There’s been no shortage of Mars pictures since Curiosity landed. We’ve got Martian mountains, rover selfies, the works. But thanks to a little image stitching by a clever dude back here on Earth, now we have Mars Street View, kind of. More »
The red planet is an alien world, and though it may have once held life, it’s certainly no Earth. But thanks to a recent, mammoth panorama shot by Curiosity, we can get a glimpse of what it would be like if one of Mars’ mountains was transplanted here to ol’ Terra. More »
Considering what it’s involved, Mars Rover Curiosity’s mission has been going really well. Staggeringly well. But that couldn’t last forever. The rover has hit its first real road bump with a gnarly computer failure that’s going to delay all the science-ing for at least a week. More »
NASA scientists won’t have to wait until InSight’s 2016 drilling mission to see what lies beneath the surface of Mars — Curiosity is already on the case. After developing a taste for Martian soil late last year, the intrepid rover has started exploring the red planet’s bedrock, drilling a 0.63 inch (1.6 cm) wide hole 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) deep into Mars’ surface. Curiosity will spend the next several days analyzing the resulting powder in hopes of finding evidence of a once-wet planet. The shallow hole marks the first drilling operation ever carried out on Mars, and getting there wasn’t easy. “Building a tool to interact forcefully with unpredictable rocks on Mars required an ambitious development and testing program,” explained Louise Jandura, the chief engineer of the rover’s sample system. “To get to the point of making this hole in a rock on Mars we made eight drills and bored more than 1,200 holes in 20 types of rock on Earth.” The Rover tested its drill by creating a shallower hole earlier this month, though samples will only be used from the second, deeper cavity. Check out the source link for more images of the operation, including an animated GIF of the drill in action.
Filed under: Misc, Transportation
Via: Bloomberg
Source: NASA
It’s New Years. Balls will be dropped. Kisses will be kissed. Bubbly will be drunk drank drunken dranked consumed. But that’s all normal. This year there’s something different: a message from Mars, apparently. More »
I think we just made a huge discovery. Mars is made out of candy. It’s also apparently in a parallel universe where it is flat and in someone’s house, next to their stairs.
This geeky cake was made by Kevin Isacsson, head chef of the Athaneum, Caltech’s fancy private dining club in Pasadena. I guess that means you have to be a big deal to even lay eyes on this thing in person. Well, I don’t want to be a member of any place that wouldn’t have me. Please, please let me in! I promise not to touch it – especially not with my tongue!
This edible Mars Rover features pinwheel cookie wheels connected with black licorice, sugared LEGO “gears” and gumdrop and M&M “buttons.” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab even loaned Isacsson a model of Curiosity to help him get all of the details right. It took him about 10 days to finish. If you look closely, you’ll see one detail that the actual Curiosity hasn’t discovered yet – Martians.
[via That’s Nerdalicious]
NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence of an ancient riverbed on Mars. While it’s now dried up, it’s the first ever evidence to prove that running water once poured over the surface of the red planet. This is huge. More »
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.”
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.
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You’ve probably taken some pictures of yourself at some point or another, but none of them were on Mars. Yesterday, everybody’s favorite currently-active Mars rover, Curiosity, sent back a self-shot that is literally out of this world. More »
As NASA promised, Curiosity has stopped at the quarter pole toward its first scientific destination to test its robotic arm and attached scientific instruments. After 100 yards of driving, the rover extended its 7-foot limb, and will now spend six to ten days checking its predetermined positions and range of motion. That will ensure the appendage is ready after surviving the chilly vaccuum of space and subsequent setdown, and will let its minders see how it functions in the unfamiliar Martian gravity and temperatures. The JPL scientists in charge of the six-wheeler will also peep the Mars Hand Lens Imager and made-in-Canada Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer to warrant that they’re up for all the geology to come. If all goes well, the rover will start scooping, drilling and analyzing in earnest when it hits Glenelg, then Mount Sharp — so, we’d limber up first before tackling all that, too.
Curiosity rover starts light robotic arm workout in preparation for scientific main event originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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