Mars •

NASA Has Revealed A New Rover Design

July 18, 2016 By Jac Hardy Leave a Comment

NASA has revealed a new Mars rover design.

NASA has revealed a new Mars rover design. The future mission received a launch and land date. It will take off from Earth by August 2020, and it’s going to reach the Red Planet in February 2021. The rover will start an expedition on Mars to search for signals of life and to gather data for the first manned mission to Mars.

The unnamed rover, temporarily called Mars 2020, looks very familiar. It’s based on the successful Curiosity rover which landed on Mars in 2012 and, besides minor glitches, has remained in good working condition for longer than expected. Even though Mars 2020 looks much like Curiosity, it has some special features under the hood.

Mars 2020 will feature better quality cameras and microphones and thicker wheels to keep it from breaking down like Curiosity did. It also has a new coring drill and a radar that can look below ground, to explore the hidden Martian underground.

Another important feature on Mars 2020 will be a device to analyze organic chemicals, which will look for signs of life and test the oxygen forming ability of the planet, for future colonization efforts.

The new rover will be able to broadcast the Martian sounds back on Earth. It’s probably going to be things like wind or storms, but still worth listening to. The new rover will have several microphones to capture the atmosphere on the Red Planet. We will witness the first sounds of Mars.

Previous missions to Mars had microphones, but they were never used. The cameras will allow the sophisticated Mars 2020 rover to take selfies. The rover will also be able to collect Martian soil, to analyze the atmosphere and to look for signs of life, or previous life on Mars.

The mission will last for two years. NASA only has a 30-day window period to launch this engineering marvel, in July 2020. If the rover is not ready by then, humanity will have to wait for another two years to launch.

Experts believe that Mars was probably the best planet with life supporting conditions outside Earth. Now, the planet is dry and cold, and it has radiations on the surface. This isn’t promising for forms of life similar to Earth’s.

Image Source – Wikipedia

Recently Found Silica Deposits on Mars May Hint at Flowing Water

December 21, 2015 By Dustin Davis Leave a Comment

Silica found in rock samples collected by NASA’s robotic rover Curiosity may hint at ancient water.

NASA’s robotic rover Curiosity recently detected a rock-forming mineral called silica in samples taken from the Martian soil. Scientists believe that the recently found silica deposits on Mars may hint at flowing water.

Silica deposits are a common occurrence on Earth since the mineral is usually carried and deposited by flowing water. But scientists didn’t expect to find it on the Red Planet, too. Jens Frydenvang of the New Mexico-based Los Alamos National Laboratory acknowledged that science currently lacks a ‘full understanding’ of such deposits on Mars.

Frydenvang explained that similar deposits on Earth are often tied to ‘water activity.’ NASA also unveiled that the recently spotted silica is of a rare type called tridymite, which can rarely be seen on Earth. So the surprise was even greater when scientists saw it on Mars.

Researchers explained that such type of silica is found in volcanic rocks on our planet. This is why, there is a theory that the tridymite deposits on Mars may be caused by ancient volcanic activity. But another group of scientists have a different theory.

Elizabeth Rampe and her fellow researchers at Houston-based Johnson Space Center are now trying to prove that the mineral could be created in a laboratory without the need of high temperatures volcanoes involve.

Since June, NASA’s Curiosity has been exploring a barren wasteland called Marias Pass on the Red Planet. After some time, the robotic explorer found two types of overlapped rock layers. After the rover had performed some drills, it found that the layers contained a significant silica deposit.

When the discovery was unveiled to the public, Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists said that the deposits were a scientific puzzle. Albert Yen of the JPL explained that the deposits could be the result of a liquid that leached away other components and left the mineral behind or the mineral was added through other type of activity. Yen added that both scenarios involve water.

Curiosity rover has been exploring and sampling the rocks around the 18,000 ft tall Mount Sharp where the Marias Pass is located since last year. Between 2012 and 2014, the self-driving probe has been scrutinizing the plains at the base of the mountain.

A JPL investigator said that the new data beamed back by Curiosity helped the team gain a larger picture of the Martian environment around Mount Sharp from the first initial years of the mission. On Thursday, JPL researchers told attendees at an American Geophysical Union meeting that the recently sampled rocks may contain ‘organics.’
Image Source: Wikimedia

Curiosity Is Walking on Martian Sand

December 13, 2015 By Robert Romero Leave a Comment

Curiosity left its tracks in Martian sand

Right in this moment, Curiosity is walking on Martian sand. Maybe ‘walking’ is not the most correct term but that is just a technicality. NASA and space enthusiasts all over the world celebrate the Rover’s finding of real sand dunes on the surface of the Red Planet.

Not only that Curiosity is leaving its footprints in Martian sand right as we speak, but the curious Rover has also send photos of it to its team on Earth. It is for the first time when sand has been found by humans anywhere else in the Universe, but on Earth.

The sand dunes on which Curiosity is hiking are part of the ‘Bagnold Dunes’, situated on the north-western side of Mount Sharp, which is inside the Gale Crater.

The Rover will now filter the sand and sample it, before analyzing its structure in its onboard superlab. Besides the lab, Curiosity is also using its wheels to examine the dunes of sand.

Observing the dunes from the Red Planet’s orbit, scientists have already been able to determine that their edges are moving with up to three feet every year.

Mount Sharp, on which the dunes are formed, is almost 3 miles tall and its lower edges are exposing hundreds of rocky layers. These layers have been left behind by a huge lake and rivers that were once present on the Martian surface while also showing traces of wind action. With Curiosity’s help, the astronomers have been able to determine that in that place it used to be a huge long-lasting lake.

Actually, scientists believe that Gale Crater hosted more lakes, lasting about 10,000 years each, a long enough time for life to be supported.

Currently, the Rover is analyzing Murray formation – a 500 feet high section of the lowest layers of sediments.

NASA’s project called Mars Science Laboratory Projects operates Curiosity Rover in its mission to find out more about the changes experienced by the Red Planet over the last millions of years. One of the most important discoveries of Curiosity were traces of water on Mars. Now, scientists are hoping that the Rover will be able to find traces of ancient life on the Red Planet and potentially habitable environments.

MSLP is one of the projects developed by NASA to prepare the human mission on the Red Planet in 2030. Our future as a multi-planetary species depends on Curiosity’s findings.

Image source: JPL/NASA

Mars May Be on the Course of Becoming a Ringed Planet

November 26, 2015 By Dean Frazier Leave a Comment

Mars (background) and Phobos (foreground).

A group of researchers found that Mars may be on the course of becoming a ringed planet just like Saturn. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, think that the Red Planet may have its own debris rings in a few tens of millions of years when its closest moon, Phobos, is completely destroyed.

Researchers explained that the tiny moon is getting closer to the planet every year. This is why Mars’ gravitational pull is getting increasingly stronger and may at one point make the moon break apart. Other researchers believe that the moon may end up crushing into Mars, but Berkeley researchers do not think that the satellite may last that long.

Tushar Mittal, co- author of the study and Brekeley graduate student, explained that the fate of Phobos depends on how long the small moon would withstand the increasing tidal pressure coming from Mars. If it makes it to the end, it would crush into the planet, if it doesn’t, it would break apart, Mittal added.

Phobos was named after the offspring of the Roman Greek of war with the Roman goddess of love and beauty Venus, while the other moon of Mars was named after Phobos’ twin brother, Deimos.

Phobos, though it is the largest Martian moon, is only 14 miles across, and it has such a small orbit that it rises and sets twice a day on Mars.

Researchers calculated that the moon is getting closer to Mars by 6.5 feet every century. Past studies showed that the outcome of this phenomenon may be a final crash into the Red planet in the next 30 million to 50 million years.

But Berkeley computer models show that the tidal forces of Mars will more likely rip the moon apart rather than put it on a collision course. Earth also exerts tidal forces on the moon, and so does the moon on our planet. This is how ocean tides are formed.

In the study, Mittal and fellow researcher Benjamin Black measured the density and composition of Phobos to see how much more gravitational stress the moon would be able to endure.

The two researchers concluded that the moon is too porous and damaged both on the inside and outside to live to see a collision. Computer simulations showed that within 30 million to 40 million years Phobos would be smashed and form a ring of rocky debris around its planet in the next 1 million to 100 million years. As particles would continue to fall down on Mars the ring would become less dense than Saturn’s, researchers believe.
Image Source: Wikimedia

The Grooves on Phobos are a Sign of the Moon’s Demise

November 11, 2015 By Sandy Morton Leave a Comment

When looking at images of Phobos, one of two satellites orbiting Mars, one of the most evident trait is the grooves stretching on the moon’s surface. These parallel marks initially thought to be the result of impact with debris in time are in fact a result of tidal forces.

The grooves on Phobos are a sign of the moon’s demise according to new research establishing the grooves’ nature.

According to the scientists involved in the new study, the grooves on Phobos are a sign of the moon’s demise, leading slowly to structural failure. Terry Hurford with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center stated that Phobos is already starting to fail structurally, with the parallel grooves standing as a stark reminder of this fact.

Phobos orbits only 3,700 miles above Mars, being the moon with the closest orbit to a planet in the entire solar system. Due to this close orbit, Mars’s gravity is pulling the moon in closer, while contributing to its structural failure. Mars completes one rotation on its axis in approximately 25 hours. Phobos completes one orbit around the red planet in 7.5 hours. Phobos is estimated to fail structurally in 30 to 50 million years.

With three rotations around Mars in just one martian day and a strong gravity pull, Phobos is drawn closer to Mars at a rate of 6.6 feet/100 years. When the orbit of Phobos reaches the Roche Limit where tidal forces become strongly opposing, this is the moment when Phobos will reach the point of full structural failure.

According to the scientific team presenting the results of their study at the Meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, the interior of Phobos is also a factor playing an important role in the moon’s demise.

With a dispersed interior that looks much like a pile of debris, tidal forces acting on the poles of the moon will not find any obstacle in destroying Phobos. The interior of the moon is only protected by powdery regolith dispersed as a blanket of 330 feet in thickness.

When all these are factored in with computer modelling, the scientific team discovered that the grooves marking the surface of Phobos are signs of tidal forces at work. While previously thought to be the marks of impact, the new modelling showed that their location is consistent with the idea that tidal forces are slowly acting in pulling the moon of Mars apart. Some grooves are older, while some have been found to be younger. According to the scientific team this is a clear indication that the process is ongoing.

Phobos may not be the only moon in this situation. Triton, of the moon orbiting Neptune may suffer the same fate, with its surface being marked in a similar manner.

Photo Credits: Wikimedia

New Study Unravels Source of Pebbles on Mars

October 14, 2015 By Bonnie Gleason Leave a Comment

New study unravels source of pebbles on Mars, just weeks after the news that Mars may be harboring liquid water under the surface.

New study unravels source of pebbles on Mars, just weeks after the news that Mars may be harboring liquid water under the surface.

For now, the red planet remains an arid, dry place, not too hospitable and showing no signs of life. However, images beamed back by Mars Curiosity rover in 2012 show that the surface of Mars was once cut by flowing water streams. The perfectly rounded pebbles visible in the images remain the only memory of the ancient riverbed.

However, this data was not sufficient for a scientific team looking to understand what pinpoints the natural history of those pebbles. Gabor Domokos, mathematician with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Douglas Jerolmack, geophysicist with the University of Pennsylvania are the enthusiastic lead authors of the breakthrough paper.

Their question needed the perfect tools to be answered. As such, Domokos set out to create the mathematical pinning of their scientific undertake. The main source of inspiration was the pebble’s shape. The findings are published in the Nature Communications journal and stand for the first method to deduct how far along pebbles are transported simply by using their shape.

After methodic research, the research team spearheaded by the two scientists reached the conclusion that the pebbles seen in the images beamed back by Mars Curiosity rover had traveled for 30 miles from their source. This finding adds to the growing body of evidence that Mars once supported an extensive river system, as well as harbored the conditions for life.

“An object’s shape can itself tell you a lot. If you go to the beach, natural history is written underneath your feet. We started to understand that there is a code that you can read to begin to understand that history”.

For earthly rocks and pebbles, we already know that the way their shape evolves is impacted by a number of factors, including abrasion against other rocks embedded in the riverbed. Abrasion from the force the water exerts, as well as from other rooks defines a smoother shape, often rounded. Linking the resulting shape with the lost mass of the rock or pebble and its transportation history becomes the trickier part. Particularly for Martian rocks on which there is not much data.

How to deduct lost mass from a pebble’s shape alone?

Working with the only measurement at hand, that is the Martian pebbles’ shape, Gabor Domokos found the formula that determines how two particles influence each other regardless of the environment they are in or their composition.

The first step to test the formula and theory was to roll limestones in a drum and record lost mass and any shape changes. As this experiment yielded results consistent with the curve provided by the formula, the research team moved on to test it in a real-life environment. In Puerto Rico, pebbles in a mountain river subject to analysis yielded the same results.

The third step was to scan the Mars Curiosity rover images and perform the same analysis based on the contours introduced in a couple of computer models.

When they found that the Martian pebbles had lost 20 percent of their mass throughout their travelling, the research team also calculated the distance from the source. It took 30 miles for the pebbles to lose 20 percent of their volume under gravity conditions on Mars.

Photo Credits: Wikimedia

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