NASA Exploring Idea of Tumbleweed Inspired Mars Rovers
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Langley Research Center are both pursuing the idea of sending wind-powered tumbleweed-like rovers to Mars. The design idea has been around for about ten years, but researchers are still exploring various options for exactly how the rovers should be designed. It is possible a tumbleweed Mars rover design will never be used. If a tumbleweed rover one day lands on Mars, it may be thanks to a new computer model developed by researchers from North Carolina State University.
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a computer model that allows engineers to test the attributes of different rover designs. The computer model will help engineers select the best design characteristics before spending the time and money necessary to create prototypes. For example, the model can show how a rover's diameter, elasticity and overall mass will affect its ability to navigate the Martian surface successfully.
"You can't just build hundreds of different rover designs to see what works – it's too expensive," says Alexandre Hartl, a Ph.D. student at NC State who co-authored the paper. "This model allows us to determine which designs may be most viable. Then we can move forward to build and test the most promising candidates."
"We wanted a way to determine how different tumbleweed rover designs would behave under the various conditions that may be faced on the Martian surface," says Dr. Andre Mazzoleni, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research. "The model that we've developed is important, because it will help NASA [the National Aeronautics and Space Administration] make informed decisions about the final design characteristics of any tumbleweed rovers it ultimately sends to Mars."
Photo: North Carolina State University Space Systems Laboratory
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has released the image above. It was the first image ever taken of Earth from the surface of a planet beyond the Moon. The image was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera on March 8, 2004, one hour before sunrise on the 63rd Martian day, or sol, of its mission. NASA says the contrast in the panoramic camera image was increased two times to make Earth easier to see. You can see a larger image of the photograph here on Flickr.
Above is a graphic of the tweet from the Mars Phoenix Twitter that water had been confirmed on the surface of the planet Mars. NASA also reported on its website that the NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has confirmed water in a soil sample on Mars. The Phoenix Mars Lander has instruments that allow it to heat up soil samples and then identify the vapors that these heated samples produce.
Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.
"We have water," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. "We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."
With enticing results so far and the spacecraft in good shape, NASA also announced operational funding for the mission will extend through Sept. 30. The original prime mission of three months ends in late August. The mission extension adds five weeks to the 90 days of the prime mission.
"Phoenix is healthy and the projections for solar power look good, so we want to take full advantage of having this resource in one of the most interesting locations on Mars," said Michael Meyer, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The soil sample came from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When the robotic arm first reached that depth, it hit a hard layer of frozen soil. Two attempts to deliver samples of icy soil on days when fresh material was exposed were foiled when the samples became stuck inside the scoop. Most of the material in Wednesday's sample had been exposed to the air for two days, letting some of the water in the sample vaporize away and making the soil easier to handle.
"Mars is giving us some surprises," said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona. "We're excited because surprises are where discoveries come from. One surprise is how the soil is behaving. The ice-rich layers stick to the scoop when poised in the sun above the deck, different from what we expected from all the Mars simulation testing we've done. That has presented challenges for delivering samples, but we're finding ways to work with it and we're gathering lots of information to help us understand this soil."
NASA's news release also says the Phoenix Mars Rover's mission has been extended through September 30th.
Phoenix Lander Discovers Ice, Salt or Something Else?
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander may be on the verge of a big discovery. The picture above reveals a photograph of a white substance that may be ice, salt or some other material. Here are NASA's notes on the photograph:
This color image was acquired by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager on the 19th day of the mission, or Sol 19 (June 13, 2008), after the May 25, 2008, landing. This image shows one trench informally called "Dodo-Goldilocks" after two digs (dug on Sol 18, or June 12, 2008) by Phoenix's Robotic Arm. The trench is 22 centimeters (8.7 inches) wide and 35 centimeters (13.8 inches) long. At its deepest point, the trench is 7 to 8 centimeters (2.7 to 3 inches) deep.
White material, possibly ice, is located only at the upper portion of the trench, indicating that it is not continuous throughout the excavated site. According to scientists, the trench might be exposing a ledge, or only a portion of a slab, of the white material.
Red Orbit reports that a mission scientist believes the mysterious white stuff is ice but says until it disappears (melts) they can't be 100% certain.
"We think it's ice. But again, until we can see it disappear ... we're not guaranteed yet," mission scientist Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis said Monday.
One of the ovens on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander continued baking its first sample of Martian soil over the weekend, while the Robotic Arm dug deeper into the soil to learn more about white material first revealed on June 3.
"The oven is working very well and living up to our expectations," said Phoenix co-investigator Bill Boynton of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Boynton leads the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA), or oven instrument, for Phoenix.
Red Orbit also reports that the rover's oven is working well which is good news because initially there were reports of a struggle to get Mars dirt into the oven.
You can keep up with all of the Phoenix Lander's adventures on Twitter and Plurk. The frequent updates are posted from the point-of-view of the lander.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
This photo shows the Earth and Moon as seen from Mars. The image was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on October 3, 2007.
At the time the image was taken, Earth was 142 million kilometers (88 million miles) from Mars, giving the HiRISE image a scale of 142 kilometers (88 miles) per pixel, an Earth diameter of about 90 pixels and a moon diameter of 24 pixels. The phase angle is 98 degrees, which means that less than half of the disk of the Earth and the disk of the moon have direct illumination. We could image Earth and moon at full disk illumination only when they are on the opposite side of the sun from Mars, but then the range would be much greater and the image would show less detail.
You can see a larger view of the image here. Source: NASA
Some believe that the above magnified image from Nasa's spacecraft Spirit is a man or creature on the planet Mars.
An image of a mysterious shape on the surface of Mars, taken by Nasa spacecraft Spirit, has reignited the debate about life on the Red Planet.
A magnified version of the picture, posted on the internet, appears to some to show what resembles a human form among a crop of rocks.
While some bloggers have dismissed the image as a trick of light, others say it is evidence of an alien presence.
The image is from a Nasa posting of the Spirit's landing site in 2004.
Some people have been comparing the "man on mars" to a Little Mermaid statue which overlooks the Copenhagen harbor. Why would a mermaid hang out on Mars? It's fun to speculate but it is most likely just a rock formation - a natural occurence - just like the much discussed Face on Mars turned out to be.
Space.com reports that noted physicist Lowell Wood is suggesting that Mars will be terraformed to "increase its habitability for humans."
"I suggest that the near-term outlook is that Mars will be terraformed," Wood said, and seriously underway by the middle of this century and essentially complete by the end of the 21st century.
Wood defined terraforming as "the purposeful alteration of the physical environment to increase its habitability for humans." He noted that we homo sapiens are a terraforming species, pointing to our own planet's alteration over time.
"We're currently in the tenth millennium of the terraforming era," Wood said. Similarly, Mars will be terraformed...as will every other piece of the solar system that we can get to...if-and-as humanity becomes truly space-faring, he explained.
"The terraforming impulse in humankind will be quenched only by massive adverse selective pressure," Wood reported. Terraforming nay-sayers seem to ignore the fundamentals of population genetics, sociobiology and human history, he argued.
Mars is far easier to terraform than the Moon, Wood advised. "It's kids' stuff as far as rendering it [Mars] into something that's human habitable quickly and easily. The Moon is a good bit tougher."
Wood does sound a little optimistic when he says, "I believe it's roughly a 50/50 chance that young children now alive will walk on martian meadows...will swim in martian lakes." Wow. What kid wouldn't want to do that? It might sound far-fetched but technology does advance in leaps and bounds. Mars may also be the only game in town as far as alternative for Earth goes. The closest potentially habitable planet (that we know of) -- Gliese 581 C -- is 20.5 light years away.
The BBC reports that Enduring, one of NASA's enduring Mars rovers, is returning pictures from the
Victoria Crater on Mars.
Nasa's scientists are excited about what Opportunity will find in the crater.
The US space agency's robotic rover Opportunity has been sending back images as it approaches the edge of an 800m-wide crater on Mars.
Opportunity has been making its way to Victoria Crater for the past 21 Earth months - about half its mission.
The rover is moving towards a recess on the crater rim to get a prime view.
The depression has high walls with layers of exposed rock that should reveal significant new information about the Red Planet's geological past.
USA Today says scientists will search images to find the safest spot possible for Opportunity to enter the crater.
"This is a geologist's dream come true," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for NASA's twin rovers Opportunity and Spirit, told Space.com. "Those layers of rock, if we can get to them, will tell us new stories about the environmental conditions long ago. We especially want to learn whether the wet era that we found recorded in the rocks closer to the landing site extended farther back in time. The way to find that out is to go deeper, and Victoria may let us do that."
Opportunity will spend a day looking for a more favorable spot around the rim to take a panorama of the vista. Meanwhile, scientists are plotting Opportunity's next move and analyzing the images to find the safest route for the rover to enter.
Mars Today has an article about the crater called "Victoria's Secret." You can also find more information about the rovers on NASA's Mars rover website.
New images taken by Mars Express show that the Face on Mars does not appear to be a face but a natural rock formation. The top image shows the facelike appearance of Cydonia from a photograph taken by Viking 1 Orbiter in 1976. The bottom image is a new close-up image of the "face" obtained by Mars Express. You can see more images here on the ESA's Mars Express website.
A perspective view showing the so-called 'Face on Mars' located in the Cydonia region. The image shows a remnant massif thought to have formed via landslides and an early form of debris apron formation. The massif is characterized by a western wall that has moved downslope as a coherent mass. The massif became famous as the 'Face on Mars' in a photo taken on 25 July 1976 by the American Viking 1 Orbiter.
Image recorded during orbits 3253 and 1216 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express. Image is based on data gathered over the Cydonia region, with a ground resolution of approximately 13.7 metres per pixel. Cydonia lies at approximately 40.75° North and 350.54° East.
Technically, the mars face was unmasked in 2001. For those interested in keeping the hope that an ancient civilization once lived on Mars alive the ESA does have a photograph of a skull-shaped structure. You can see it on the same page that contains the new Cydonia photograph.
The Mars rovers Spirt and Opportunity continue to explore the Martian landscape. The rovers have already driven 11 times farther than what NASA had originally planned for them according to recent NASA update.
Spirit studied signs of a long-ago explosion at a bright, low plateau called "Home Plate" during February and March. Then one of its six wheels quit working, and Spirit struggled to complete a short advance to a north-facing slope for the winter. "For Spirit, the priority has been to reach a safe winter haven," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover project.
The rovers have operated more than eight times as long as their originally planned three-month explorations on Mars. Each has driven more than 6.8 kilometers (4.2 miles) about 11 times as far as planned. Combined, they have returned more than 150,000 images. Two years ago, the project had already confirmed that at least one place on Mars had a wet and possibly habitable environment long ago. The scientific findings continue.
Opportunity spent most of the past four months at Erebus, a highly eroded impact crater about 300 meters (1,000 feet) in diameter, where the rover found extensive exposures of thin, rippled layering interpreted as a fingerprint of flowing water. "What we see at Erebus is a thicker interval of wetted sediment than we've seen anywhere else," said Dr. John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology, "The same outcrops also have cracks that may have formed from wetting and drying."
In mid-March, Opportunity began a 2-kilometer (1.6-mile) trek from Erebus to Victoria, a crater about 800 meters (half a mile) across, where a thick sequence of sedimentary rocks is exposed. In the past three weeks, Opportunity has already driven more than a fourth of that distance.
NASA says Spirit did reach its safe Winter haven. You can keep up with the rovers and see Mars images on these two NASA websites.
Google has a new feature called Google Mars that lets you browse the surface of Mars using images provided by NASA using the same technology behind Google Maps. Google Mars has preconfigured destinations to the locations of interesting mountains, canyons, ridges and craters. A click of the mouse can also take you to the location of a spacecraft landing such as the Viking 1 Lander or Mars Pathfinder Rover. You can also zoom in and zoom out on each location. Hopefully, Google Mars will be updated with images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter when they are available several months from now. (via CyberNet Technology News)
The ESA's Mars Express website provides the image (pictured on the right) of water ice found in a Mars crater near the Martian north pole. The photograph was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft
The HRSC obtained these images during orbit 1343 with a ground resolution of approximately 15 metres per pixel. The unnamed impact crater is located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars's far northern latitudes, at approximately 70.5º North and 103º East.
The crater is 35 kilometres wide and has a maximum depth of approximately 2 kilometres beneath the crater rim. The circular patch of bright material located at the centre of the crater is residual water ice.
You can read more about the discovery here on the ESA website.
Space.com 
New images taken by Mars Express show that the Face on Mars does not appear to be a face but a natural rock formation. The top image shows the facelike appearance of Cydonia from a photograph taken by Viking 1 Orbiter in 1976. The bottom image is a new close-up image of the "face" obtained by Mars Express. You can see more images 
The Mars rovers Spirt and Opportunity continue to explore the Martian landscape. The rovers have already driven 11 times farther than what NASA had originally planned for them according to recent NASA 
Google has a new feature called 
The ESA's Mars Express 
