotic and human explorers.
