Earthshaking News from Mars

November 21, 2012 by

NASA’s Mars Rover, Curiosity, has been collecting soil samples on Mars. NASA is preparing an announcement about the results of the sample analysis that will rock both humanity and the science world on Earth. What is it, exactly? For the time being, no one is saying.

Mars Science Laboratory scientists, investigators, and project participants are not disclosing certain results yet. Not until routine established processes and procedures to vet the analysis are completed, will the release of the information then be authorized.

The Curiosity rover collects samples, then provides this input to SAM, an instrument on Curiosity. SAM is a miniature remote chemistry lab. Input Martian soil, rocks, or even the Mars atmosphere (air) to SAM, and it will tell you what the sample is made of. “We’re getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting,” quoting John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The science team at JPL receives SAM’s results and does further analysis. “This data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good,” he says. Not so fast say the scientists. Gas from Florida might have been stowed with Curiosity on the trip from Earth, and would corrupt the results.

During the interim wait, let’s speculate the results: the presence of methane gas indicates there was (or is?) life on Mars. What does life on Mars mean to us on Earth? Will we come to understand that there are pockets of life throughout the universe and how will it effect our cosmic perspective?

We can only benefit from better science. Perhaps understanding Mars will help lay to rest doubts about science on Earth, whether that be questions about evolution, environment, or climate change. The good news from Mars will even lift the stock market, astronomically, for at least a day or two before it comes back down to Earth.

NASA Curiosity discovers evidence of water on Mars

September 29, 2012 by

NASA/JPL: Comparing Mars photos (left) with rock outcrops from ancient stream beds on Earth (right)

NASA’s Curiosity rover mission has found evidence a stream once ran vigorously across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. Scientists have long anticipated the possibility of water on Mars, and it was hoped that Curiosity would help to prove this. This evidence — images of rocks containing ancient stream bed gravels — is an historical scientific watershed.

NEW WORD: SOL

Mars Curiosity has entered a new word into our everyday vocabulary, “Sol”. Sol is a Martian Day. Just as the Earth day is the time it takes for one complete rotation of the Earth on its axis – 24 hours, a “Sol” is the time that Mars takes to rotate once, which is approximately 40 minutes longer than Earth’s day.

Curiosity landed on Mars on August 5, 2012. On Sol 26 and Sol 27, Curiosity sent from Mars a photo of a conglomerate rock sitting on the surface. The finding site lies between the north rim of Gale Crater and the base of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside the crater. The evidence of water comes from examining two outcrops, called “Hottah” and “Link.”

SCIENTIST SAYS “A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS”

Scientists are studying the images of stones, which could only be formed by the presence of water. This is a conglomerate rock made up of stream bed stones that are cemented together. The sizes and shapes of stones offer clues to the speed and distance of a long-ago stream’s flow.

“From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep,” said Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley. “Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we’re actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of stream bed material to direct observation of it.”

In the photo, on the right, is an image of a rock 100 million years old found in central Utah. It was formed by river sediments, and the pebbly texture indicates that sand and gravel cemented into a larger conglomerate rock. Compare that to the similarities in the rock from Mars on the left of the photo. Other imagery sitting uphill from the finds shows an alluvial fan of material washed down from the rim, streaked by many apparent channels, which indicates once rushing water.

“Hottah looks like someone jack-hammered up a slab of city sidewalk, but it’s really a tilted block of an ancient streambed,” said Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

The gravels in conglomerates at both outcrops range in size from a grain of sand to a golf ball. Some are angular, but many are rounded. The rounded shape of some stones in the conglomerate indicates long-distance transport from above the crater rim. The abundance of channels in the alluvial fan between the rim and conglomerate suggests flows continued or repeated over a long time, not just once or for a few years.

“The shapes tell you they were transported and the sizes tell you they couldn’t be transported by wind. They were transported by water flow,” said Curiosity science co-investigator Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.

As of this writing, chemical tests are yet to be performed. The science team may use Curiosity to learn the elemental composition of the material, which holds the conglomerate together, revealing more characteristics of the wet environment that formed these deposits. The stones in the conglomerate provide a sampling of stones washed from the crater rim, so the team may also examine several of them to learn about broader regional geology.

WAS THERE LIFE ON MARS?

The slope within the crater called “Glenelg” – an intentional palindrome to signify the coming and going of Curiosity – remains the rover’s main destination. The mission will continue to analyze conditions that are conducive to making life possible. Clay and sulfate minerals detected there from orbit can be good preservers of carbon-based organic chemicals that are potential ingredients for life.

Mars Science Laboratory researchers will use Curiosity’s 10 instruments over the two-year mission to investigate whether conditions in Gale Crater were ever favorable for microbial life.

A QUICK LOOK: Curiosity science team member Sanjeev Gupta explains how rounded pebbles spotted by the rover are convincing evidence of an ancient streambed on Mars [VIDEO].

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK: NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Old Streambed on Mars – A Panel of Scientist discuss Q&As with the media [VIDEO]

Video: Watch Curiosity descend toward Mars

August 7, 2012 by John M. Guilfoil

NASA released a low resolution stop motion video showing the Curiosity rover’s final descent onto Mars.

It may not look like much, but NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab scientists were going nuts when they saw the video. The recording begins with the protective heat shield falling away and ends with dust kicked up as the rover drops into a Martian crater.

Curiosity landed successfully on Sunday. It is the most advanced device ever to land on the red planet and promises to search for signs of past life on Mars.

A full, better-quality video is forthcoming.

NASA rover Curiosity lands on Mars successfully

August 6, 2012 by John M. Guilfoil

Telecom engineer Peter Llott, center, hugs a colleague to celebrate the successful landing of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Sunday, August 5, 2012. The Curiosity robot is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and potentially paving the way for human exploration. (AP Photo/Brian van der Brug, Pool) — Telecom engineer Peter Llott, center, hugs a colleague to celebrate the successful landing of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Sunday, August 5, 2012. The Curiosity robot is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and potentially paving the way for human exploration. (AP Photo/Brian van der Brug, Pool)

It stuck the landing.

Curiosity, the most advanced science experiment ever sent to the red planet has successfully touched down on Mars, steering itself through the so-called “seven minutes of terror” to gently hit the ground.

“Touchdown confirmed,” said engineer Allen Chen. “We’re safe on Mars.”

The landing set off an uproar of applause through the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Sunday night as Curiosity reported back after touchdown. at 10:30 p.m. PDT. The rover sent the first black-and-white photos of its initial contact with Mars quickly after landing.

President Barack Obama, in a tweet, congratulated the NASA team: “congratulate and thank all the men and women of NASA who made this remarkable accomplishment a reality.”

Curiosity is a $2.5 billion gamble, which NASA needs to pay off. The hope with this mission is that the rover and its extremely advanced set of tools will return the best data ever gathered on our planetary neighbor.

The rover will hopefully spent at least the next two years sending back data. It will drive to a mountain, drill into rocks, and gather soil to see if Mars ever had what it takes for life to thrive. Such a discovery would rank up there with the biggest scientific discoveries in human history.

This was the first time NASA attempted a controlled “smooth” landing on Mars. The last two rovers bounced to the surface with airbags all around them. That was not possible with the ton-heavy Curiosity.

The rover is nuclear-powered and includes a chemistry lab, cameras, instruments, weather gauges, a robotic arm, and a drill.

Curiosity joins the rover Opportunity, a long ways away but the next nearest operational Earth object. Opportunity is amazing in its own right, as it is still operational after eight years on the frigid, unforgiving planet.

NASA releases amazing new Mars panorama

July 7, 2012 by John M. Guilfoil

It’s almost like being there.

NASA has released a stunning panorama showing everything from the latest rover tracks to billion-year-old impact craters. The Pancam camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity gives one of the most amazing views yet of the fourth planet.

The release of the full-circle panoramic photo coincides with two major milestones — Opportunity just completed its 3,000th Martian day on July 2; and NASA is celebrating 15 years of robots on Mars. The first rover, Mars Pathfinder, landed in 1997. Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, landed in January 2004. The next-generation Mars rover, Curiosity, is expected to land next month.

The panorama is presented in false color to emphasize the difference between materials in the scene, NASA said. It was assembled from 817 total images taken between Dec. 21, 2011 and May 8, 2012.

“The view provides rich geologic context for the detailed chemical and mineral work that the team did at Greeley Haven over the rover’s fifth Martian winter, as well as a spectacularly detailed view of the largest impact crater that we’ve driven to yet with either rover over the course of the mission,” said Jim Bell of Arizona State University, Tempe, Pancam’s lead scientist.