Curiosity: Mars Science Laboratory

[saturno2]

JohnD and BMAONE23
Thanks for your notes

bystander
Thanks for your links

Curiosity Rover is Ok now!

[bystander]

Pebbly Rocks Testify to Old Streambed on Mars
NASA | JPL-Caltech | MSL Curiosity | 2013 May 30

[img3="Remnants of Ancient Streambed on Mars - Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence for an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here, which the science team has named "Hottah" after Hottah Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories. It may look like a broken sidewalk, but this geological feature on Mars is actually exposed bedrock made up of smaller fragments cemented together, or what geologists call a sedimentary conglomerate. Scientists theorize that the bedrock was disrupted in the past, giving it the titled angle, most likely via impacts from meteorites."]http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/ima ... 062_ip.jpg[/img3]

[url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA16189][b][i]Rock Outcrops on Mars and Earth[/i][/b][/url] - [b][i]Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/PSI[/i][/b] [i]This set of images compares the Link outcrop of rocks on Mars (left) with similar rocks seen on Earth (right).[/i]

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Detailed analysis and review have borne out researchers' initial interpretation of pebble-containing slabs that NASA's Mars rover Curiosity investigated last year: They are part of an ancient streambed.

The rocks are the first ever found on Mars that contain streambed gravels. The sizes and shapes of the gravels embedded in these conglomerate rocks -- from the size of sand particles to the size of golf balls -- enabled researchers to calculate the depth and speed of the water that once flowed at this location.

"We completed more rigorous quantification of the outcrops to characterize the size distribution and roundness of the pebbles and sand that make up these conglomerates," said Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Ariz., lead author of a report about them in the journal Science this week. "We ended up with a calculation in the same range as our initial estimate last fall. At a minimum, the stream was flowing at a speed equivalent to a walking pace -- a meter, or three feet, per second -- and it was ankle-deep to hip-deep."

Three pavement-like rocks examined with the telephoto capability of Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) during the rover's first 40 days on Mars are the basis for the new report. One, "Goulburn," is immediately adjacent to the rover's "Bradbury Landing" touchdown site. The other two, "Link" and "Hottah," are about 165 and 330 feet (50 and 100 meters) to the southeast. Researchers also used the rover's laser-shooting Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to investigate the Link rock.

"These conglomerates look amazingly like streambed deposits on Earth," Williams said. "Most people are familiar with rounded river pebbles. Maybe you've picked up a smoothed, round rock to skip across the water. Seeing something so familiar on another world is exciting and also gratifying."

The larger pebbles are not distributed evenly in the conglomerate rocks. In Hottah, researchers detected alternating pebble-rich layers and sand layers. This is common in streambed deposits on Earth and provides additional evidence for stream flow on Mars. In addition, many of the pebbles are touching each other, a sign that they rolled along the bed of a stream.

"Our analysis of the amount of rounding of the pebbles provided further information," said Sanjeev Gupta of Imperial College, London, a co-author of the new report. "The rounding indicates sustained flow. It occurs as pebbles hit each other multiple times. This wasn't a one-off flow. It was sustained, certainly more than weeks or months, though we can't say exactly how long."

The stream carried the gravels at least a few miles, or kilometers, the researchers estimated.

The atmosphere of modern Mars is too thin to make a sustained stream flow of water possible, though the planet holds large quantities of water ice. Several types of evidence have indicated that ancient Mars had diverse environments with liquid water. However, none but these rocks found by Curiosity could provide the type of stream flow information published this week. Curiosity's images of conglomerate rocks indicate that atmospheric conditions at Gale Crater once enabled the flow of liquid water on the Martian surface.

Ancient streambed found on surface of Mars
University of California, Davis | 2013 May 30

Rounded stones on Mars evidence of flowing water
Neils Bohr Institute | University of Copenhagen | 2013 May 30

Curiosity Provides Strong Evidence for Flowing Water
University of Tennessee, Knoxville | 2013 May 30

Flowing Water Transported Sand, Rocks Along Martian Streambed
Planetary Science Institute | 2013 May 30

Martian Fluvial Conglomerates at Gale Crater - R. M. E. Williams et al

• Science 340(6136) 1068 (2013 May 31) DOI: 10.1126/science.1237317

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Finding faces and animals on Mars
Planetary Society | Emily Lakdawalla | 2013 May 30

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF]On sol 292 (June 2, 2013), Curiosity performed some nighttime MAHLI close-up imaging of the drill hole at Cumberland. The scene is illuminated only by the LEDs next to the MAHLI optics. Credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS / Emily Lakdawalla [/color][/b]

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Curiosity working late
By Emily Lakdawalla, Planetary Soc., 2013/06/07

<<MAHLI can take photos like this after dark because it's equipped with a set of LEDs. But this sol 292 observation gets cooler, because they used Mastcam to shoot a photo of MAHLI illuminating the ground at night. The Mastcam photos have a lot of speckle noise because the cameras really weren't intended to be used under such weak illumination conditions; they had to do a long exposure, I'm sure. I did some work on this image to reduce the noise, though I had to be careful because one of the wonderful things about this photo is the shadows thrown by the little spheroidal nodules protruding from the otherwise flat surface of the rock, and my despeckling filters wanted to get rid of those shadows, too.>>

[BMAONE23]

Here is an image of the area surrounding Curosity on Day 308

Click to view full size image

The higher definition image reveals 3 curious dark features traversing the Sand dune slope in the upper left quadrant of the image. They appear to be regularly spaced and somewhat resemble Striding Foot Prints They are about 2/5 the distance from the left side to the right

[rstevenson]

Drat! I thought I swept the trail after me. Now I won't get my merit badge.

Rob

[bystander]

Reports Detail Mars Rover Clues to Atmosphere's Past
NASA | JPL-Caltech | MSL Curiosity | 2013 Jul 18

How Mars' atmosphere got so thin: New insights from Curiosity
University of Michigan | 2013 Jul 18

Isotope Ratios of H, C, and O in CO₂ and H₂O of the Martian Atmosphere - Chris R. Webster et al, MSL Science Team

• Science 341(6143) 260 (19 July 2013) DOI: 10.1126/science.1237961

Abundance and Isotopic Composition of Gases in the Martian Atmosphere from the Curiosity Rover - Paul R. Mahaffy et al, MSL Science Team

• Science 341(6143) 263 (19 July 2013) DOI: 10.1126/science.1237966

[bystander]

Curiosity Nearing First Anniversary on Mars
NASA | JPL-Caltech | MSL Curiosity | 2013 Aug 02

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Twelve Months in Two Minutes; Curiosity's First Year on Mars

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[saturno2]

What Curiosity Rover does now?

[rstevenson]

What Curiosity Rover does now?

Like most Americans, Curiosity will just keep on working, never noticing that 700,000 paper pushers stopped pushing paper. If this goes on long enough there will be a vast awakening, as if a heavy blanket had been thrown off and a fresh new day was dawning. (I can hear you thinking, "I want some of what he's smoking.")

Perhaps someone else will give you a sensible, down to Mars answer.

Rob

[bystander]

While Curiosity is a NASA project, it is administered by JPL, a division of Caltech, which, to my knowledge, isn't affected by the shutdown. In any case, ongoing missions are relatively unaffected by the shutdown. The same can't be said for upcoming missions, such as MAVEN, or perhaps even the James Webb Telescope.

[saturno2]

The closure is a serious problem.
Hopefully not affect the James Webb Telescope project.

[JohnD]

Just to be provocative, isn't this a strike?
A good old, down-tools and everyone-out, industrial dispute, socialist strike?
Except that this time it's the employers who have stopped work, so it's a "Lock-out".

Certainly no less political than a strike!
John

[geckzilla]

Just to be provocative, isn't this a strike?
A good old, down-tools and everyone-out, industrial dispute, socialist strike?
Except that this time it's the employers who have stopped work, so it's a "Lock-out".

Certainly no less political than a strike!
John

Not quite. This is caused by not coming to agreement over the budget and without a budget outline they can't distribute pay. If it were just a legislative strike (which, I think, is what you are suggesting), everyone under could probably keep working under the existing budget.

[BMAONE23]

What Curiosity Rover does now?

Like most Americans, Curiosity will just keep on working, never noticing that 700,000 paper pushers stopped pushing paper. If this goes on long enough there will be a vast awakening, as if a heavy blanket had been thrown off and a fresh new day was dawning. (I can hear you thinking, "I want some of what he's smoking.")

Perhaps someone else will give you a sensible, down to Mars answer.

Rob

I for one do not think you are necessarily "smoking" anything particular though I do agree with your sentiment regarding a "Vast Awakening" being on the horizon (at least we can hope)

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[JohnD]

Excellent! Thanks, Neufer!
It's good to hear plans, not just events from Curiosity and 'her' handlers, althopugh I would prefer them not to personify 'it'.
And I can understand why they want to avoid the dunes, and are going for Murray's Butte, but there appears to be a second line of dunes above the first, with no break in sight. Oh, well, Curiosity can cross that dune when it comes to it.

JOhn

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF]Cooperstown outcrop (NASA / JPL / MSSS / Emily Lakdawalla)[/color][/b]

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<<Curiosity snapped 16 images through its high-resolution Mastcam-100 on sol 441 (November 2, 2013) to examine the Cooperstown outcrop up close. Angular clasts appear to be embedded in a massive matrix. The underlying rock is less resistant to erosion, so the outcrop is undercut.>>

[Beyond]

Any pictures from down low, so we can see what's holding the rock up

[neufer]

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Any pictures from down low,
so we can see what's holding the rock up

• No... but they did flip it over

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF]This mosaic shows a rock, nicknamed “Ithaca” examined by the NASA Curiosity rover’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) laser. The 100,000th laser shot of Curiosity’s mission is marked in the image. The shot took place on Oct. 30, 2013. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/UNM[/color][/b]

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Zot! Curiosity Punches Laser Hole No. 100,000 On Mars
by Elizabeth Howell on December 6, 2013

<<The reports are in: it appears that Earth has the upper hand in firing laser shots on Mars. More seriously, however, the Curiosity rover has surpassed the uber-cool milestone of shooting 100,000 holes in the Red Planet’s surface to learn more about its chemical composition. As you can see in the picture, the 100,000th shot took place on a rock nicknamed “Ithaca” on Oct. 30 from a distance of 13 feet, 3 inches away. “The Chemistry and Camera instrument (ChemCam) uses the infrared laser to excite material in a pinhead-size spot on the target into a glowing, ionized gas, called plasma. ChemCam observes that spark with the telescope and analyzes the spectrum of light to identify elements in the target,” NASA stated.>>

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... ca#p141958

<<Odysseus returns to his own house in Ithaca, still pretending to be a beggar. He is ridiculed by the Suitors in his own home, especially by one extremely impertinent man named Antinous (‘Anti-mind’). The next day Penelope maneuvers the Suitors into competing for her hand with an archery competition using Odysseus' bow. The man who can string the bow and shoot it through a dozen axe heads would win. Odysseus takes part in the competition himself: he alone is strong enough to string the bow and shoot it through the dozen axe heads. He then turns his arrows on the Suitors and kills them all.>>

Antinous Neuendorffer

[Beyond]

He then turns his arrows on the Suitors and kills all them all

A gamma missteak

[neufer]

He then turns his arrows on the Suitors and kills all them all

A gamma missteak

As they were speaking, a dog that had been lying asleep raised his head and pricked up his ears. This was Beyond, whom Neufer had bred before setting out for Troy, but he had never had any enjoyment from him. In the old days he used to be taken out by the young men when they went hunting wild goats, or deer, or hares, but now that his master was gone he was lying neglected on the heaps of mule and cow dung that lay in front of the stable doors till the men should come and draw it away to manure the great close; and he was full of fleas. As soon as he saw Neufer standing there, he dropped his ears and wagged his tail, but he could not get close up to his master. When Neufer saw the dog on the other side of the yard, dashed a tear from his eyes without Eumaeus seeing it, and said: 'Eumaeus, what a noble hound that is over yonder on the manure heap: his build is splendid; is he as fine a fellow as he looks, or is he only one of those dogs that come begging about a table, and are kept merely for show?'

'This dog,' answered Eumaeus, 'belonged to him who has died in a far country. If he were what he was when Neufer left for Troy, he would soon show you what he could do. There was not a wild beast in the forest that could get away from him when he was once on its tracks. But now he has fallen on evil times, for his master is dead and gone, and the women take no care of him. Servants never do their work when their master's hand is no longer over them, for Zeus takes half the goodness out of a man when he makes a slave of him.'

So saying he entered the well-built mansion, and made straight for the riotous pretenders in the hall. But Beyond passed into the darkness of death, now that he had fulfilled his destiny of faith and seen his master once more after twenty years...

[Beyond]

He then turns his arrows on the Suitors and kills all them all

A gamma missteak

As they were speaking, a dog that had been lying asleep raised his head and pricked up his ears. This was Beyond, whom Neufer had bred before setting out for Troy, but he had never had any enjoyment from him. In the old days he used to be taken out by the young men when they went hunting wild goats, or deer, or hares, but now that his master was gone he was lying neglected on the heaps of mule and cow dung that lay in front of the stable doors till the men should come and draw it away to manure the great close; and he was full of fleas. As soon as he saw Neufer standing there, he dropped his ears and wagged his tail, but he could not get close up to his master. When Neufer saw the dog on the other side of the yard, dashed a tear from his eyes without Eumaeus seeing it, and said: 'Eumaeus, what a noble hound that is over yonder on the manure heap: his build is splendid; is he as fine a fellow as he looks, or is he only one of those dogs that come begging about a table, and are kept merely for show?'

'This dog,' answered Eumaeus, 'belonged to him who has died in a far country. If he were what he was when Neufer left for Troy, he would soon show you what he could do. There was not a wild beast in the forest that could get away from him when he was once on its tracks. But now he has fallen on evil times, for his master is dead and gone, and the women take no care of him. Servants never do their work when their master's hand is no longer over them, for Zeus takes half the goodness out of a man when he makes a slave of him.'

So saying he entered the well-built mansion, and made straight for the riotous pretenders in the hall. But Beyond passed into the darkness of death, now that he had fulfilled his destiny of faith and seen his master once more after twenty years...

Arf Arf Grrrrrrr WOOF!!

[geckzilla]

Disturbingly large hole in Curiosity's wheel.


0513MH0262000002E1_DXXX by Mick Hyde, on Flickr