As you saw with Spirit, said Tim McElrath of the Opportunity’s navigation team, “we have a number ways to locate a rover. The 44 by 5 miles across, that error ellipse was what we worked for six months to define before landing. We were fortunate to have two Deep Space Network tracking stations, so we could see two-way Doppler data all the way down during descent until the parachute opened. ”
February 9th, 2004
How to Wind a Martian Watch Astrobiology Magazine
Time keeping on two sides of another planet turns out to be a challenge, at least when calibrated from our own rhythms. On Earth, it took thousands of years for navigators to get terrestrial time on some reliable global standards. But when not on our globe, the familiar clock ticks need a sun calibration. Some of the first interplanetary clocks started during the 1976 Viking Mars mission, but since then interplanetary time-keeping has moved on. NASA’s Michael Allison describes how to wind a Martian watch.
February 2nd, 2004
From a River in Spain to a Crater on Mars Astrobiology Magazine
Andrew Knoll is a member of the Mars Exploration Rover science team and Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University. His research focuses on ancient rocks on Earth; he studies how well they preserve evidence of ancient terrestrial life. Shortly after Opportunity landed on Mars, Astrobiology Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Henry Bortman, spoke with Knoll about the scientific potential of the Opportunity landing site. In this interview segment, Knoll discusses how iron deposits near the Rio Tinto in Spain could help scientists understand the history of the hematite deposits on Mars. In the second segment, Knoll will discuss the possibility that Opportunity could find signs of life.
February 1st, 2004
Roaming the Rust Belt Astrobiology Magazine
The Rust Belt states span from Indiana to New Jersey, but on Mars the rusty region known as Meridiani is a scientific prime in a number of ways. Running along the prime meridian (0 degrees longitude) near the equator (0 degrees latitude), this 150 km by 500 km martian strip adds up to a cross-hair target for what is hoped will reveal much about the complex water history on the rusty, red planet.
January 30th, 2004
James Cameron’s Mars Reference Design Astrobiology Magazine
Academy Award winning film director, James Cameron, takes a tour through a human mission to Mars. His commissioned renderings of the Mars Design Reference Mission illustrate how a quarter billion miles away, a crew and cargo will meet up to build and fuel their future habitat.
January 30th, 2004
Greening the Red Planet Astrobiology Magazine
Greenhouse gases might one day be used to warm the cold surface of Mars, and make the planet habitable for humans.
January 28th, 2004
Follow the Fire: Landing on a Volcano Astrobiology Magazine
Among those primordial elements critical for life, water has been considered the one in short supply on Mars. But even as scientists adopt the theme to ‘follow the water’, another element, geothermal heat, may offer interesting exploration opportunities. Astrobiology Magazine interviewed Buffalo volcanologist, Tracy Gregg, about landing on a martian volcano.
January 26th, 2004
Mars 2053: Our Truths are Temporary Astrobiology Magazine
After 18 martian days of a near-perfect mission, a Spirit rover message came to Earth with corrupted data. When decoded, this tiny clue showed that the mobile laboratory’s software considered that it was the year 2053. Based on a hunch from the software architect, the problem may be a byproduct of the mission’s early success. The rover captured so much data and may have stored too many files to manage.
December 17th, 2003
Two Worlds, One Sun Astrobiology Magazine
Both of next month’s Mars Exploration Rovers will debut a new concept in telling interplanetary time. On board will be panoramic cameras and color calibration targets so the pictures beamed back to Earth will give a realistic view of what the landscape offers. On these rovers will ride an elegant and age-old method of marking the motion of our star: the sundial. Astrobiology Magazine talks with Bill Nye about how the Planetary Society is letting Earth sundials in for some of the same science to be seen on Mars.
December 15th, 2003
Living on Mars Time Astrobiology Magazine
When NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover-A, more affectionately known as “Spirit,” touches down in Gusev Crater, it will be approximately 8:30 PM, January 3rd, 2004, at mission control. That’s Pacific Standard Time (PST), because mission control is located on the grounds of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California. When time is the topic, however, Pacific Standard tells only part of Spirit’s story. Scientists and engineers will also be keeping track of UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), more commonly known as Greenwich Mean Time. UTC is the basis of official timekeeping all over the world. This world, at any rate. Using UTC makes it easier for NASA and its international collaborators to synchronize their watches. So much for Earth. But what about Mars? While international flights on Earth require coordination between two time zones, interplanetary flights require time coordination between two worlds. And coordinating clocks between Earth and Mars is not a simple matter of adding or subtracting hours.