This map shows the traverse of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity through the rover’s 205th martian day, or sol (Aug. 21, 2004). The background image is from the rover’s descent imaging camera. Images inset along the route are from Opportunity’s navigation camera. Opportunity began its exploration inside “Eagle” crater near the left edge of the map. Following completion of its study of the outcrop there, it traversed eastward to a small crater (“Fram” crater) before driving southeastward to the rim of “Endurance” crater. After a survey partly around the south rim of Endurance crater, Opportunity drove inside the southwest rim of Endurance crater and began a systematic study of outcrops exposed on the crater’s inner slope.
September 21st, 2004
Rover Missions Renewed as Mars Emerges from Behind Sun
As NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity resumed reliable contact with Earth, after a period when Mars passed nearly behind the sun, the space agency extended funding for an additional six months of rover operations, as long as they keep working. Both rovers successfully completed their primary three-month missions on the surface of Mars in April and have already added about five months of bonus exploration during the first extension of their missions.
September 13th, 2004
It Isn’t Mars, but It’ll Do for Now
Mars and the Moon can be tough on spacesuits. So can Arizona’s high desert, and it’s a lot easier to get to. That’s why a NASA-led team will head for sites near Flagstaff, Ariz., this month to try out equipment — spacesuits, rovers and science gear. The tests could help America pursue the Vision for Space Exploration to return to the Moon and travel to Mars. The team will conduct a series of live satellite link videoconferences between researchers in the field and students at eight NASA Explorer Schools. Three of the videoconferences — at 2 p.m. EDT Sept. 16, 1 p.m. EDT Sept. 21 and 2 p.m. EDT Sept. 23 — will also be available to Internet audiences through Web casts.
August 18th, 2004
Bedrock in Mars’ Gusev Crater Hints at Watery Past
Now that NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is finally examining bedrock in the “Columbia Hills,” it is finding evidence that water thoroughly altered some rocks in Mars’ Gusev Crater. Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, completed successful three-month primary missions on Mars in April and are returning bonus results during extended missions. They remain in good health though beginning to show signs of wear.
August 17th, 2004
Soldering Surprise
Richard Grugel, a materials scientist at the Marshall Space Flight Center, watched his video monitor in disbelief. A transmission from the International Space Station was playing. The scene: Astronaut Mike Fincke touches the tip of a soldering iron to a wire wrapped with rosin-core solder. The solder, heated, became a molten blob with a droplet of rosin clinging tight to the outside. Solder melts: that’s not too surprising. It’s the behavior of the rosin that amazed. As the temperature increased, the droplet began to spin, round and round, faster and faster, like a miniature carnival ride.
August 11th, 2004
Relays from Mars Show International Interplanetary Networking
One of NASA’s Mars rovers has sent pictures relayed by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter for the first time, demonstrating that the orbiter could serve as a communications link if needed. The link-up was part of a set of interplanetary networking demonstrations paving the way for future Mars missions to rely on these networking capabilities. The American and European agencies planned them as part of continuing efforts to cooperate in space exploration.
August 9th, 2004
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Status
With one very busy year remaining before launch, the team preparing NASA’s next mission to Mars has begun integrating and testing the spacecraft’s versatile payload. Possible launch dates from Cape Canaveral, Florida, for NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter begin Aug. 10, 2005. The spacecraft will reach Mars seven months later to study the surface, subsurface and atmosphere with the most powerful instrument suite ever flown to the red planet. “Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a quantum leap in our spacecraft and instrument capabilities at Mars,” said James Graf, the mission’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “Weighing 2,180 kilograms [4,806 pounds] at launch, the spacecraft will be the largest ever to orbit Mars.
August 3rd, 2004
More Data from Mars Rover Spirit’s First Month Now Online
Millions of people have viewed pictures from NASA’s Spirit on the Mars rovers home page and other Internet sites. Beginning today, a more complete set of science data from Spirit’s first 30 martian days is posted on a site primarily for scientists and technical researchers, but also available to anyone who’s interested.
August 3rd, 2004
NASA Announces Space Radiation Materials Research Grants
NASA has selected 19 researchers to conduct ground-based research in space radiation biology and space radiation shielding materials. Sponsored by NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, this research will use the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (SRL) and the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron at the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y. The SRL provides beams of radiation that are the same type and energy as found in space. They will be used for studies in radiation physics and biology in order to accurately predict and manage radiation risk in space.
July 30th, 2004
NASA Invites Public To Explore ‘Red Planet’ Via Internet
NASA scientists have modified a scientific Web site so the general public can inspect big regions and smaller details of Mars’ surface, a planet whose alien terrain is about the same area as Earth’s continents. After adding ‘computer tools’ to the ‘Marsoweb’ Internet site, NASA scientists plan to ask volunteers from the public to virtually survey the vast red planet to look for important geologic features hidden in thousands of images of the surface.