Missions to Mars

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Newton in the pilot’s seat

How to land a Mars rover when you’re many, many millions of kilometres away.

It takes a lot of thought and a lot of work to land a rover on Mars. It’s not as if you’re on Earth, where you can check things out, take a few samples and make necessary measurements directly.

To get a lander like Perseverance down, scientists and engineers must take into account such things as the target planet’s gravity, the speed the rover will be travelling and the condition of the landing surface.

Thankfully, someone has made calculating these things a lot easier: Sir Isaac Newton.

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MARS 2020 MISSION PERSEVERANCE ROVER

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Nasa's Perseverance rover takes its first drive on Mars

The American space agency's (Nasa) Perseverance rover has wiggled its wheels and undertaken its first drive across the surface of Mars.

NASA Perseverance Rover Records First-Ever Sound of Wind on Mars

Pictures downloaded to Earth on Friday indicate the excursion was a short roll and turn.

It's two weeks now since the one-tonne robot landed on the Red Planet.

Engineers have spent the time commissioning the vehicle and its many systems, including its instruments and the robotic arm.

Perseverance's mission is to explore a near-equatorial crater called Jezero, to search for evidence of past life.

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Nasa's Perseverance Mars rover listens to its rock-zapping laser

 

So, now we know what a laser sounds like on another world.

The US space agency's Perseverance rover has deployed its SuperCam instrument on Mars for the first time.

This high-intensity light probe can identify rocks at a distance. It's a technique that was also employed by Nasa's previous rover, Curiosity.

But Perseverance has some enhancements, including a microphone that allows us to actually hear the laser at work.

This isn't just some nice-to-have feature, a gimmick for PR purposes, but provides extra information that is useful to scientists.

The sound of the laser hitting rocks reveals knowledge such as the hardness of the targets being investigated.

"If we tap on a surface that is hard, we will not hear the same sound as when we fire on a surface that is soft," explained Naomi Murdoch, from the National Higher French Institute of Aeronautics and Space, in Toulouse.

"Take for example chalk and marble. These two materials have an identical chemical composition (calcium carbonate), but very different physical properties."

 

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Edited March 11, 2021 by CaaC (John)

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Where did Mars's liquid water go? A new theory holds fresh clues.

Today, Mars is a frigid desert. But dried up deltas and riverbanks reveal that water once flowed over the plant’s surface. Where did it all go? Scientists have been trying to answer this question for decades, hoping to understand how Mars became an arid wasteland while its neighbour, Earth, kept hold of its water and became a biological paradise.

Now, by plugging observations of the red planet into new models, a team of geologists and atmospheric scientists has come up with a new picture of Mars’s past: Much of the planet’s ancient water could have been trapped within minerals in the crust, where it remains to this day.

Prior research suggested that most of Mars’s water escaped into space as its atmosphere was stripped away by the sun’s radiation. But this new study, published today in the journal Science and virtually presented at this year’s Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, concludes that Mars’s water experienced both an atmospheric exodus and a geologic entrapment.

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March 17, 2021, Another First: Perseverance Captures the Sounds of Driving on Mars

 

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First attempt could be as early as the first week of April, up to five flight attempts are expected within 30 Sols. 

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Sol 3067: Super-Resolution and Another SAM Analysis

Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center

This image was taken by Right Navigation Camera onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 3065. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity is still parked in front of the magnificent "Mont Mercou" cliff face as we continue to work through analyses of the "Nontron drill site. Over the weekend Curiosity dropped off more sample to SAM, and today we’re planning an additional SAM EGA analysis in addition to other remote sensing activities.

Today’s one sol plan starts with several environmental monitoring activities, including a Navcam line of sight observation and Mastcam image of the crater rim to characterize the dust content in the atmosphere. Then ChemCam planned several instrument calibration activities, followed by RMI mosaics of “Jayac” and “Journiac” to assess variations in laminae and diagenetic features exposed in the Mont Mercou cliff face. Mastcam also planned a super-resolution mosaic with the intent to increase the level of detail that we can see in an image by using slightly offset camera pointing gs. We hope these observations will help us interpret the spectacular stratification seen in the above Navcam image.

It was an easy day for me as SOWG Chair, and it was helpful to prepare me for my first shift as Long Term Planner tomorrow. Feeling inspired and humbled as Curiosity explores this beautiful outcrop!

https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission-updates/8895/sol-3067-super-resolution-and-another-sam-analysis/

 

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Curiosity's Selfie at Mont Mercou

March 30, 2021

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used two different cameras to create this selfie in front of Mont Mercou, a rock outcrop that stands 20 feet (6 meters) tall. The panorama is made up of 60 images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the rover’s robotic arm on March 26, 2021, the 3,070th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. These were combined with 11 images taken by the Mastcam on the mast, or “head,” of the rover on March 16, 2021, the 3,060th Martian day of the mission.

The hole visible to the left of the rover is where its robotic drill sampled a rock nicknamed “Nontron.” The Curiosity team is nicknaming features in this part of Mars using names from the region around the village of Nontron in southwestern France.

Curiosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA. JPL manages Curiosity's mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.

For more about Curiosity:

mars.nasa.gov/msl/home/

nasa.gov/msl

 

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Mysterious rumblings from inside of Mars detected by NASA lander

2 hrs ago

© Press Release Mysterious rumblings have been detected coming from inside of Mars

Scientists at NASA have reported an exciting detection by its Insight lander on Mars - mysterious rumblings coming from the interior of the planet.

The researchers believe the seismic events may be caused by a sudden release of energy from the planet's interior, but the nature of that release remains unknown and puzzling.

Intriguingly, the new rumblings are believed to have originated in a location on Mars called Cerberus Fossae, where two other previous candidate events are believed to have originated.

Although these rumblings have sometimes been called "Marsquakes" the planet is not believed to have a similarly active tectonic system like Earth's that causes earthquakes.

And curiously, the previous seismic events detected by the space agency's InSight lander - which arrived on the planet's surface in 2018 - occurred almost a full Martian year ago, or two Earth years, during the Martian northern summer.

Scientists had predicted this season would offer the lander its best opportunity to listen for quakes because the winds on the planet would become calmer.

InSight's seismometer called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), is so sensitive that it has to be covered by a dome-shaped shield to block it from wind and prevent it from freezing when in use.

Despite that, the wind can still cause enough vibration to mask the seismic signals it is looking for, and so the NASA team has begun to trying to insulate the sensitive cable.

To do this the team deployed the scoop on the end of InSight's robotic arm to shimmy soil on top of the dome-shaped shield, allowing it to trickle down onto the cable.

The intention is to allow the soil to get as close to the shield as possible without interfering with its seal with the ground.

© Reuters The researchers are learning to differentiate the seismic signals

Burying the seismic tether itself is one of the goals of the next phase of the mission, which NASA recently extended by two years to December 2022.

But despite the interruption that the wind is causing to InSight's seismometer, it isn't giving much of a hand to the lander's solar panels which remain covered with dust.

Power is now running low as Mars moves away from the sun, although energy levels are expected to pick up against after July when the planet begins to approach the sun again.

Until then, the team is going to turn off InSight's instruments one by one so it can hibernate, waking only periodically to check its own health and sent a message back to Earth.

NASA said the team hopes to keep the seismometer on for another month or two before it has to be turned off.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newsspace/mysterious-rumblings-from-inside-of-mars-detected-by-nasa-lander/ar-BB1ff5jK?li=AAnZ9Ug

 

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MARS HELICOPTER

Edited April 5, 2021 by CaaC (John)

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MARS HELICOPTER

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MARS WEATHER REPORT

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Edited April 12, 2021 by CaaC (John)

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"Based on data from the Ingenuity Mars helicopter that arrived late Friday night, NASA has chosen to reschedule the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s first experimental flight to no earlier than April 14.

During a high-speed spin test of the rotors on Friday, the command sequence controlling the test ended early due to a “watchdog” timer expiration. This occurred as it was trying to transition the flight computer from ‘Pre-Flight’ to ‘Flight’ mode. The helicopter is safe and healthy and communicated its full telemetry set to Earth."

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Sol 3088-3089: A Beautiful View from the Top of 'Mont Mercou'

Our mountain-climbing rover has bagged another “peak” and is currently taking in the view from the top of the ~6-meter tall "Mont Mercou" cliff. Over the weekend Curiosity drove ~31 meters, which put the rover on top of the outcrop that we’ve been studying for the past several weeks. We’re assessing the top of Mont Mercou with the intent to potentially drill here, as we continue to assess variations in chemistry and mineralogy as we climb uphill.

I was on shift as SOWG Chair today, and it was a fun and straightforward day of planning. We put together a two-sol plan that starts with APXS and MAHLI observations of the target “Gout Rossignol” to characterize the bedrock in our workspace. Then Curiosity will acquire a ChemCam passive observation on the same target, as well as targets named “Monplaisant” and “Marquay” to look for variability in bedrock and veins. The team also planned several Mastcam mosaics to document bedforms at the top of the hill, look for evidence of how this cliff may have been carved, and gain additional context for the possible drill location. After an hour and a half of remote sensing observations, Curiosity will drive ~4 meters to a good location for drill activities later this week. Overnight Curiosity will analyze an empty CheMin cell to prepare for upcoming investigations. The second sol includes several environmental monitoring activities, including a Navcam dust devil survey and images to assess the dust content in the atmosphere. Just after sunset, Curiosity will wake up to take some Mastcam images of clouds in the atmosphere and a MARDI image of the terrain beneath the rover. Sounds like a lovely way to take in the sunset with a view!

https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission-updates/8917/sol-3088-3089-a-beautiful-view-from-the-top-of-mont-mercou/

 

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Ingenuity Helicopter's first flight has been rescheduled again, JPL will set the flight date next week. Minor modification and reinstallation of flight control software needs to be validated and then carried out.

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Blue dunes on the red planet. Breathtaking...

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

[Stan]

Top bit looks like birds flying away in organised patterns (starlings that do that?)

Weird trying to work out the perspective of the picture but unreal when you get it.

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