Hasta La Gadget!

I think most everyone is familiar with foursquare. This is a service that lets you check in to show people where you are or where you’ve been. The more check-ins you make at a specific place, the closer you come the being the mayor of whatever that specific place is. Curiosity is one-step closer to being the mayor of Mars.

NASA is using foursquare to check in with the Curiosity Rover as it cruises around Gale Crater on Mars. NASA’s Curiosity rover checked-in from the surface of Mars, using the mobile application foursquare, marking the services first check-in from another planet. Curiosity checked-in about 16 hours ago with a black-and-white photograph showing its shadow on the surface of the red planet.

NASA says that it is using foursquare as a tool to share the rover’s new location as it explores Mars. NASA believes that using foursquare will help involve the public with the mission and allow people to keep track of where exactly the Rover is during its 23-month mission. Curiosity is currently heading towards Mount Sharp, which is a mountain that is about 3 miles tall.

Along the way, Curiosity is conducting experiments and looking for clues locked inside soil samples and rocks to indicate whether or not Mars could have harbored life at one time. NASA has used foursquare as a tool to keep the public interested in space missions for a while. Previously, NASA facilitated the first check in using foursquare from the orbiting international space station.

NASA Curiosity Rover checks in using foursquare is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Curiosity is currently at the center of the public’s attention when it comes to space exploration, but NASA scientists have started shooting around ideas for future missions to Mars. Ultimately, scientists would like to retrieve rocks from the surface of Mars and bring them back to Earth for more in-depth examination, though they aren’t planning to have humans on the red planet until the 2030s. One of NASA’s mission ideas, however, could have humans involved in Mars missions long before the 2030s roll around.

The Associated Press (via New York Newsday) reports that one of NASA’s ideas involves using humans as runners for these samples. Here’s how things could potentially play out: NASA will send rovers to Mars once again, this time with the intention of collecting rocks and soil. Where humans come in is with the transport of those samples, with NASA saying that humans could potentially set up somewhere in between Earth and Mars to act as a shuttle for the samples collected on the surface of the red planet.

If NASA chooses to go this route, the astronauts would be taking advantage of new rockets and spaceships that are expected to be ready for showtime in the next decade. By having astronauts collect the rocks from a spacecraft somewhere in between Earth and Mars, NASA won’t have to worry as much about contamination. Perhaps more importantly, this would be much safer for the astronauts involved than if they actually touched down on the surface of Mars.

Of course, this is only one of a number of options NASA is currently looking at, and we probably won’t have a decision until next year. At the moment, NASA is also deciding on whether or not to send more rovers to Mars in 2018, so it seems that mission will take precedence, at least for the time being. Still, this is a pretty exciting possibility, and it may not be long before we have Martian soil and rock samples back here on Earth.

NASA coming up with ideas for future Mars missions is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Curiosity may have spent a while limbering up for the mission ahead, but now it’s found evidence of an ancient streambed on Mars that once had “vigorous” water flow. Photos of two rock outcroppings taken by the rover’s mast camera between the north rim of Gale Crater and the foot of Mount Sharp reveal gravel embedded into a layer of conglomerate rock. The shape of the small stones indicate to NASA JPL scientists that they were previously moved, and their size (think from grains of sand to golf balls) are a telltale sign that water did the work instead of wind. Evidence of H2O on Mars has been spotted before, but this is the first direct look at the composition of riverbeds NASA has observed from above.

According to Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich, it’s estimated that water flowed at the site anywhere from thousands to millions of years ago, moved at a clip of roughly 3 feet per second and was somewhere between ankle and hip deep. “A long-flowing stream can be a habitable environment,” Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger said. “It is not our top choice as an environment for preservation of organics, though. We’re still going to Mount Sharp, but this is insurance that we have already found our first potentially habitable environment.”

Continue reading NASA’s Curiosity rover finds ancient streambed on Mars, evidence of ‘vigorous’ water flow

Filed under: Science, Alt

NASA’s Curiosity rover finds ancient streambed on Mars, evidence of ‘vigorous’ water flow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Sep 2012 02:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Computer World, CNN  |  NASA (JPL)  | Email this | Comments

The Curiosity rover is examining all sorts of things on the surface of Mars, but today, NASA is reporting a major breakthrough. Curiosity has discovered evidence on an old, dried up streambed on the surface of Mars, suggesting that water did once indeed flow on the Red Planet. Of course, we’ve seen evidence for the presence of water on Mars a few times in the past, but NASA scientists are calling this discovery “the first of its kind.”

The big breakthrough here isn’t the discovery of the channel – we’ve known about channels like this for a while now – but rather the discovery of gravel carried by the long-gone stream. The gravel is embedded in a conglomerate of rock, and it gives scientists a lot of information about the stream that once filled the channel. Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich says that the stream was likely flowing at three feet per second, “with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep.”

Most of the gravel discovered by Curiosity is round in shape, which means that it traveled a significant distance. The conglomerate was discovered between the northern rim of the Gale crater and the base of Mount Sharp, which is where Curiosity will eventually end its two-year journey. The gravel likely came from above the rim, where the Peace Vallis channel feeds into an alluvial fan containing many other channels. NASA scientists say that the number of channels in the fan suggest that water was frequently flowing, which is a pretty big discovery.

The rounded shape of the gravel also confirms that the it was carried by water, not wind. NASA says that it might use Curiosity to examine the material holding the outcrop of rocks together as well as the composition of the gravel discovered embedded in the streambed. In doing so, it will give scientists a broader picture of the regional geography, and Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger says that NASA may have “already found our first potentially habitable environment,” on the surface of Mars. That is definitely exciting, and we’re looking forward to hearing more about Curiosity’s mission soon. Stay tuned.

[via NASA JPL]

Curiosity rover discovers ancient streambed on surface of Mars is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Curiosity is rolling around the surface of Mars looking for interesting rocks to study. The rover has come across a rock laying on the surface of Mars with very interesting pyramid shape. The rock was discovered as Curiosity was cruising to an area known as Glenelg.

NASA researchers expect to find a combination of three different types of geological terrain in the Glenelg area. The pyramid-shaped rock is 2.5 m in front of the rover in the photograph above and measures 25 cm tall and 40 cm wide. Curiosity will take some time to test the rock before it moves on to its target area.

Researchers believe that the rock is a lump of Martian basalt, and researchers have given it a curious name. The rock is called “Jake Matijevic” and is named after the surface operations systems chief engineer for Mars Science Laboratory. Matijevic died just after Curiosity touched down on Mars on August 6.

According to scientist John Grotzinger, the pyramid-shaped rock isn’t uncommon and is believed to be a product of wind erosion. He also noted that the consensus is the rock was ejected by an impact somewhere else, possibly outside of the Gail Crater. The researcher noted that the pyramid-shaped rock is weathering slower than the material around it indicating that it’s a harder rock.

[via News.com.au]

Curiosity discovers pyramid-shaped rock on Mars is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.