[Space] NASA - Mars Exploration Rover MER-B "Opportunity" - Update Thread

[GioFX]

SDC:

February 26, 2004
03:25 pm ET

Minor Brain Surgery Scheduled for Rovers

Rover team members are testing new flight software to make the robots more efficient, Mission Manager Jennifer Trosper said during a press conference today. The "robustness changes," due to upload no earlier than the end of this month, will speed up the rovers' autonomous navigation programs so they can drive farther each day.

One included software change will allow engineers to turn off a troubled heater on Opportunity that has been draining its battery. Meanwhile, as the amount of sunlight dwindles each day with winter approaching at the Opportunity landing site, less power is produced by the rover's solar panels. Engineers have instituted a "receive only" mode for communications to reduce power consumption.

Opportunity continues analyzing rocks in an outcropping in the depression where it landed, along with imaging and studying soil up close. The rover is not expected to climb out of the shallow depression for up to two weeks.

Spirit in the Debris Field

The Spirit rover is well into a field of rocky debris spat out from a crater carved long ago by a space rock. The planned software changes should assist the rover to navigate the increasingly crowded ground as it approaches the Bonneville crater.

Spirit has just under a football field of distance left to traverse and is gathering data on soil and rocks along the way. The rim of Bonneville is apparently in sight, and the rover is expected to reach it in about two weeks. Researchers would like to drive Spirit into the crater.

Ray Arvidson, deputy principal investigator from Washington University in St. Louis, said scientists are working to get stereo images of the crater from NASA's orbiting Mars Global Surveyor. Until then, they don't know if the slopes are navigable. Bonneville is about 490 feet (150 meters) across and 50 feet (15 meters) deep.

Robert Roy Britt

[GioFX]

Opportunity Photographs Sunset on Mars

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 04:45 pm ET
26 February 2004

NASA's Opportunity robot sent back the first image of a Martian sunset taken by the twin-rover mission. It reveals a dusty scene that one scientist likened to a bad smog day in a big city.

"It's pretty cool," said Jim Bell, a Cornell University astronomer and lead scientist for the panoramic camera, or Pancam that took the images.

A series of three pictures was made at about 5:30 p.m. Mars time as the Sun headed toward the horizon near the equator at Meridiani Planum. The sky, Bell said, is about twice as dusty as what was photographed at the Mars Pathfinder landing site in 1997.

"As the Sun sets it dims substantially," Bell said. "Those of you who live in Los Angeles will be very familiar with this effect."

Bell unveiled the images at a press conference at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

The sky color is about what an astronaut would realistically see from the surface. A blue halo surrounds the Sun, because dust scatters blue light from the Sun in a forward direction more efficiently than red light, Bell said.

More sunset images will be produced and compared with similar photographs made by the Viking and Pathfinder landers, so researches can learn more about variations in atmospheric dust with the seasons.



Quicktime clip

[eriol]

giofx non ho voglia di tradurre tutte le pagine dall' inglese.
mi puoi dire se hanno scoperto che materiale è quello chiaro sotto la superficie di polvere rossa di marte?

ps: il tramonto è troppo fico!

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da eriol
giofx non ho voglia di tradurre tutte le pagine dall' inglese.
mi puoi dire se hanno scoperto che materiale è quello chiaro sotto la superficie di polvere rossa di marte?

è di natura vulcanica, ma è ancora da capire l'esatta orginer delle sferette viste al microscopio...

[eriol]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX
è di natura vulcanica, ma è ancora da capire l'esatta orginer delle sferette viste al microscopio...

grazie.
sembra quasi argilla.
magari le sferette sono cristallizzazioni dovute alla temperatura....

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da eriol
grazie.
sembra quasi argilla.
magari le sferette sono cristallizzazioni dovute alla temperatura....

a quanto so hanno escluso l'acqua nella creazione dei sedimenti.

[eriol]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX
a quanto so hanno escluso l'acqua nella creazione dei sedimenti.

no scusa spiegami bene...
intendi dire che l' acqua non c' entra nella formazione dello strato chiaro e delle sferette giusto?
cmq non hanno ritrattato il fatto che l' acqua su marte ci sia no?

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da eriol
no scusa spiegami bene...
intendi dire che l' acqua non c' entra nella formazione dello strato chiaro e delle sferette giusto?

esatto...

cmq non hanno ritrattato il fatto che l' acqua su marte ci sia no?

ma figurati...

l'acqua esiste sicuramente ai poli, quasi sicuramente in quantità sotto la superficie (è quello che dovrà confermare o meno Mars Express).

[gpc]

L'angolo di gpc: informazione di qualità da marte

The Sun Sets on Mars (Still)



On Sol 20 of its journey, Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity woke up around 5:30 p.m. in the martian afternoon to watch the sunset. This is a still image from the rover's panoramic camera showing Sun just over the horizon. The rover is looking to the southwest. This image is only approximate true color, using infrared, green and violet filters, rather than the human red-green-blue, so that the maximum panoramic camera wavelength range could be covered by the observations, enhancing the scientific value of the measurements.

The rapid dimming of the Sun near the horizon is due to the dust in the sky. There is nearly twice as much dust as there was when the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, which landed on Mars in 1997, imaged the sunset. This causes the Sun to be many times fainter. The sky above the Sun has the same blue tint observed by Pathfinder and also by Viking, which landed on Mars in 1976. This is because dust in the martian atmosphere scatters blue light forward toward the observer much more efficiently than it scatters red light forward. Therefore, a "halo" of blueish sky color is always observed close to the Sun. Only half of this halo can be seen in this image because the other half is below the horizon.

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Opportunity Landing Spot Panorama (3-D Model)



Link alle immagini grandi:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...B033R1_br2.jpg
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...viz-B033R1.jpg

The rocky outcrop traversed by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is visible in this three-dimensional model of the rover's landing site. Opportunity has acquired close-up images along the way, and scientists are using the rover's instruments to closely examine portions of interest. The white fragments that look crumpled near the center of the image are portions of the airbags. Distant scenery is displayed on a spherical backdrop or "billboard" for context. Artifacts near the top rim of the crater are a result of the transition between the three-dimensional model and the billboard. Portions of the terrain model lacking sufficient data appear as blank spaces or gaps, colored reddish-brown for better viewing. This image was generated using special software from NASA's Ames Research Center and a mosaic of images taken by the rover's panoramic camera.

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Opportunity Landing Spot Panorama Close-Up (3-D Model)



Link alle immagini grandi:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...viz-B033R1.jpg

The rocky outcrop traversed by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is visible in this zoomed-in portion of a three-dimensional model of the rover's landing site. Opportunity has acquired close-up images along the way, and scientists are using the rover's instruments to closely examine portions of interest. The white fragments that look crumpled near the center of the image are portions of the airbags. Distant scenery is displayed on a spherical backdrop or "billboard" for context. Artifacts near the top rim of the crater are a result of the transition between the three-dimensional model and the billboard. Portions of the terrain model lacking sufficient data appear as blank spaces or gaps, colored reddish-brown for better viewing. This image was generated using special software from NASA's Ames Research Center and a mosaic of images taken by the rover's panoramic camera.

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Charlie Flats and El Capitan



Link alle immagini grandi:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...B033R1_br2.jpg
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...cap-B033R1.jpg

This mosaic image from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity’s panoramic camera shows two regions of the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars. The region on the left, dubbed “Charlie Flats," was imaged because it contains an assortment of small grains, pebbles and spherules, as well as both dark and light soil deposits. The region on the right is where Opportunity is parked and is doing work as of Sol 33 of its mission (February 26, 2004).

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Charlie Flats



Link alle immagini grandi:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...ats-B033R1.jpg

This image from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity’s panoramic camera shows a region of the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars, dubbed “Charlie Flats.” This region is a rich science target for Opportunity because it contains a diverse assortment of small grains, pebbles and spherules, as well as both dark and light soil deposits. The area seen here measures approximately 0.6 meters (2 feet) across. The smallest grains visible in this image are only a few millimeters in size. The approximate true color image was acquired on Sol 20 of Opportunity's mission with panoramic camera filters red, green and blue.

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Charlie Flats Spectra



Link alle immagini grandi:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...B033R1_br2.jpg
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...tra-B033R1.jpg

The chart on the right shows examples of spectra, or light wave patterns, extracted from the region of the Meridiani Planum rock outcrop dubbed “Charlie Flats,” a rich science target for the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The spectra were extracted from the similarly colored regions in the image on the left, taken by the rover’s panoramic camera. The green circle identifies a bright, dust-like soil deposit. The red circle identifies a dark soil region. The yellow identifies a small, angular rock chip with a strong near-infrared band. The pink identifies a sphere-shaped pebble with a different strong near-infrared band. The cyan circle shows a dark, grayish pebble.

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El Capitan



Link alle immagini grandi:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...B033R1_br2.jpg
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...lse-B033R1.jpg

This image from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity’s panoramic camera shows the "El Capitan" region of the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars. On the bottom is the view obtained from the “Alpha” waypoint station on Sol 18 of Opportunity’s mission. On the top is the view obtained after the rover had moved to “Bravo” waypoint station on Sol 19. This image is a false-color composite using the red, green and blue filters.

[gpc]

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: New Communications Plan - sol 32, Feb 26, 2004



On sol 32, which ended at 4:15 a.m. Thursday, February 26, Opportunity awoke to "Let It Be" by the Beatles. Opportunity's day was focused on getting a second Mössbauer instrument measurement of the hole created by the rock abrasion tool at the "McKittrick" rock site. The Mössbauer can detect spectral signatures of different iron-bearing minerals.

The data from the first Mössbauer spectrum of "McKittrick" was received on Earth Wednesday afternoon. The alpha proton X-ray spectrometer data from yestersol at this target was retransmitted to Earth again Wednesday to get missing packets of data that were not received during the first data communications relay. Opportunity also snapped pictures of the rock areas named "Maya" and "Jericho" with the panoramic camera and took miniature thermal emission spectrometer measurements of the sky and "El Capitan" throughout the sol.

The amount of power Opportunity is able to generate continues to dwindle due to the decreasing amount of sunlight (energy) reaching the solar panels during the martian seasonal transition to winter. Because of this, the engineers are adjusting the rover's daily communications activities. To minimize power use for communications sessions, engineers began a new "receive only" morning direct-from-earth communication relay. This lower-power communication mode was successful. Opportunity will continue with this approach to maximize the available power for driving and science activities as Mars moves farther away from Earth and the Sun in its elliptical orbit.

In conjunction with the morning communications session change, engineers added a second afternoon Mars Odyssey orbiter relay pass, which uses less power in transmitting data volume than direct-to-Earth communication. This additional Odyssey pass more than compensated for the elimination of the morning direct-to-Earth downlink. Engineers also continue to effectively use rover "naps" throughout the day to maximize energy savings.

The plan for sol 33, which ends at 4:55 a.m. Friday, February 27, is to take a very short trip (10 to 20 centimeters or 4 to 8 inches) towards the next rock abrasion tool target site, "Guadalupe."

[gpc]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...ce_040227.html

Water on Mars? Flood of Data, Trickle of Answers



By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 07:00 am ET
27 February 2004


Nobody on the Mars rover science teams expected quick answers. But now the reality of the task is clear. Pinning down whether there was ever standing or running water at the landing sites of the twin Mars rovers is going to take some time. And the eager public will just have to wait, mission scientists made clear yesterday.

But an answer -- one way or the other -- could well be forthcoming.

What had at first been a stream of intriguing science pictures and data from the two-rover mission has dwindled to a trickle the past week or so. Pictures of rocks begin to look like other pictures of rocks. Were those Spirit's tracks in the soil or Opportunity's?


While the data may seem less interesting now, the spigot is wide open and the scientists are no less intrigued.

More than 11,000 images and 9.1 gigabytes of information have been returned by the two rovers, Cornell University astronomer Jim Bell said at a NASA press conference yesterday.

On several fronts, Bell and his colleagues are using the rovers' many instruments to explore intriguing hints of water. But now with press conferences reduced from one a day to one per week, it's clear the gee-whiz factor has given way to painstaking scientific investigation.

Spheres remain a mystery

No more information was provided yesterday on spherical grains in the soil and rock of Mars that have puzzled geologists since early February.

The spherules, as they are called, might have formed in the presence of water, but they could also be the result of a volcanic eruption or meteor impact. This week a couple of spheres were sliced in half and photographed, but they've not been fully analyzed.

More detailed images of soil have revealed a wider variety of grain sizes than had previously been noted. Bell said on one small scene scientist have noted "a fascinating array" of shapes, colors and probably compositions. Some of the larger, angular grains, a few millimeters in size, show preliminary signs of carrying hematite. This mineral often -- but not always -- forms in the presence of water.

Opportunity's Meridiani Planum landing site was chosen because an orbiting spacecraft had seen strong signs of the hematite. Ground observations have confirmed there is some. Now scientists hope to learn which flavor of hematite they're dealing with.

In other work, Opportunity has off-and-on for several days been grinding into rocks that are layered and might have formed in the presence of water. Microscopic images and other observations are being gathered from the drill sites.

As with all the other possible hints of water, though, scientists aren't sure what process caused the layering. Water would do it, but wind and volcanism could also do the trick.

Ray Arvidson, deputy principal investigator from Washington University in St. Louis, said further investigation of the minerals and chemicals in the rocks are needed to put together a complete story. He hinted that the chapters were being written by the data that's flowing back daily.

"That story is right around the corner," he said.

Entrenched

Opportunity's twin, Spirit, is working the massive Gusev impact crater on the other side of Mars. It is currently investigating a rock field that was once kicked up by nearby, more modest meteor impact -- a crater within a crater. Spirit will spend the next couple of weeks trudging toward the smaller crater, called Bonneville, while examining interesting rocks and soil patches all the way.

Don't expect any grand conclusions until all that data has been analyzed. And, quite possibly, what will be learned might involve just rocks, not water.

Gusev itself might once have been full of water, like Crater Lake in Oregon. But so far, it has not revealed any solid evidence to support that conjecture.

Both rovers recently dug trenches that revealed clumpy material that might involve very small amounts of water vapor from the atmosphere combining with salt in the soil to form a sticky brine. A full analysis of the trench data -- gathered by multiple instruments -- is underway.

Most scientists are convinced Mars was once warmer and wetter. The questions nowadays involve where the water was, where it went, and whether it was around long enough to foster life.

The rovers were each designed to determine if their landing sites once held standing or running water, where life might have percolated. Arvidson was asked if he's confident the data would eventually show that to be the case. He stressed that "we're in the middle of our job" and there was no way to tell yet which way it would go, wet or dry.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we'll be able to say a lot about the role of water -- or not -- at these two sites," Arvidson said. "I'm pretty confident that we're getting the data we need to answer the questions."

[GioFX]

NASA to Announce 'Significant Findings' of Water on Mars Tuesday

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 03:30 pm ET
01 March 2004

NASA will hold a press conference Tuesday to announce "significant findings" about water on Mars based on evidence from its Opportunity Mars rover.

"It's going to be the most significant science results that we've had from the rovers, and it's bearing on their primary mission," NASA spokesperson Don Savage told SPACE.com. That mission is to find signs of water that might support life.

Will the announcement change how we think about Mars?

"Anything of a significant nature has that possibility," Savage said. "Sure."

If there is liquid water presently at the surface of Mars, as several lines of rover evidence have hinted, then most scientists agree there is the possibility that life could exist. Water does not mean life, but it is the key ingredient that makes life possible.

Few scientists doubt that Mars was once warmer and wet. And tremendous amounts of water are locked up as ice in the polar regions. The main question is whether any of that water remains at the surface in liquid form. Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, are exploring opposite sides of the planet near the equator.

A SPACE.com story Sunday revealed a "palpable buzz" among rover scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, from where the rover mission is run. Sources indicated that a coherent picture of the geology of the rover landing sites was emerging.

Speculation that the announcement might involve any discussion of biology has not been confirmed.

Until now, all rover science news has been revealed at press conferences held in Pasadena. A routine had been established and the next press conference was slated for later this week. Sources indicated a major press conference might come next week. But NASA rushed to set up Tuesday's press conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

"We didn't want to sit on this information for a long time," Savage said, adding that the scientists felt they "had gotten the information they needed."

The panel assembled for the press conference includes top brass and a cast of important science characters.

Speakers will include Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for NASA's Office of Space Science, Jim Garvin, Lead Scientist for Mars and the Moon, Cornell University's Steve Squyres, the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Principal Investigator, and MIT geologist John Grotzinger, among others.

The press conference will take place at 2 p.m. ET and will be carried live on NASA television.

Opportunity has been investigating the soil and a rock outcropping in a shallow depression at its Meridiani Planum landing site, which may once have been the site of a giant lake or ocean. The rocks are layered and may have formed as sediments settled in the bottom of an ancient lake or ocean, or as part of a river bed, but that is only one hypothesis.

Both Opportunity and Spirit have found sticky, clumping soil that scientists already said could contain water. Only small amounts of water, perhaps sucked from the atmosphere, would be needed to mix with salt in the soil and create a brine, which could exist in liquid form even in the frigid environment of Mars.

Opportunity also appears to sit amid a field of hematite, a mineral that typically -- but not always -- forms in the presence of water. The rover has also found countless BB-sized beads. The spherical objects might have formed in a water environment, the scientists have said before, but there could also be other explanations, including volcanism and meteor impacts.

The rovers have sent back a mountain of other data on rocks and soil that, as of late last week, had not been fully analyzed or in some cases had not yet been released.

The rovers landed in January and are schedule to explore Mars for at least three months. They could last into summer, however. The mission price tag is $820 million.

[GioFX]

Major news from Mars rover to be announced Tuesday

BY SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: March 1, 2004

Tuesday promises to be a pivotal day in Mars exploration as NASA announces "significant findings" from the Opportunity rover.

The $400 million craft landed in the Meridiani Planum equatorial region of Mars on January 25, scoring an interplanetary hole in one by coming to rest inside a bowl-shaped crater. Exposed bedrock in the crater walls has been the subject of examination by Opportunity, in addition to the soil, odd spherical objects and the presence of a mineral, called gray hematite, that typically forms in water.

Opportunity and its twin rover Spirit working on the opposite side of Mars were dispatched as robotic geologists to find evidence that the planet once had water. If water existed on Mars, the planet may have supported life.

NASA has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) from agency headquarters in Washington. The event will be carried live on NASA Television.

Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science, will make opening remarks. The news conference panelists include:

• Professor Steve Squyres, Mars Exploration Rover principal investigator from Cornell University
  
• Professor John Grotzinger, rover science team geologist from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  
• Benton C. Clark III, rover science team member and chief scientist of space exploration at Lockheed Martin Space Systems
  
• Joy Crisp, rover project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  
• Jim Garvin, NASA's lead scientist for Mars and the Moon

[scozia666]

Spendiamo qlc parola in italiano invece di copiare e incollare in inglese?

Tnx!

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da scozia666
Spendiamo qlc parola in italiano invece di copiare e incollare in inglese?

basta sapere 2 acche di inglese, non ti aspetterai che traduco tutto...

[GioFX]

NASA - News Briefing (Interactive media briefing):

March 2, 2004 - 2:00 PM EST (20.00 ora italiana).

NASA TV (Real Media)

NASA TV - Audio only (Real Media)

NASA TV (Windows Media)

[Norbrek™]

Alle 8 ci sarà un comunicato stampa, sembra che spirit abbia trovato la vita.....

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da Norbrek™
Alle 8 ci sarà un comunicato stampa, sembra che spirit abbia trovato la vita.....

A parte che si tratta di Opportunity, dubito che si tratti di vita, se non passata. Più probabile di acqua presente.

[Norbrek™]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX
A parte che si tratta di Opportunity, dubito che si tratti di vita, se non passata. Più probabile di acqua presente.

Ma se l'ho visto adesso al telegiornale?
Loro hanno detto spirit e hanno parlato di vita e non acqua, prelevando un campione da una roccia, hanno fatto vedere l'animazione e alcuni ingrandimenti....

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da Norbrek™
Ma se l'ho visto adesso al telegiornale?
Loro hanno detto spirit e hanno parlato di vita e non acqua, prelevando un campione da una roccia, hanno fatto vedere l'animazione e alcuni ingrandimenti....

Si, la conferenza stampa NASA è tra mezz'ora e al TG (già me lo immagino dicendo quante cazzate) hanno già tutto...

cmq si tratta di Opportunity, non Spirit!