Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted June 18, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted June 18, 2019 New Mars crater exposes mysterious darker material Mars attacked. The Red Planet was hit by an asteroid sometime within the past three years and the resulting crater has exposed a "darker material" underneath Mars' reddish dust that is currently perplexing scientists. The image was captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on April 17, 2019. The black-and-blue area on the Martian landscape highlights the area that was hit. University of Arizona scientist Veronica Bray told Space.com that the crater was on the larger side of ones she has observed and was a fairly rare event, as MRO has been continuously observing Mars for 13 years. "It is a reminder of what's out there," she told the news outlet. "It's a gorgeous [crater]. I'm glad I got it in the color strip." The blueish tint seen in the image may be exposed ice, though Bray and her fellow researchers are not sure exactly what it is and further research is needed. Peter Grindrod, a research leader in Planetary Science at the Natural History Museum in London, tweeted this gif showing the before and after images. Researchers suspect that the asteroid was no more than 5 feet wide and likely would've broken up had it entered Earth's atmosphere. But because Mars' atmosphere is significantly weaker than Earth's, it had a better chance of leaving an impact crater. It's unclear exactly when the impact occurred, but the best guess is that the impact crater formed between September 2016 and February 2019. NASA's exploration of space and in particular, the MRO, have been in the spotlight in recent weeks. A tweet from President Trump caused confusion earlier this month when he said "NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon," but rather it should be "be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science." Under the direction of the Trump administration, astronauts will return to the Moon by 2024. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine attempted to downplay the confusion, noting that NASA was using the Moon as a gateway to Mars. And just last week, the University of Arizona, which operates the HiRISE camera, released a picture the MRO took on Mars of a dune that looks strikingly similar to the Starfleet logo on "Star Trek." https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/new-mars-crater-exposes-mysterious-darker-material/ar-AAD1uVS?MSCC=1560843186&ocid=chromentp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted June 21, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted June 21, 2019 Mysterious glowing light on Mars captured by Nasa's Curiosity probe Harry Cockburn A photograph taken by Nasa’s Curiosity rover on Mars has captured a mysterious bright glow on a distant Martian hillside. The black and white photograph shows the desert landscape with high rocky hills in the background. In front of the larger rock formations, a tiny elongated white blob appears to be streaking past. Nasa has previously admitted to similar anomalies in pictures taken by the probe. This image was taken on 16 June, and while conspiracy theorists have said the photograph is evidence of extra-terrestrials on the Red Planet, it appears more likely to have been a cosmic ray, some kind of camera lens flare or sunlight reflecting on rocks. The Curiosity rover landed on the surface of Mars in 2012, and is armed with 17 cameras. Since then it has roamed all over the planet, beaming back huge amounts of data along with vast quantities of photographs. Many other pictures it has captured have featured anomalous lights too. © Provided by Independent Digital News & Media Limited The image from Curiosity’s left navcam at the same time shows the craft was attempting to take a self-portrait over the Martian terrain (Nasa) The rover has two mounted “navcams” on its mast, which act as a stereo pair of cameras – a bit like eyes. The black and white images capture panoramic 3D imagery and each has a 45-degree field of view, giving ground control crews a detailed view of the planet’s terrain. The image in question was taken by the right navcam. Unfortunately, the left camera wasn’t looking in the same direction, and photos from the same set and time show it having swivelled down to take some kind of space selfie, showing parts of the craft over rocks and dust on the ground. The appearance and disappearance of the unidentified white blob appear to have been rapid, as photos taken immediately before and after don’t show the same unidentified phenomenon. When another bright spot captured in pictures taken by the rover made headlines in 2014, people claimed it was “light from an alien hut”. But Justin Maki, the leader of the team that built and operates Curiosity’s navcams rapidly put those theories to bed. He said: “In the thousands of images we’ve received from Curiosity, we see ones with bright spots nearly every week. “These can be caused by cosmic-ray hits or sunlight glinting from rock surfaces, as the most likely explanations.” Cosmic rays are formed by highly charged atomic particles, often from outside our own solar system, which travels through space at almost the speed of light and can produce visual effects upon impact. They are more common on Mars than on Earth due to the thin atmosphere which doesn’t provide as effective a barrier to cosmic radiation. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/mysterious-glowing-light-on-mars-captured-by-nasas-curiosity-probe/ar-AADdQcF?ocid=chromentp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted June 23, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted June 23, 2019 NASA's Curiosity Rover Detects Spike in Methane on Mars Tom McKay © Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech ( (AP) A composite self-portrait of the Curiosity Mars rover, 2018. NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered “startlingly high amounts of methane in the Martian air” on Wednesday in what could potentially be a sign of life on the Red Planet, the New York Times reported on Saturday. The detection of methane would be a major discovery because, as the Times noted, it breaks down within a few centuries due to sunlight and chemical reactions—meaning it would have had to have been generated quite recently in historical terms. High levels of methane could potentially be generated underground by microbes called methanogens that survive without oxygen and produce the gas as a metabolic byproduct. Project scientist Ashwin R. Vasavada told the Curiosity science team in an email that “Given this surprising result, we’ve reorganized the weekend to run a follow-up experiment,” the Times wrote. The readings on Wednesday are over three times that of a sudden spike in 2013 that lasted several months; after first finding nothing after its touchdown in 2012, Curiosity detected approximately seven parts per billion of methane later in the year. The newest measurements are 21 parts per billion. However, it is also possible that the Curiosity rover has simply detected pockets of methane leaking from deep under the surface, the Times wrote, and the readings are only preliminary. When methane was similarly detected on the surface of Mars in 2004, scientists said that the methane could also be generated by geothermal reactions involving water and heat, though the exact mechanism by which that could occur on Mars remained an open question. (Since then, research has suggested Mars may not be as geologically inert as previously thought.) © Reuters NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover snaps a self-portrait at a site called Vera Rubin Ridge on the Martian surface in February 2018 in this image obtained on June 7, 2018. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. The Times wrote: "Curiosity scientists developed a technique that enabled the rover to detect even tinier amounts of methane with its existing tools. The gas seems to rise and fall with the red planet’s seasons. A new analysis of old Mars Express readings confirmed Curiosity’s 2013 findings. One day after Curiosity reported a spike of methane, the orbiter, passing over Curiosity’s location, also measured a spike. But the Trace Gas Orbiter, a newer European spacecraft launched in 2016 with more sensitive instruments, did not detect any methane at all in its first batch of scientific observations last year." © Getty GALE CRATER, MARS - DECEMBER 09: (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY MANDATORY CREDIT - 'NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS / HANDOUT' - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) A photo, covered by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, shows series of sedimentary deposits in the Glenelg area of Gale Crater, from a perspective in Yellowknife Bay looking toward west-northwest on December 09, 2013. (Photo by NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS / HANDOUT/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy scientist Marco Giuranna, who handles methane measurements taken by the Mars Express orbiter, said that Mars Express, Curiosity, and Trace Gas Orbiter scientists were discussing the findings but that there remains “a lot of data to be processed.” The Curiosity rover has currently been diverted from its scheduled scientific work to do a followup on the methane readings, according to the Times, with more data expected on Monday. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/nasas-curiosity-rover-detects-spike-in-methane-on-mars/ar-AADhdzA?li=BBoPWjQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted July 3, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted July 3, 2019 July 2, 2019 Mars 2020 Rover Gets a Super Instrument In this image taken June 25, 2019, engineers install the SuperCam instrument on Mars 2020's rover. This image was taken in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have installed the SuperCam Mast Unit onto the Mars 2020 rover. The instrument's camera, laser and spectrometers can identify the chemical and mineral makeup of targets as small as a pencil point from a distance of more than 20 feet (6 meters). SuperCam is a next-generation version of the ChemCam instrument operating on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. It has been developed jointly in the U.S., France and Spain. Once France delivered the last piece of flight hardware, the instrument was fully integrated on the Mars 2020 rover on June 25, 2019, in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility's High Bay 1 clean room at JPL. "SuperCam has come a long way from being a bold and ambitious idea to an actual instrument," said Sylvestre Maurice, the SuperCam deputy principal investigator at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in Toulouse, France. "While it still has a long way to go — all the way to Mars — this is a great day for not only SuperCam but the amazing consortium that put it together." Mars 2020 scientists will use SuperCam to examine Martian rocks and soil, seeking organic compounds that could be related to past life on Mars. "SuperCam's rock-zapping laser allows scientists to analyze the chemical composition of its targets," said Soren Madsen, the payload development manager at JPL. "It lets the Mars 2020 rover conduct its cutting-edge science from a distance." Also to be installed in the next few weeks is Mars 2020's Sample Caching System, which includes 17 separate motors and will collect samples of Martian rock and soil that will be left on the surface of Mars for return to Earth by a future mission. Mars 2020 will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in July of 2020. It will land at Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. NASA will use Mars 2020 and other missions, including to the Moon, to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. The agency plans to establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASA's Artemis lunar exploration plans... SuperCam is led by Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the instrument's Body Unit was developed. That part of the instrument was installed in the body of the rover in May and includes several spectrometers, control electronics and software. The Mast Unit was built with contributions from numerous academic laboratories in France, led by the French space agency Centre National d'Études Spatiales, and includes the high-powered laser, a telescope, a camera, an infrared spectrometer and a microphone. Calibration targets on the rover deck are provided by Spain's University of Valladolid. JPL is building and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover for the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/mars-2020-rover-gets-a-super-instrument Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted July 4, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted July 4, 2019 May 15, 2019 Video: Fly over Mount Sharp on Mars After spending the better part of a year exploring Mars’ Vera Rubin Ridge, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has moved to a new part of Mount Sharp. Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada gives a tour of the rover's new home in the “clay unit,” as well as other areas scientists are excited to visit. Ever wanted to visit Mars? A new animated video shows what it would be like to soar over Mount Sharp, which NASA's Curiosity rover has been climbing since 2014. This video highlights several regions on the mountain that are intriguing to Curiosity's scientists, chief among them what the science team calls the "clay-bearing unit," where Curiosity has just started analyzing rock samples. The aerial tour also shows the roving science lab's proposed path in the years to come. Intriguing targets include the rocky cliffs of the "sulfate-bearing unit," where sulfate minerals may indicate the area was drying up or becoming more acidic in ancient times, and Gediz Vallis, where a river may have carved a path through the sulfate unit. This animation shows a proposed route for NASA's Curiosity rover, which is climbing lower Mount Sharp on Mars. The annotated version of the map labels different regions that scientists working with the rover would like to explore in coming years. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/University of Arizona/JHUAPL/MSSS/USGS Astrogeology Science Center Full image and caption Each region represents a different period in the history of Mount Sharp, which rises about 3 miles (5 kilometres) from the base of Gale Crater. Curiosity's scientists want to visit these places to learn more about the history of water on the mountain, which slowly dried up as the climate changed. Understanding how these changes occurred on Mount Sharp may provide new insights into why water — one of the most critical resources for life — disappeared from Mars billions of years ago. NASA plans to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024 as a step toward human exploration of Mars. The technologies that will be developed for the Moon will make future robotic and human missions to Mars possible. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/video-fly-over-mount-sharp-on-mars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted July 21, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted July 21, 2019 July 12, 2019 HiRISE Spots Curiosity Rover at Mars' 'Woodland Bay' NASA's Curiosity Mars rover can be seen in this image taken from space on May 31, 2019, by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. In the image, Curiosity appears as a bluish speck. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech A dramatic Martian landscape can be seen in a new image taken from space, showing NASA's Curiosity rover examining a location called "Woodland Bay." It's just one of many stops the rover has made in an area referred to as the "clay-bearing unit" on the side of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain inside of Gale Crater. The image was taken on May 31, 2019, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). In the image, Curiosity appears as a bluish speck. Vera Rubin Ridge cuts across the scene north of the rover, while a dark patch of sand lies to the northeast. Look carefully at the inset image, and you can make out what it is likely Curiosity's "head," technically known as the remote sensing mast. A bright spot appears in the upper-left corner of the rover. At the time this image was acquired, the rover was facing 65 degrees counterclockwise from north, which would put the mast in about the right location to produce this bright spot. Mirror-like reflections off smooth surfaces show up as especially bright spots in HiRISE images. For the camera to see these reflections on the rover, the Sun and MRO need to be in just the right locations. This enhanced-color image of Curiosity shows three or four distinct bright spots that are likely such reflections. The University of Arizona in Tucson operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. https://mars.nasa.gov/mro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted August 13, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted August 13, 2019 Exomars: Parachute test failure threat to launch date A European-Russian project to land on Mars has been hit by another parachute failure, during a drop test in Sweden. It's the second test mishap involving the parachutes, so with launch under a year away, the Exomars project cannot afford another failure. It means the next test is critical if the mission is to avoid a delay to its targeted launch date of July 2020. The plan is to send a Russian surface platform and a European rover down to the Martian surface. The European Space Agency's (Esa) Rosalind Franklin rover will collect samples of soil with a drill and analyse them for the presence of organic material. This could provide clues to the presence of past or even current life on Mars. Rosalind Franklin Mars rover nears completion Crashed lander was ill-prepared for Mars The rover and the Russian Kazachok lander will be encapsulated in a carrier module during their six-minute journey down to the surface. During a high-altitude test on 5 August in Kiruna, Sweden, a test mass designed to represent the combined lander and rover was dropped from a stratospheric helium balloon at the height of 29km. Engineers were testing the largest of two main parachutes, measuring 35m in diameter, designed to slow the vehicle to a speed required to land safely on Mars. The European Space Agency says it's the largest ever to fly on a Mars mission. However, the test article crashed into the ground at high speed. Preliminary analysis shows that the initial steps in the parachute's deployment were carried out correctly. However, specialists spotted radial tears in the canopy of the parachute prior to its inflation. As a result, the test module descended under the drag of the pilot chute alone. The same tearing problem was seen on a previous test at the Swedish Space Corporation's Esrange site, on 28 May. The balloon drop test was designed to test the deployment of the two main parachutes and the pilot chutes designed to extract them from bags on the descent module. Changes were made to the design of the parachutes and bags following that test, but they evidently didn't solve the problem. "The test took place eight days ago so, as you can imagine, the analysis is still running. We have to have a good understanding of the root cause because we have only one more chance to fix this issue," said Nico Dettmann, human and robotic exploration development projects group leader at Esa. "We have two remaining test windows. One is in November, the other is in February next year. If those tests are okay then we are on for a flight in July. However, if one of them was to fail, we would not take the risk. Our mission success is the first priority." He told BBC News: "But at the moment we are confident we will be able to find a fix and implement it in time." If Exomars misses its launch window in 2020, the next opportunity to fly the mission will arrive in 2022, when Mars and Earth make another close approach. But Nico Dettmann emphasised that there was more involved in such a decision than favourable planetary alignment. "This doesn't happen automatically. There are a number of programmatic questions to be clarified with the main stakeholders. "The main stakeholders are not only our Russian partners but also our member states. If we have to defer it will obviously cost some more money. This is something which is not yet under discussion because we are still optimistic that we can make the 2020 launch." A low-altitude test conducted in March 2018, in which a test mass was dropped from a helicopter, had been successful. The Rosalind Franklin rover is in its final stages of completion at Airbus' facility in Stevenage, UK. Engineers have been running through the end tasks of assembly and expect to get the six-wheeled vehicle out the door before August is up. Roscosmos' Kazachok landing platform (the name translates as "little Cossack"), will carry a suite of instruments developed in countries including Belgium, Spain and Finland - in addition to Russian-built experiments. It is also nearing completion. As it currently stands, the mission should launch on a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in July next year. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49333672 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted August 13, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted August 13, 2019 Yeah that's a big blow... If they don't manage to sort it out and miss the launch window as a result, the whole mission is in danger of being canceled altogether. Still almost a year to go and they are having an expert panel next month to try and solve the chute problem. At any case, failure during the tests is much better than failing during the launch/landing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted August 13, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted August 13, 2019 3 minutes ago, nudge said: At any case, failure during the tests is much better than failing during the launch/landing. Agree with that one, better failing on Mother Earth than the launch and landing on Mars, finger's crossed it gets sorted out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted August 27, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted August 27, 2019 'Rosalind Franklin' Mars rover assembly completed Assembly of the rover Europe and Russia plan to send to the Red Planet next year is complete. Engineers at Airbus in Stevenage, UK, will display the finished vehicle on Tuesday ahead of its shipment to France for testing. Called "Rosalind Franklin" after the British DNA pioneer, the six-wheeled robot will search for life on Mars. It has a drill to burrow 2m below ground to try to detect the presence of microbes, either living or fossilised. The project is a joint endeavour of the European and Russian space agencies, with input from the Americans. Mars mission test failure threat to launch date Can this box answer the biggest question on Mars? What chance of finding life on Mars? Although the rover's build took just nine months, development work at component and instrument level has consumed more than a decade. Lift-off atop a Proton rocket is scheduled for July 2020. It is an eight-month cruise to Mars, with the landing on an ancient equatorial plain targeted for 18 March 2021. China and the US are preparing their own rovers for launch in the same departure window as Rosalind Franklin. China's vehicle, dubbed XH-1, is a slightly smaller concept. The Americans are assembling a near-copy of the one-tonne Curiosity robot that has been investigating the planet for the past seven years. Their machine is codenamed currently simply Mars 2020. What still needs to be done? The roughly 300kg Rosalind Franklin rover is being bagged and boxed, ready to be sent to an Airbus facility in Toulouse where a testing regime will ensure it can withstand the rigours of interplanetary travel. There are actually three outstanding items yet to be integrated on the robot. These are the radioisotope heaters that will keep the vehicle warm in the bitter conditions on Mars. But they are a Russian expertise and will not be inserted until just prior to blast-off. In parallel with the work on the rover, engineers in Italy at the Thales Alenia Space (TAS) company are preparing the mechanisms required to get the rover safely to, and on to, Mars. In Turin on Tuesday, the cruise spacecraft that will shepherd the robot to the Red Planet, and the descent module, which will protect it as it enters Mars' atmosphere, will have their first fit-check. Eventually, all elements of the mission will meet in Cannes, at another TAS factory, for end-to-end mating. Assuming no problems are found, everything will then be despatched to Baikonur to be placed on top of the Proton. Rosalind Franklin was "superb scientific tool", said Dr David Parker, Esa's director of human and robotic exploration. "We still have big challenges ahead but mission success is our number one priority." Why is this important for the UK? Tuesday's send-off in front of the media is a big moment for the UK, which has made the Mars robot a central feature of its space science policy. Britain has invested in the order of €290m (£260m) in the wider mission, codenamed ExoMars, that also includes a satellite positioned in orbit around the Red Planet. A further £14m (€16m) was set aside specifically for instrumentation contributions on both the rover and the satellite. UK scientists lead the PanCam (the panoramic camera system on the rover), which will take the pictures that help the robot navigate Mars' terrain and identify the rocks of greatest interest. The rover's name: Who was Rosalind Franklin? In 1952, Rosalind Franklin was at King's College London (KCL) investigating the atomic arrangement of DNA, using her skills as an X-ray crystallographer to create images for analysis. One of her team's pictures, known as Photo 51, provided the essential insights for Crick and Watson to build the first three-dimensional model of the two-stranded macromolecule. It was one of the supreme achievements of 20th-Century science, enabling researchers to finally understand how DNA stored, copied and transmitted the genetic "code of life". Crick, Watson, and KCL colleague Maurice Wilkins received the 1962 Nobel Prize for the breakthrough. Franklin's untimely death meant she could not be considered for the award (Nobels are not awarded posthumously). However, many argue that her contribution has never really been given the attention it deserves and has even been underplayed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49469225 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted October 27, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted October 27, 2019 NASA’s Curiosity rover just snapped another adorable selfie NASA scientists working with the Curiosity rover have had plenty to be excited about over the years, with discoveries coming regularly, revealing tantalizing details about the Red Planet and its history. Recently, a “special chemistry experiment’ was conducted by the robot for only the second time in its history, and the completion of that experiment was celebrated with a brand new rover selfie. The photo, which NASA posted on its website, was snapped on October 11th, and while we see it as a single image, it’s actually the result of 57 individual photos that weres stitched together after the fact. Video: NASA Rover (Intentionally) Made A Mess On Mars (GeoBeats) FULL REPORT AND VIDEO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted November 15, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted November 15, 2019 Nasa probes oxygen mystery on Mars The oxygen in Martian air is changing in a way that can't currently be explained by known chemical processes. That's the claim of scientists working on the Curiosity rover mission, who have been taking measurements of the gas. They discovered that the amount of oxygen in Martian "air" rose by 30% in spring and summer. The pattern remains a mystery, but researchers are beginning to narrow the possibilities. While the changes are most likely to be geological in nature, planetary scientists can't completely rule out an explanation involving microbial life. The results come from nearly six Earth years' (three Martian years') worth of data from the Sample Analysis at Mars (Sam) instrument, a portable chemistry lab in the belly of the Curiosity rover. The scientists measured seasonal changes in gases that fill the air directly above the surface of Gale Crater on Mars, where Curiosity landed. published their findings in the journal JGR-Planets. The Martian atmosphere is overwhelmingly composed of carbon dioxide (CO2), with smaller amounts of other gases such as molecular nitrogen (N2), argon (Ar), molecular oxygen (O2) and methane (CH4). Curiosity rover senses methane spike So where did the Mars methane go? Can this box answer the biggest question on Mars? Agencies aim to bring back rocks from Mars Nitrogen and argon followed a predictable seasonal pattern, changing according to how much CO2 was in the air (which is in turn linked to changes in air pressure). They expected oxygen to follow this pattern too, but it didn't. Oxygen rose during each northern hemisphere spring and then fell in the autumn. They considered the possibility that CO2 or water (H2O) molecules released oxygen when they broke apart in the atmosphere, leading to a short-lived rise. But it would take five times more water than there actually is to produce the additional oxygen, and CO2 breaks up too slowly to generate it over such a short time. "We know oxygen is created and destroyed on Mars through the energy provided by sunlight breaking down CO2 and H2O, both of which are observed in the atmosphere of Mars. The thing that doesn't make sense is the size of the variation - it doesn't match what we expect to see," Dr Manish Patel, from the Open University - who was not involved with the study, told BBC News. "Given that Curiosity makes measurements at the surface of Mars, it is tempting to think that this is coming from the surface - but we have no evidence for that. Geologically-speaking, it seems unlikely - I can't think of a process that would fit." Dr Timothy McConnochie, from the University of Maryland in College Park, who is one of the authors on the JGR-Planets paper, told the BBC: "You can measure the water vapour molecules in the Martian atmosphere and you can measure the change in oxygen... There just aren't enough water molecules. "Mars, in general, has a pretty small amount of water vapour, and there are several times more oxygen atoms that mysteriously appear than there is in the water vapour on the entire planet." They also considered why the oxygen dropped back to levels predicted by known chemistry in the autumn. One idea was that solar radiation could break up oxygen molecules into two atoms, which then escaped into space. But after running the numbers, scientists concluded it would take at least 10 years for the oxygen to disappear in this way. In addition, the seasonal rises aren't perfectly repeatable; the amount of oxygen varies between years. The results imply that something is producing the gas and then taking it away. Dr McConnochie thinks the evidence suggests a source of oxygen in the near-surface. "I think it points to a reservoir (of oxygen) in the soil that interchanges with the atmosphere," he said. "To exchange (with the atmosphere) fairly rapidly on a seasonal timescale it has to be close to the surface. If it's deeper, any process is going to be slower," he told BBC News. Some supporting evidence for this comes from Nasa's Viking landers, which touched down on the Red Planet in the 1970s. Results from the Viking Gas Exchange Experiment (GEX) showed that when the humidity was increased in a chamber containing a sample of Martian soil, it led to a release of oxygen. However, says Dr McConnochie, the temperature in the Viking spacecraft chamber was much warmer than it would be outside, even during spring and summer. This complicates any attempt to apply the results to the Martian environment: "It's a tantalising clue, but it's not helping us solve the problem directly," he explained. Mars does become more humid during spring and summer. Water-ice gets deposited on the poles during the winter. Then, throughout the summer, there is a release of water vapour in the polar regions. There could be a link between the humidification of the entire planet at this time and the release of oxygen. Intriguingly, the changes in oxygen are similar to those seen for methane, which increases in abundance by about 60% in summer for inexplicable reasons. It's unclear whether there's any connection though. Soil sink The methane mystery has attracted much attention over the years because most of Earth's methane is produced by living organisms. Though there are several ways that methane could be released by geological processes on Mars, the production of this gas by microbes living deep beneath the surface remains a tantalising possibility. Oxygen, too, can be produced by microorganisms. The possibility that biology is behind the changing levels of the gas in the Martian atmosphere can't be ruled out. But the scientific bar on such claims is set very high indeed. It's a very remote possibility, but we still don't understand enough about the behaviour of oxygen to use it as an indicator of life. In addition, the near sub-surface of Mars is a very difficult place to live because of the high levels of radiation that leak through the Martian atmosphere, large variations in temperature and limited availability of water. "With current instruments on Mars spacecraft, we have no way of knowing whether biology is producing the springtime rise in oxygen. Abiotic processes look very promising, so we'll need to firmly rule them out first before pursuing microbial contribution," Prof Sushil Atreya, from the University of Michigan, who is a co-author on the study, told BBC News. But he added that future missions would make interrelated measurements that could shed light on Martian habitability. Dr Patel said: "Whilst I believe biological activity in the Martian sub-surface at some point in Mars' history is a real possibility, there is no way to explain this through oxygen-producing microbes - we are missing the copious other indicators that would come along with that. "Maybe it's all hidden, but as a scientist, I can only comment on what we observe - and an extraordinary claim requires an extraordinary observation." The notion of oxygen being locked up in some chemical form in the Martian soil remains much more likely. "One phenomenon that applies to most gas molecules is they stick to surfaces... especially anything with a lot of surface area. That sticking, that adsorption, changes on the basis of temperature," Tim McConnochie explained. "Oxygen is a very active molecule, so it changes to some other form and then sticks and then changes back. The tricky thing is the forms of the oxygen we know about in the Martian soil are the ones that are pretty stable." One of these stable molecules is a compound called perchlorate, which is widespread in Martian soil. It doesn't give up its oxygen easily, but it's possible that exposure to high energy radiation - cosmic rays, for example - could make some of it break down, leaving by-products. One potential by-product is hypochlorite - found in bleach - which is less stable and thus more prone to releasing its oxygen. "I feel we're closer to an idea of how to release it from the soil than we are to an idea of how to sequester it back into the soil," said Tim McConnochie. But he explained: "Presumably there is some cycle that sequesters it." Prof Atreya explained: "There are at least three potential abiotic reservoirs of oxygen in the surface/subsurface of Mars - oxidant, in the form of perchlorates; oxidant in the form of hydrogen peroxide; and oxidised rocks or hydrated minerals. "Water-rock reactions in the past, or even today if liquid water exists beneath the surface or as brines, were most likely responsible for the third reservoir." Dr Patel believes it may not be possible to apply the result from Gale Crater to the whole of Mars. "This has been highlighted by the recent methane measurement, where Curiosity measured a huge amount of methane, but it wasn't detectable by the NOMAD and ACS instruments on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which makes measurements of these things at a global scale and at higher sensitivity." The authors of the study in JGR-Planets say they are throwing out the problem to scientists in the field, in a bid to harness expertise from across the community. We've learned huge amounts about the Red Planet over the last few decades, but it's clear from this there are still lots of puzzles to crack. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50419917 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted December 25, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted December 25, 2019 (edited) New engine tech that could get us to Mars faster If we're ever to make regular journeys from Earth to Mars and other far-off destinations, we might need new kinds of engines. Engineers are exploring revolutionary new technologies that could help us traverse the Solar System in much less time. Because of the orbital paths Mars and Earth take around the Sun, the distance between them varies between 54.6 million km and 401 million km. Missions to Mars are launched when the two planets make a close approach. During one of these approaches, it takes nine months to get to Mars using chemical rockets - the form of propulsion in widespread use. That's a long time for anyone to spend travelling. But engineers, including those at the US space agency (Nasa), are working with industrial partners to develop faster methods of getting us there. So what are some of the most promising technologies? Solar electric propulsion Solar electric propulsion could be used to send cargo to Mars ahead of a human mission. That would ensure equipment and supplies were ready and waiting for astronauts when they arrived using chemical rockets, according to Dr Jeff Sheehy, chief engineer in Nasa's Space Technology Mission Directorate. With solar electric propulsion, large solar arrays unfurl to capture solar energy, which is then converted to electricity. This powers something called a Hall thruster. There are pros and cons. On the upside, you need far less fuel, so the spacecraft becomes lighter. But it also takes your vehicle longer to get there. "In order to carry the payload we'd need to, it would probably take between two to 2.5 years to get us there," Dr Sheehy tells the BBC. FULL REPORT Edited December 25, 2019 by CaaC (John) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted December 25, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted December 25, 2019 As much as I like the innovative nature of solar and electric ion propulsion, both have by far more limitations (at current) than nuclear thermal propulsion and I hope governments finally start pumping serious money into nuclear technology again (and not just limited to space). We entertained the idea of nuclear thermal rockets and even experimented with it in the 60s already; they were proven to work as expected back then already but then got shafted due to change in policies. With advances in technology in the last 50 years this should be the right time and the next logical step in spaceflight if we want to make manned expeditions to other planets a feasible option in the near future. A few times better efficiency, significantly shorter transit time, more flexible launch windows - imagine being able to get to Mars in 3-4 months instead of 9 months? And maybe we can move from fission to fusion and derivative technologies in a few decades after that (hopefully even earlier); that would start a new age of opportunities in space exploration. Back to more realistic things, 2020 is promising to be very exciting in terms of Mars exploration. NASA, ESA/Roscosmos and China are launching their rovers during the launch window next summer. Given that the launches are successful, we can expect the landing in early 2021 (February - March). However the European one seems to be racing against time and could be delayed until 2022. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panflute Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 Pipe dream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted December 25, 2019 Subscriber Share Posted December 25, 2019 2 minutes ago, Panflute said: Pipe dream. Which part? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted December 26, 2019 Author Subscriber Share Posted December 26, 2019 15 hours ago, Panflute said: Pipe dream. They said landing on the moon in the '60s was not possible but we all know what happened in 1969. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/history/timeline/60s-decade.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panflute Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 On 25/12/2019 at 21:07, nudge said: Which part? No idea, I was drunk. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted February 13, 2020 Author Subscriber Share Posted February 13, 2020 'Rosalind Franklin': Europe's Mars rover heads for fit checks Europe's Mars rover, "Rosalind Franklin", is on the move again. The robot has just completed environmental testing at the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France, and is now going east to another aerospace facility run by Thales Alenia Space. It's on the French Riviera, in Cannes, that the vehicle will join the hardware that will carry it to the Red Planet and put it safely on the surface. Once this integration is complete, the rover can then go for launch. Rosalind Franklin is due to leave Earth in July or August this year on a Proton rocket, arriving at Mars in March 2021. The six-wheeled robot is equipped with scientific instruments designed to look for signs of life. The project is a joint venture of the European Space Agency (Esa) and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos. FULL REPORT 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted February 19, 2020 Author Subscriber Share Posted February 19, 2020 Nasa's 2020 rover: Can we finally answer the big question about Mars? Exactly a year from now, a capsule will come hurtling through the atmosphere of Mars with the Americans' next big rover. If it survives the "seven minutes of terror" that describe its descent to the surface, the new robot promises a very different mission to all those that have gone before it. Because although Mars 2020 (a new name is coming) looks like a simple copy of the Curiosity vehicle of 2012, its goals take a decisive turn towards answering the most fundamental of questions: is there - or has there ever been - life on the Red Planet? Recent investigations have concentrated on characterising the "habitability" of Mars. That's to say, these prior missions asked only if past conditions were conducive to biology. A less direct approach. Mars 2020, on the other hand, will be engaged in an explicit hunt for life's traces. FULL REPORT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted March 6, 2020 Author Subscriber Share Posted March 6, 2020 Nasa's next Mars rover will be called Perseverance The American space agency has a new name for the rover it will be sent to the Red Planet this summer. To date, the project has been known only by its code name - Mars 2020. From now on, it will be referred to as the Perseverance rover. The name came out of a schools competition that drew 28,000 entries. The Perseverance rover will begin the process of trying to bring rocks back to Earth for study. It will trundle through an equatorial crater, looking for the best samples it can cache for retrieval by a later mission. Scientists think this will be the best approach to establishing whether or not life has ever existed on Mars. FULL REPORT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted March 13, 2020 Author Subscriber Share Posted March 13, 2020 ExoMars Rosalind Franklin: Rover mission delayed until 2022 Europe and Russia have decided to postpone their Mars rover mission. The ExoMars "Rosalind Franklin" vehicle was due to launch to the Red Planet in July/August but engineers aren't able to get the vehicle ready in time. Because an Earth-Mars journey is only attempted when the planets are favourably aligned, the robot's next opportunity won't occur until 2022. The Russian and European space agencies announced the delay on their websites on Thursday. The set-back - the latest in a long series for this project - has been signposted for some weeks. All the hardware is built, but there remains an intimidating list of outstanding checks that must be completed before the mission can be declared flight-ready. Chief among the obstacles in the timeline are some underperforming electronics boxes in the Russian descent and lander mechanisms that would put the rover safely on the ground; and also the overall flight software from Europe. Full testing required to achieve confidence in these items necessarily pushes the project beyond July/August. Matters have been further complicated in recent days by the international coronavirus crisis which has started to disrupt the engineering effort. FULL REPORT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted May 19, 2020 Author Subscriber Share Posted May 19, 2020 Mars: Mudflows on Red Planet behave like 'boiling toothpaste' Scientists have made a surprising discovery about Mars by playing with muck in the laboratory. An international team of researchers wondered how volcanoes that spew mud instead of molten rock might look on the Red Planet compared with their counterparts here on Earth. In chamber experiments, simulated Martian mudflows were seen to behave a bit like boiling toothpaste. Under certain conditions, the fluid even began to bounce. The mucky gunge resembled a certain type of lava referred to as "pahoehoe", which is observed at Hawaii's famous Kīlauea volcano. The research results could now complicate some investigations at the Red Planet, believes study lead Dr Petr Brož from the Czech Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geophysics. "You'll look at some features [from space] and you won't know for sure whether they are the result of lava flows or mudflows. "Without a geologist on the ground to hit them with a hammer, it will be hard to tell," he told BBC News. For a long time, Dr Brož had a sceptical view about mud volcanoes on Mars. The phenomena are well known here on Earth, but he'd actually spent several years trying to disprove an interpretation that large numbers of conical forms on the Red Planet might also be the same thing. Eventually, he came around to the idea, and that led him to wonder how mud - if it really does spew from the ground on Mars - would behave in the extreme cold and low-pressure conditions that persist there. This took him to Dr Manish Patel and his team at the UK's Open University. They have a special chamber that can recreate the Martian environment. It's the kind of set-up in which equipment destined to go on a space agency rover would be tested. And although ordinarily every effort would be made to keep the chamber spotlessly clean, the researchers soon found themselves tipping experimental muddy fluids down a sandy slope. Under "Earth conditions", these muddy mixes behave as you would expect: they're smooth like gravy poured on to a dinner plate. But under "Martian conditions", the mud progresses via a series of ropy and jagged lobes. It all comes down to how the low pressure - 150 times less than the pressure of Earth's atmosphere - makes water rapidly evaporate, boil and ultimately freeze. "The skin on the fluid freezes, but this flow is thick enough that the inside remains fluid," explained Dr Patel. "So the skin will stop the flow for a bit, but then the momentum from the fluid inside breaks through at weak points in the skin, and the flow propagates forward. It's just like pahoehoe, except that's molten rock. But again, it's a cooling skin that forms before hot material bursts through." And although ordinarily every effort would be made to keep the chamber spotlessly clean, the researchers soon found themselves tipping experimental muddy fluids down a sandy slope. Under "Earth conditions", these muddy mixes behave as you would expect: they're smooth like gravy poured on to a dinner plate. But under "Martian conditions", the mud progresses via a series of ropy and jagged lobes. It all comes down to how the low pressure - 150 times less than the pressure of Earth's atmosphere - makes water rapidly evaporate, boil and ultimately freeze. "The skin on the fluid freezes, but this flow is thick enough that the inside remains fluid," explained Dr Patel. "So the skin will stop the flow for a bit, but then the momentum from the fluid inside breaks through at weak points in the skin, and the flow propagates forward. It's just like pahoehoe, except that's molten rock. But again, it's a cooling skin that forms before hot material bursts through." The team reports its initial experiments in a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience. Not captured in this publication are subsequent experiments in which the flows were repeated for a "hot day" on Mars. There are places where it can get as high as 20C for short periods. In this scenario, the mud boiled vigorously in the low pressure; "it was jumping over the surface as if levitating," said Dr Brož. The team's work should be a reminder to scientists that when they look at planetary bodies, physical processes can sometimes produce unexpected outcomes, he added. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52713131 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted June 9, 2020 Author Subscriber Share Posted June 9, 2020 UAE Mars mission: Hope project a 'real step forward for exploration' The first Arab space mission to Mars is preparing to lift off within weeks. Fuelling is due to begin next week. It will take seven months to travel the 493 million km (308 million miles) to reach Mars and begin its orbit, sending back ground-breaking new data about its climate and atmosphere. The probe will remain orbiting Mars for an entire Martian year, 687 days, to gather sufficient data. A single orbit around Mars will take the probe 55 hours. In a briefing on Monday, programme director Sarah Al-Amiri said the project should be a major incentive for young Arab scientists to embark on a career in space engineering. The United Arab Emirates reaches for the Red Planet Named Amal, meaning Hope, the robotic craft is due to lift off from a remote Japanese island, Tanegashima, during a narrow launch window on 14 July. Powered by a Japanese rocket, it will be carrying three types of sensors for measuring the complex make-up of Mars's atmosphere. These include a high-resolution multiband camera for measuring the planet's dust and ozone. The second will be an infrared spectrometer for measuring both the upper and lower atmosphere and developed by Arizona State University, one of the project's three US partner universities. The third sensor will be an ultraviolet spectrometer for measuring oxygen and hydrogen levels. Ms Al-Amiri said one of the focuses of the research will be into how these two elements, essential for water, are escaping from the planet. Sir Ian Blatchford, director of the UK's Science Museum Group, pointed out that "a lot of missions have focused on geology, but this will provide the most comprehensive, holistic picture of Mars's climate". The UAE has a track record of space travel. It has sent rockets into the Earth's orbit and one of its astronauts to the International Space Station. Hazzaa Al Mansoori to become first Emirati astronaut The first Arab astronaut to go into space was Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan Bin Salman Al-Saud, who flew on the US space shuttle in 1985. But this is of a totally different magnitude. The spacecraft was built in the UAE and shipped to Japan, where all its engineers immediately had to go into quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic, threatening to delay the launch. Monica Grady, professor of planetary and space science at Britain's Open University, believes this Mars mission marks a major change in an industry previously dominated by the major powers of the world. "It's a real step forwards for Mars exploration because it shows that other nations - rather than the European Space Agency and Nasa can actually go there - well we hope it will get there. Mars has a very long history of mission failures," she said. UAE project leaders working on the mission have reminded the world that, eight centuries ago, Arab inventors and intellectuals were right at the forefront of scientific discovery. So today, the ruler of Dubai, one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE, is hoping this ambitious project will rekindle a sense of cultural pride and help the region to diversify away from its dependence on the oil industry. Provided it does reach Mars, Hope will arrive at the red planet in the same year that the UAE celebrates 50 years since its founding as a nation in 1971. Certainly, no one could accuse the country of lacking in ambition. It has vowed to build a human settlement on Mars by the year 2117. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-52973849 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted June 9, 2020 Subscriber Share Posted June 9, 2020 That's a big achievement and a huge milestone in the Arab world, will be following this with interest. Good luck, UAE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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