This view from the navigation camera on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows tracks left by backing out of a wind-formed ripple after the rover’s wheels had started to dig too deeply into the dust and sand of the ripple.
November 11th, 2009
A Tale of Planetary Woe
Once upon a time — roughly four billion years ago — Mars was warm and wet, much like Earth. Liquid water flowed on the Martian surface in long rivers that emptied into shallow seas. A thick atmosphere blanketed the planet and kept it warm. Living microbes might have even arisen, some scientists believe, starting Mars down the path toward becoming a second life-filled planet next door to our own.
But that’s not how things turned out.
Mars today is bitter cold and bone dry. The rivers and seas are long gone. Its atmosphere is thin and wispy, and if Martian microbes still exist, they’re probably eking out a meager existence somewhere beneath the dusty Martian soil.
November 5th, 2009
Take Me Out to the Ballpark – On Mars!
Students in fourth through seventh grade will work to create the ultimate baseball experience “on Mars,” even designing the rules for how to play a game on the Red Planet. NASA and JPL have partnered with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum to host a workshop for kids on Sat., Nov. 7, in Cooperstown, N.Y. The workshop runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7. Cost is $5 per student, which covers materials, supplies and admission to the Museum.
The workshop is limited to 50 participants. To register, visit http://education.baseballhalloffame.org/something_new/ or call 607-547-0362 to request a registration form.
November 4th, 2009
Phoenix in Winter
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured winter images of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander surrounded by dry-ice frost on Mars.
As the sun began to reappear on the horizon following the deepest, darkest days of north polar winter on Mars, the HiRISE camera imaged the Phoenix landing site on July 30, 2009, (left image) and in Aug. 22, 2009 (right).
The sun was only 1 degree above the horizon when the July image was taken at approximately 2 p.m. local Martian time. In the August image the sun was six degrees above the horizon when the image was taken at about 1:44 p.m., Martian time.
By matching up the images with the known location of the Lander, the HiRISE team identified the hardware, disguised by frost, despite the fact that the views were hindered by poor lighting and atmospheric haze, which often obscures the Martian surface at this location and season.
November 2nd, 2009
Spirit Embedded in Soft Soil on Mars as Engineers Devise Methods to ‘Free Spirit’
This view from the panoramic camera on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the terrain surrounding the location called “Troy,” where Spirit became embedded in soft soil during the spring of 2009. The hundreds of images combined into this view were taken beginning on the 1,906th Martian day (or sol) of Spirit’s mission on Mars (May 14, 2009) and ending on Sol 1943 (June 20, 2009).
Near the center of the image, in the distance, lies Husband Hill, where Spirit recorded views from the summit in 2005. For scale, the parallel tracks are about 1 meter (39 inches) apart. The track on the right is more evident because Spirit was driving backwards, dragging its right-front wheel, which no longer rotates.
October 31st, 2009
Amnesia-Like Behavior Returns on Spirit
Until Oct. 24, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover had gone more than six months without an episode of amnesia-like symptoms like those that appeared on four occasions earlier this year.
In these amnesia events, Spirit fails to record data from the day’s activities onto the type of computer memory — non-volatile “flash” memory — that can retain the data when the rover powers down for its energy-conserving periods of “sleep.” The reappearance of this behavior in recent days might delay the start of planned drives by Spirit geared toward extricating the rover from a patch of soft soil where its wheels have been embedded since April.
Spirit sent data Oct. 24 through Oct. 27 indicating that the rover was not using its flash memory. The rover also has alternate memory (volatile, random-access memory) where data can be saved for communicating to Earth if the communication session comes before the next sleep period. Spirit remains in communication with Earth, maintaining good power and temperatures.
October 28th, 2009
Teamwork Brings About Successful Ares I-X Launch
Outstanding teamwork was the theme of the Ares I-X postlaunch news conference as the successful flight test was discussed.
“I can’t say enough about this team,” said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “They’ve been together probably a little over three years now, and they went from a concept to flying this vehicle in that period of time, which is the first time this has been done by a human spaceflight team in a long time.”
October 2nd, 2009
Opportunity Finds Another Meteorite
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found a rock that apparently is another meteorite, less than three weeks after driving away from a larger meteorite that the rover examined for six weeks.
Opportunity used its navigation camera during the mission’s 2,022nd Martian day, or sol, (Oct. 1, 2009) to take this image of the apparent meteorite dubbed “Shelter Island.” The pitted rock is about 47 centimeters (18.5 inches) long. Opportunity had driven 28.5 meters (94 feet) that sol to approach the rock after it had been detected in images taken after a drive two sols earlier.
Opportunity has driven about 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) since it finished studying the meteorite called “Block Island” on Sept. 11, 2009.
September 30th, 2009
NASA Invites Virginia Students to Become 2010 Aerospace Scholars
Are you looking for an experience that is out of this world? Planning a mission to Mars and gaining college credit are just two perks high school juniors in Virginia can experience through The Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars (VASTS) program. The program, in its third year at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., is now accepting applications for its interactive on-line science, technology, engineering, and math program. The semester-long curriculum teaches students about aerospace exploration. Learning takes place through simulations, weekly reading assignments, online games, video segments and online quizzes. The free program is open to high school juniors, including home-schoolers, across the Commonwealth. Deadline for application is Nov. 6, 2009. For more information on the VASTS program and for an application, visit: www.vasts.spacegrant.org
July 22nd, 2009
Send Your Name to Mars
Fill in your information below and your name will be included with others on a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011!