This approximate true-color image (right) taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rock dubbed “Mazatzal” before the rover drilled into it with its rock abrasion tool. The rock “has clearly been altered by interaction with fluids,’ said Hap McSween, science team member from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
March 22nd, 2004
Iron Blueberries Astrobiology Magazine
MER mission scientists have found hematite in the small spherical “blueberries” embedded in the rock outcrop near Opportunity’s landing site. They speculate that the broad plain surrounding Eagle Crater, where the rover landed, may be littered with blueberries.
March 11th, 2004
Mars Horizon, the Big Plans Astrobiology Magazine
The future of Mars missions hinges on a launch window about every 26 months. The next generation of robotic explorers will take new instruments and exploration strategies to the red planet this decade.
March 10th, 2004
Mars: Goldilocks’ Oasis? Astrobiology Magazine
Locally, Earth has its habitable extremes: Antarctica, the Sahara desert, the Dead Sea, Mount Etna. Globally, our blue planet is positioned in the solar system’s habitable zone, or ‘Goldilocks’ region where the temperature and pressure are just right to support liquid water and life. Across the borders from this goldilocks zone orbit our two neighbors: the runaway greenhouse planet, Venus–which in goldilocks’ terms is ‘too hot’–and the frigid red planet, Mars, which is ‘too cold’.
March 9th, 2004
Unreal Film-maker of Martian Reality Astrobiology Magazine
Daniel Maas is the film-maker that first brought animation to the Spirit and Opportunity rovers’ launch, landing and driving. His video required four years of research to achieve eight minutes of realism in high-definition. Maas described what it meant to join the Cornell team that landed on Mars.
March 8th, 2004
Unreal Film-maker of Martian Reality Astrobiology Magazine
Daniel Maas is the driver behind the stunningly realistic animations that depict the current Mars Exploration Rovers. His renderings have brought a standard to visualization in planetary exploration not previously possible. Astrobiology Magazine had the opportunity to talk with Maas about how his project came to life.
March 3rd, 2004
Brewing Sulfur with Martian Water Astrobiology Magazine
If the very high sulfur content found at the Opportunity landing site points to its aqueous history, then what speculative biology could take advantage of brewing sulfur with water. According to one Mars’ veteran, there are fascinating extreme microbes that can make good use of these chemical combinations.
March 2nd, 2004
Meridiani Planum Was Wet Astrobiology Magazine
Opportunity scientists now believe that the landing site near the martian equator was once ‘an area where liquid water once drenched the rocks’. In places, up to forty percent of the outcrop can be composed of sulfate-rich salts, akin to magnesium sulfate like epsom salts. The presence of bromine also suggests that the region may have formed by slow evaporation and percolation by water.
February 23rd, 2004
Into the Briny Deep – Perhaps Astrobiology Magazine
Opportunity has been getting the lion’s share of the attention in recent weeks, because its twin sister Spirit has been engaged mostly in long-distance driving. But it may be about to steal the spotlight. For several sols, Spirit has been working its way towards nearby Bonneville crater. But even before it gets there, the mobile robot may make a critical discovery. It may find evidence of liquid water on Mars.
February 16th, 2004
Born Bone Dry Astrobiology Magazine
Mars has polar ice caps, and pockets of liquid water are suspected to exist beneath the martian surface. Yet compared to Earth, Mars is a very dry place. Why is Mars so arid? The answer may lie in the random nature of planetary birth.