Category Archives: Space Science

Mars, Space Science

Latest on the Mars rovers + Curiosity finds signs of a warm & wet Red Planet long ago

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Bob Zimmerman has posted one of his periodic updates on the explorations of the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers on Mars:  Mars rover update: July 12, 2017 | Behind The Black.

In the five years since Curiosity landed in Gale Crater, it has moved only about 17 km but has done a lot of science along the way: Mid-2017 Map of NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Mission | NASA JPL.

This map shows the route driven by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, from the location where it landed in August 2012 to its location in July 2017, and its planned path to additional geological layers of lower Mount Sharp.

NASA JPL recently held a public seminar to celebrate Five Years of Curiosity on Mars and to report on what has been learned so far, especially regarding the conditions of the young Red Planet when it appears to have had an atmosphere and large bodies of water on the surface.

Nearly five years after its celebrated arrival at Mars, the Curiosity rover continues to reveal Mars as a once-habitable planet. Early in the planet’s history, generations of streams and lakes created the landforms that Curiosity explores today. The rover currently is climbing through the foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high mountain formed from sediment brought in by water and wind. This talk will cover the latest findings from the mission, the challenges of exploration with an aging robot, and what lies ahead.

Speakers:
James K. Erickson, Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager, JPL
Ashwin R. Vasavada, Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist, JPL

On the left in this image is an artist’s view of how Mars might have looked in its first billion years as compared to earth on the right:

Pluto and beyond, Space Science

Video: Fly over Pluto and its largest moon Charon

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Created from imagery and elevation data from the New Horizon probe‘s fly-by of the Pluto system in July of 2015, the videos below show what it would look like to fly low over Pluto and  its biggest moon Charon:

NASA Video Soars over Pluto’s Majestic Mountains and Icy Plains

In July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sent home the first close-up pictures of Pluto and its moons – amazing imagery that inspired many to wonder what a flight over the distant worlds’ icy terrain might be like.

Wonder no more. Using actual New Horizons data and digital elevation models of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, mission scientists have created flyover movies that offer spectacular new perspectives of the many unusual features that were discovered and which have reshaped our views of the Pluto system – from a vantage point even closer than the spacecraft itself.

This dramatic Pluto flyover begins over the highlands to the southwest of the great expanse of nitrogen ice plain informally named Sputnik Planitia. The viewer first passes over the western margin of Sputnik, where it borders the dark, cratered terrain of Cthulhu Macula, with the blocky mountain ranges located within the plains seen on the right. The tour moves north past the rugged and fractured highlands of Voyager Terra and then turns southward over Pioneer Terra — which exhibits deep and wide pits — before concluding over the bladed terrain of Tartarus Dorsa in the far east of the encounter hemisphere.

The equally exciting flight over Charon begins high over the hemisphere New Horizons saw on its closest approach, then descends over the deep, wide canyon of Serenity Chasma. The view moves north, passing over Dorothy Gale crater and the dark polar hood of Mordor Macula. The flight then turns south, covering the northern terrain of Oz Terra before ending over the relatively flat equatorial plains of Vulcan Planum and the “moated mountains” of Clarke Montes.

The topographic relief is exaggerated by a factor of two to three times in these movies to emphasize topography; the surface colors of Pluto and Charon also have been enhanced to bring out detail.

Digital mapping and rendering were performed by Paul Schenk and John Blackwell of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. All feature names in the Pluto system are informal.

Gas giants Saturn, Jupiter, et al, Space participation, Space Science

Juno: Flyby of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

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The Juno spacecraft made a low altitude flyover of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot this week: NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Completes Flyby over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Here are a couple of images made by Citizen Scientists quickly processing the raw images: JunoCam : Processing | Mission Juno .

Great Red Spot [ 060 ] V1  – 2017-07-12 17:09 UT – Credit : NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Seán Doran
Sleepy Eye – 2017-07-12 12:00 UT – Credit : Tom Momary © CC NC SA

 

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Mars, Space Science, Space Systems

Video: 20th anniversary of the Mars Pathfinder

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NASA is marking 20 years  of missions to Mars: Why No One Under 20 Has Experienced a Day Without NASA at Mars | NASA. Here is a video about the Pathfinder lander/Sojourner rover mission of 1997:

On July 4, 1997, NASA’s Mars Pathfinder lander and Sojourner rover successfully landed on the Red Planet utilizing a revolutionary airbag landing system. This special 20th anniversary show chronicles the stories and the people behind the groundbreaking mission that jump-started 20 years of continuous presence at Mars. Guests include: Former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, former JPL Directors Ed Stone and Charles Elachi, JPL Director Michael Watkins and Pathfinder mission team members Jennifer Trosper and Brian Muirhead. Recorded June 27, 2017 at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; aired on NASA TV on July 4, 2017.

Mars, Space Science

The latest on the Mars rovers

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Bob Zimmerman has  posted an interesting update on what’s been happening recently with the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers on Mars: Mars rover update: June 23, 2017 | Behind The Black.

Since my my May 15th update, the Opportunity science team has been acting like an expectant father. They had reached the head of Perseverance Valley in mid-May, but since then they have been gingerly pacing back and forth, studying the valley from the top and the side without entering it. The traverse map above shows their travels for the first two weeks after their arrival, but it is also a month old. While they haven’t yet posted an updated traverse map, my daily review of the images sent back each day suggests that, through June 4, they continued their pacing at the head of the valley, sometimes easing downward a bit, but never entering the valley itself.

They initially had two reasons for not entering the valley immediately. First there is fear, [continue]

Mars Rover Opportunity on Walkabout Near Rim

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This JPL video shows highlights of NASA’s missions to Mars over the past 20 years:

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