Rover Gives NASA An 'Opportunity' To View Interior Of Mars

This approximately true-color view of Marquette Island comes from combining three exposures that Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) took through different filters during the rover's 2,117th Martian day, or sol, on Mars (Jan. 6, 2010). (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Jan. 22, 2010) — NASA's Mars exploration rover Opportunity is allowing scientists to get a glimpse deep inside Mars.

Perched on a rippled Martian plain, a dark rock not much bigger than a basketball was the target of interest for Opportunity during the past two months. Dubbed "Marquette Island," the rock is providing a better understanding of the mineral and chemical makeup of the Martian interior.

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Mars Rover Spirit's Days May Be Numbered

Artist's concept of the Spirit rover on Mars (before getting stuck in a sand trap).
(Credit: NASA)

From CNET News:

One of NASA's seemingly immortal Mars rovers might soon be at the end of its days.

The Spirit rover had been cruising around the Red Planet, along with its companion, Opportunity, since they both arrived six years ago this month. (Spirit landed on January 3, 2004, while Opportunity landed on January 24 of that year.) Their mission to send back photos and data about the Martian surface was expected to last a mere 90 days. Instead, the two traveling research bots blew away all expectations, continuing their treks year after year.

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Marvels From Mars: Stunning Postcards From The Red Planet

Devil's punch bowl? The mouth of Albor Tholus, an extinct volcano, is 30km across

From The Daily Mail:

The Red Planet, Mars, fascinates us like no other celestial body. We have yet to visit the most Earth-like world in the solar system in person, but since the Sixties a small armada of space probes have poked and prodded the dusty Martian surface.

And, as these astonishing images show, they have taken the most spectacular close-up pictures while orbiting the planet.

Because Mars has so little air, and certainly no substantial running water and no vegetation, the processes of weathering and erosion, so important on Earth, operate differently on Mars.

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Life On Mars, Continued

This photomicrograph focuses on a large "biomorph" from a Mars meteorite
fragment known as Nakhla e4150ed. Its chemical spectrum appears to be primarily
iron oxide but with a carbon content slightly greater than the underlying matrix. David McKay / NASA

From MSNBC/Cosmic Log:

Do rocks from Mars bear the tiny fossilized signs of life? Scientists who think so say they'll subject meteorites from the Red Planet to a new round of high-tech tests in hopes of adding to their evidence.

For years, only one meteorite has figured in the controversy: ALH84001, a rock that was blasted away from Mars 16 million years ago, floated through space and fell through Earth's atmosphere onto Antarctica about 13,000 years ago. Scientists reported in 1996 that the rock contained microscopic structures that looked like "nano-fossils," but skeptics said the structures could have been created by chemical rather than biological reactions.

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Nasa Photographs 'Trees' On Mars

The "trees" are really trails of debris caused by landslides
as ice melts in Mars's spring Photo: NASA

From The Telegraph:

A Nasa probe has sent back photographs of what appears to be trees on the planet's surface.

The images appear to show rows of dark "conifers" sprouting from dunes and hills on the planet surface. But the scene is actually an optical illusion.

The photographs actually show sand dunes coated with a thin layer of frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice, less than 240 miles from the planet's north pole.

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The Top 4 Sites To Land On Mars And Their Biggest Mysteries

Holden Crater

From Popular Mechanics:

The Spirit Rover is nearly history, stuck deep in sand, and while Opportunity travels on, it's not likely that it will travel much farther. Now, scientists are building the next rover to be sent to Mars. But before they fuel the rockets, researchers have to pick a spot to explore. Here are NASA's frontrunners.

Call it the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's version of the Final Four. Scientists at the Pasadena, Calif.–based NASA research center will decide within the next two years where to send the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover after it launches in the fall of 2011. MSL's mission is to scour the Red Planet for environments that may once have harbored, or may still harbor, microbial organisms. Such an environment would have to contain the basic ingredients of life—including water, organic carbon and a source of energy to sustain the microbes' metabolism.

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New Images Show Evidence Of Lakes On Mars, Say Scientists

A Nasa image of depressions interpreted as ancient lake basins. Photograph: NASA/PA

From The Guardian:

Nasa pictures suggest existence of 12 mile-wide lakes of melted ice on Martian equator 3bn years ago.

Lakes of liquid water existed on Mars at a time when the planet was previously thought to be a frozen desert, new satellite images have shown.

A team of British-led scientists now believes 12 mile-wide lakes of melted ice were dotted around parts of the Martian equator 3bn years ago.

No one had expected to find evidence of a warm, wet climate capable of sustaining surface water on Mars during this period of the planet's history, known as the Hesperian epoch.

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Europe's Mars Missions Get Final Go-Ahead

From The BBC:

Member-states of the European Space Agency (Esa) have given final approval to revised plans to explore Mars.

There have been protracted discussions on what Europe could do at the Red Planet and how much it might cost.

The Council of Esa has given the green light to a two-mission endeavour that would see the launch of an orbiter in 2016 and a rover in 2018.

The exploration projects will be undertaken in partnership with the US space agency (Nasa).

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Life On Mars Theory Boosted By New Methane Study

This image shows concentrations of Methane discovered on Mars. (Credit: NASA)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 8, 2009) — Scientists have ruled out the possibility that methane is delivered to Mars by meteorites, raising fresh hopes that the gas might be generated by life on the red planet, in research published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

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That's The Spirit! Stuck Mars Rover Stirs Up Exciting New Proof Of Water In Sand Trap

Free spirit: Hundreds of images taken by the Spirit rover between May and June 2009 built up this panoramic view of Mars. The tracks made by the rover are visible

From The Daily Mail:

When one of Nasa's rovers became stuck in a sand trap on Mars six months ago, scientists were frustrated it had stalled their search for water on the surface.

Now it appears it could have been the best thing to have happened to the mission.

As Nasa span the Spirit rover's wheels to try and manoeuvre it out of the ditch, they simply dug deeper into the soft sand. However this had churned up an intriguing bright fluffy material from the disturbed soil.

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Both Of NASA's Mars Orbiters Are Down For The Count

Engineers are working to restore NASA's two Mars orbiters, Mars Odyssey (shown) and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, to normal operation (Illustration: NASA/JPL)

From New Scientist:

The Red Planet is experiencing a partial radio blackout this week, as both of NASA's Mars orbiters have been felled by technical glitches. Until one of the probes can be brought back online later this week, the outages will delay operation of the twin Mars rovers, which use the orbiters to efficiently relay data back to Earth.

The main blow to rover operations comes from NASA's Mars Odyssey, which reached the Red Planet in 2001 and has been the prime communications relay for the rovers Spirit and Opportunity since they landed in 2004.

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Devils’ Advocates

Dust devils like this one form frequently at Eldorado Valley.
(Planetary Science Institute)

From Air And Space Smithsonian:

Some people go to Las Vegas to gamble, others to learn about Mars.

“Three, two, one, now!” Just seconds ago Asmin “Oz” Pathare was sitting under a beach umbrella in the baking heat, gazing off into the distance—now he has jumped to his feet behind his camera tripod and is on his walkie-talkie with fellow scientist Steve Metzger, who’s a couple hundred yards away. At the count of zero, they both trigger their shutters to get a stereo picture of the devil headed our way.

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Volunteers Wanted for Simulated 520-Day Mars Mission

A special isolation facility hosts the Mars500 study. (Credit: ESA - S. Corvaja)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 28, 2009) — Starting in 2010, an international crew of six will simulate a 520-day round-trip to Mars, including a 30-day stay on the martian surface. In reality, they will live and work in a sealed facility in Moscow, Russia, to investigate the psychological and medical aspects of a long-duration space mission. ESA is looking for European volunteers to take part.

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Forget Earth - Let's Move To Mars!

A reconstructed landscape showing the Shalbatana lake on Mars as it may have looked roughly 3.4 billion years ago. AFP/Getty

From The Independent:

If planet Earth becomes too crowded, where else in the solar system could humankind live? Space expert Steven Cutts considers our options.

For decades, the most popular destination for migrants the world over has been the United States. It was in America that the downtrodden and the footloose of this world saw their destiny. But America's ability to accommodate such people has always been finite. Billions of poverty-stricken people today crave the comfort and the affluence of a better world and almost none of them can have it. The increase in global population now exceeds the entire population of the US every five years; if migration is the solution to the problems of mankind then we're going to have to find a different planet.

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NASA Robotic Rocket Plane To Survey Martian Surface

NASA's Martian Rocket Plane courtesy of NASA

From Popular Science:

Since budget cuts and the inability to overcome problems like boredom and high radiation doses have ruled out any manned mission to Mars in the foreseeable future, NASA has shifted gears back towards a program of robotic exploration. To that end, NASA now wants a rocket-powered UAV to fly around the Red Planet, photographing the surface.

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Mars Was Covered By Huge Ocean, Say Experts

The new map showing that Martian valley networks are more than twice as extensive
as had previously been thought Photo: PA

From The Telegraph:

A single large ocean once covered much of the northern half of Mars, supplied with water from a belt of rain-fed rivers, new research suggests.

Scientists have produced a new map showing that Martian valley networks are more than twice as extensive as had previously been thought, indicating that they were carved by rivers.

They are concentrated in a belt circling the planet's equator and mid-southern latitudes.

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Little Progress In Freeing A Rover On Mars

NASA's Mars Rover Spirit took this image with its front hazard-avoidance camera on May 6. Wheel slippage during attempts to extricate it from a patch of soft ground during the preceding two weeks had partially buried the wheels. NASA

From The New York Times:

The NASA rover Spirit, stuck in sand on Mars, tried to move Tuesday for the first time since May. In less than a second, it stopped.

Cautious mission managers had put tight constraints on the Spirit’s movement to ensure that it did not drive itself into a deeper predicament. Because the uncertainty in its tilt was more than one degree, the rover called it a day. Spirit awaits new instructions.

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How To Explore Mars And Have Fun

Scientists hope the public's help will have a big impact on research.

From The BBC:

The US space agency needs your help to explore Mars.

A Nasa website called "Be A Martian" allows users to play games while at the same time sorting through hundreds of thousands of images of the Red Planet.

The number of pictures returned by spacecraft since the 1960s is now so big that scientists cannot hope to study them all by themselves.

The agency believes that by engaging the public in the analysis as well, many more discoveries will be made.

The new citizen-science website went live on Tuesday at http://BeAMartian.jpl.nasa.gov.

The site is just the latest to use crowdsourcing as a tool to do science.

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Mars Rover Battles For Its Life

Last chance to lift NASA's spirit (Image: Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

From New Scientist:

NASA's twin Mars rovers have outlasted their planned three-month missions for so long that they seem indestructible. Nearly six years on, their presence on the Red Planet is taken for granted, as if they are immutable parts of the Martian landscape.

But we may soon have to confront a new reality. Spirit, which has always suffered more hardships than Opportunity, is facing its toughest challenge yet. When New Scientist went to press, the rover was set to begin a risky push to free itself from a sand trap it has been mired in for six months. Mission engineers say it may not survive the attempt. "She's in a very precarious situation, and we don't know for sure if we're going to get her out," says rover driver Scott Maxwell of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

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Nasa And Esa Sign Mars Agreement

The Red Planet experiences periodic global duststorms

From BBC:

The US and European space agencies have signed the "letter of intent" that ties together their Mars programmes.

The agreement, which was penned in Washington DC, gives the green light to scientists and engineers to begin the joint planning of Red Planet missions.

The union will start with a European-led orbiter in 2016, and continue with surface rovers in 2018, and then perhaps a network of landers in 2018.

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