Author Topic: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread  (Read 1026465 times)

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1240 on: 09/26/2014 01:14 am »
Resistant Features in 'Pahrump Hills' Outcrop
 
This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows an example of a type of geometrically distinctive feature that researchers are examining at a mudstone outcrop at the base of Mount Sharp.

These features on the "Pahrump Hills" outcrop are accumulations of erosion-resistant materials. Similar-appearing features on Earth form when shallow bodies of water begin to evaporate and minerals precipitate from the concentrated brines.

The width of the image covers about nine-tenths of an inch (2.2 centimeters) of the rock surface. This is a merged-focus image product combining information from multiple MAHLI images taken on Sept. 23, 2014, during the 758th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars.

Very interesting image.  I suspect the lumpy bits are remnants of an upper bed now largely removed by erosion.  The lumpiness would reflect either large crystals or  concretions.  Whether or not these are evaporite minerals will have to wait until we have XRD data.  A bif gap in Curiosity's science suite is the ability to determine minerals by remote sensing or contact instruments (the MERs had the Mossabuer and TES to do this, neither are now operational on Opportunity)
« Last Edit: 09/26/2014 01:16 am by Dalhousie »
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline robertross

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1241 on: 10/02/2014 10:20 pm »
10.02.2014
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mars Rover Technology Adapted to Detect Gas Leaks

Curiosity: Robot Geologist and Chemist in One!

In this picture, the rover examines a rock on Mars with a set of tools at the end of the rover's arm, which extends about 7 feet (2 meters).

In collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced that it is testing state-of-the-art technology adapted from NASA’s Mars rover program. Originally designed to find methane on the Red Planet, this laser-based technology is lightweight and has superior sensitivity to methane, a major component of natural gas. The technology applied back on Earth helps guide PG&E crews using a tablet interface to identify possible leak locations, fast-tracking their ability to repair gas leaks.
“Our pursuit of this technology is evidence of our commitment to our mission of becoming the safest, most reliable utility in the country. We are using out-of-this-world technology to find and fix even the smallest leaks in our system. By investing in innovation today, we are helping build a positive energy future,” said Nick Stavropoulos, PG&E’s executive vice president of gas operations.

On Sept. 29, a new law, SB 1371, required the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to open a proceeding to adopt rules and procedures that minimize natural gas leaks from gas pipelines, with the goal of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, such as methane.

The hand-held device is the latest piece of advanced leak detection technology being embraced by the utility and is expected to be available for use in 2015. The development of this tool is part of a collaborative research effort at Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI).

"It’s rewarding to be involved in projects that translate JPL technological capabilities to meet industry needs, technologies which ultimately should help enhance safety and reliability. PG&E’s role as a collaborator with JPL on our PRCI-funded effort is essential to efficiently adapt the JPL methane sensor into a field-ready hand-held leak detection system,” said Andrew Aubrey, JPL technologist.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to nearly 16 million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit
www.pge.com

and

http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/


http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1722

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1242 on: 10/03/2014 09:52 pm »
10.02.2014
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mars Rover Technology Adapted to Detect Gas Leaks

Curiosity: Robot Geologist and Chemist in One!


Sigh.  Why do people write such drivel (not you Robert!)

It's not a robot chemist or geologist.  Of itself Curiosity can't do anything.  The chemists and geologists are all back on Earth, using a sophisticated piece of automated kit remotely.  It makes as much sense to call my programmable microwave a robot chef.

This sort nonsense is downright harmful as it raises false expectations of unmanned missions and denigrates human achievement.  I don't know whether it is deliberate or unconscious, but it is sure as annoying as hell. 
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline Bob Shaw

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1243 on: 10/03/2014 10:08 pm »
Er... ...anybody considered that if Mt Sharp is indeed a sort of loose consolidation of aelioan deposits then it probably is going to be a bit less hard on the wheels than the base of the crater, where even the fluvial deposits don't appear to have been *extremely* rounded off? Of course, there *are* other interpretations of Mt Sharp...

Offline NovaSilisko

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1244 on: 10/03/2014 10:12 pm »
This sort nonsense is downright harmful as it raises false expectations of unmanned missions and denigrates human achievement.  I don't know whether it is deliberate or unconscious, but it is sure as annoying as hell.

On a semi-related note, the frequent focus on spin-offs kind of bothers me. It seems to me like it encourages a mindset of only caring about spaceflight if it does something directly beneficial to everyday life, as opposed to just for the sake of exploration or an increase of knowledge...

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1245 on: 10/04/2014 06:22 am »
Er... ...anybody considered that if Mt Sharp is indeed a sort of loose consolidation of aelioan deposits then it probably is going to be a bit less hard on the wheels than the base of the crater, where even the fluvial deposits don't appear to have been *extremely* rounded off? Of course, there *are* other interpretations of Mt Sharp...

if it was a loose consolidation it wouldn't be a mountain ;)

The sulphate-dominated parts may well be softer, as may be the clay-rich units.  On the other hand, haematitic units could be quite hard and, if there are silica deposits in with the clays these could be bad news also.  We don't know.
« Last Edit: 10/04/2014 10:21 am by Dalhousie »
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline Star One

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1246 on: 10/04/2014 08:27 am »

This sort nonsense is downright harmful as it raises false expectations of unmanned missions and denigrates human achievement.  I don't know whether it is deliberate or unconscious, but it is sure as annoying as hell.

On a semi-related note, the frequent focus on spin-offs kind of bothers me. It seems to me like it encourages a mindset of only caring about spaceflight if it does something directly beneficial to everyday life, as opposed to just for the sake of exploration or an increase of knowledge...

It's the standard way of defending spending on projects like this in the media. Mind you I can kind of see why it is considering you often see people ask well what practical use is this.

Offline robertross

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1247 on: 10/09/2014 10:47 pm »
10.08.2014
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA Prepares its Science Fleet for Oct. 19 Mars Comet Encounter

NASA's extensive fleet of science assets, particularly those orbiting and roving Mars, have front row seats to image and study a once-in-a-lifetime comet flyby on Sunday, Oct. 19.
Comet C/2013 A1, also known as comet Siding Spring, will pass within about 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of the Red Planet -- less than half the distance between Earth and our moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of Earth.

Siding Spring's nucleus will come closest to Mars around 11:27 a.m. PDT (2:27 p.m. EDT), hurtling at about 126,000 mph (56 kilometers per second). This proximity will provide an unprecedented opportunity for researchers to gather data on both the comet and its effect on the Martian atmosphere.
"This is a cosmic science gift that could potentially keep on giving, and the agency's diverse science missions will be in full receive mode," said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "This particular comet has never before entered the inner solar system, so it will provide a fresh source of clues to our solar system's earliest days."

Siding Spring came from the Oort Cloud, a spherical region of space surrounding our sun and occupying space at a distance between 5,000 and 100,000 astronomical units. It is a giant swarm of icy objects believed to be material left over from the formation of the solar system.

Siding Spring will be the first comet from the Oort Cloud to be studied up close by spacecraft, giving scientists an invaluable opportunity to learn more about the materials, including water and carbon compounds, that existed during the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.

Some of the best and most revealing images and science data will come from assets orbiting and roving the surface of Mars. In preparation for the comet flyby, NASA maneuvered its Mars Odyssey orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the newest member of the Mars fleet, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), in order to reduce the risk of impact with high-velocity dust particles coming off the comet.

The period of greatest risk to orbiting spacecraft will start about 90 minutes after the closest approach of the comet's nucleus and will last about 20 minutes, when Mars will come closest to the center of the widening trail of dust flying from the nucleus.

"The hazard is not an impact of the comet nucleus itself, but the trail of debris coming from it. Using constraints provided by Earth-based observations, the modeling results indicate that the hazard is not as great as first anticipated. Mars will be right at the edge of the debris cloud, so it might encounter some of the particles -- or it might not," said Rich Zurek, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The atmosphere of Mars, though much thinner that Earth's, will shield NASA Mars rovers Opportunity and Curiosity from comet dust, if any reaches the planet. Both rovers are scheduled to make observations of the comet.

NASA's Mars orbiters will gather information before, during and after the flyby about the size, rotation and activity of the comet's nucleus, the variability and gas composition of the coma around the nucleus, and the size and distribution of dust particles in the comet's tail.

Observations of the Martian atmosphere are designed to check for possible meteor trails, changes in distribution of neutral and charged particles, and effects of the comet on air temperature and clouds. MAVEN will have a particularly good opportunity to study the comet, and how its tenuous atmosphere, or coma, interacts with Mars' upper atmosphere.

Earth-based and space telescopes, including NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope, also will be in position to observe the unique celestial object. The agency's astrophysics space observatories -- Kepler, Swift, Spitzer, Chandra -- and the ground-based Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii -- also will be tracking the event.
NASA's asteroid hunter, the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), has been imaging, and will continue to image, the comet as part of its operations. And the agency's two Heliophysics spacecraft, Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) and Solar and Heliophysics Observatory (SOHO), also will image the comet. The agency's Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science (BOPPS), a sub-orbital balloon-carried telescope, already has provided observations of the comet in the lead-up to the close encounter with Mars.

Images and updates will be posted online before and after the comet flyby. Several pre-flyby images of Siding Spring, as well as information about the comet and NASA's planned observations of the event, are available online at:

http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring

Offline robertross

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1248 on: 11/06/2014 12:27 am »
Finally! An update!

11.04.2014
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Finds Mineral Match

Reddish rock powder from the first hole drilled into a Martian mountain by NASA's Curiosity rover has yielded the mission's first confirmation of a mineral mapped from orbit.
"This connects us with the mineral identifications from orbit, which can now help guide our investigations as we climb the slope and test hypotheses derived from the orbital mapping," said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Curiosity collected the powder by drilling into a rock outcrop at the base of Mount Sharp in late September. The robotic arm delivered a pinch of the sample to the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument inside the rover. This sample, from a target called "Confidence Hills" within the "Pahrump Hills" outcrop, contained much more hematite than any rock or soil sample previously analyzed by CheMin during the two-year-old mission. Hematite is an iron-oxide mineral that gives clues about ancient environmental conditions from when it formed.
In observations reported in 2010, before selection of Curiosity's landing site, a mineral-mapping instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provided evidence of hematite in the geological unit that includes the Pahrump Hills outcrop. The landing site is inside Gale Crater, an impact basin about 96 miles (154 kilometers) in diameter with the layered Mount Sharp rising about three miles (five kilometers) high in the center.

"We've reached the part of the crater where we have the mineralogical information that was important in selection of Gale Crater as the landing site," said Ralph Milliken of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. He is a member of Curiosity's science team and was lead author of that 2010 report in Geophysical Research Letters identifying minerals based on observations of lower Mount Sharp by the orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM). "We're now on a path where the orbital data can help us predict what minerals we'll find and make good choices about where to drill. Analyses like these will help us place rover-scale observations into the broader geologic history of Gale that we see from orbital data."

Much of Curiosity's first year on Mars was spent investigating outcrops in a low area of Gale Crater called "Yellowknife Bay," near the spot where the rover landed. The rover found an ancient lakebed. Rocks there held evidence of wet environmental conditions billions of years ago that offered ingredients and an energy source favorable for microbial life, if Mars ever had microbes. Clay minerals of interest in those rocks at Yellowknife Bay had not been detected from orbit, possibly due to dust coatings that interfere with CRISM's view of them.

The rover spent much of the mission's second year driving from Yellowknife Bay to the base of Mount Sharp. The hematite found in the first sample from the mountain tells about environmental conditions different from the conditions recorded in the rocks of Yellowknife Bay. The rock material interacted with water and atmosphere to become more oxidized.
The rocks analyzed earlier also contain iron-oxide minerals, mostly magnetite. One way to form hematite is to put magnetite in oxidizing conditions. The latest sample has about eight percent hematite and four percent magnetite. The drilled rocks at Yellowknife Bay and on the way to Mount Sharp contain at most about one percent hematite and much higher amounts of magnetite.

"There's more oxidation involved in the new sample," said CheMin Deputy Principal Investigator David Vaniman of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona.

The sample is only partially oxidized, and preservation of magnetite and olivine indicates a gradient of oxidation levels. That gradient could have provided a chemical energy source for microbes.

The Pahrump HIlls outcrop includes multiple layers uphill from its lowest layer, where the Confidence Hills sample was drilled. The layers vary in texture and may also vary in concentrations of hematite and other minerals. The rover team is now using Curiosity to survey the outcrop and assess possible targets for close inspection and drilling.

The mission may spend weeks to months at Pahrump Hills before proceeding farther up the stack of geological layers forming Mount Sharp. Those higher layers include an erosion-resistant band of rock higher on Mount Sharp with such a strong orbital signature of hematite, it is called "Hematite Ridge." The target drilled at Pahrump Hills is much softer and more deeply eroded than Hematite Ridge.
Another NASA Mars rover, Opportunity, made a key discovery of hematite-rich spherules on a different part of Mars in 2004. That finding was important as evidence of a water-soaked history that produced those mineral concretions. The form of hematite at Pahrump Hills is different and is most important as a clue about oxidation conditions. Plenty of other evidence in Gale Crater has testified to the ancient presence of water.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1746

Offline robertross

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1249 on: 11/13/2014 10:06 pm »
11.10.2014
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Newest NASA Mars Orbiter Demonstrates Relay Prowess

The newest node in NASA's Mars telecommunications network -- a radio aboard the MAVEN orbiter custom-designed for data links with robots on the surface of Mars -- handled a copious 550 megabits during its first relay of real Mars data.

MAVEN's Electra UHF radio received the transmission from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Nov. 6, using an adaptive data rate as the orbiter passed through the sky over the rover. The data that MAVEN relayed to NASA's Deep Space Network of large dish antennas on Earth included several images of terrain that Curiosity has been examining at the base of Mars' Mount Sharp. The test also included relaying data to Curiosity from Earth via MAVEN.

MAVEN (for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) entered orbit around Mars on Sept. 21. The orbiter is finishing a commissioning phase -- including calibration of its science instruments and fine tuning of its orbit -- before its prime science phase starts. MAVEN will investigate the upper atmosphere of Mars to provide understanding about processes that led to the loss of much of the original Martian atmosphere.

Two older NASA orbiters, Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, currently provide data relay for NASA's two active Mars rovers while also continuing to study Mars. Using relay via orbiters, compared with the rovers' capability to transmit directly to Earth, greatly increases science data return from the Martian surface.

MAVEN will be available during its prime science mission to provide relay services if issues arise with the other orbiters, and it may routinely provide relay support during an anticipated extended mission.

The Electra design is also on UHF radios aboard Curiosity and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It includes relay-enhancing features such as the ability to automatically adjust data rate to signal strength as the distance to the rover changes during the orbiter's overflight. MAVEN's orbit is more elongated than the orbits of either Mars Odyssey or Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. During the Nov. 6 test, MAVEN's distance from Curiosity ranged from about 680 miles to 2,300 miles (1,110 to 3,700 kilometers), farther than is typical in communication sessions between the Curiosity rover and the other orbiters.

MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN project. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, supplied and operates MAVEN's Electra payload and provides Deep Space Network support for the mission.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1750

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1250 on: 11/18/2014 11:56 pm »
Second Time Through, Mars Rover Examines Chosen Rocks

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4378

Quote
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has returned to the bottom of a three-story-slope to conduct close-up examinations of targets identified by an initial scouting climb.

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
« Last Edit: 11/18/2014 11:57 pm by catdlr »
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Offline robertross

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1251 on: 11/19/2014 12:09 am »
11.18.2014
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Second Time Through, Mars Rover Examines Chosen Rocks

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has returned to the bottom of a three-story-slope to conduct close-up examinations of targets identified by an initial scouting climb.


NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has completed a reconnaissance "walkabout" of the first outcrop it reached at the base of the mission's destination mountain and has begun a second pass examining selected rocks in the outcrop in more detail.

Exposed layers on the lower portion of Mount Sharp are expected to hold evidence about dramatic changes in the environmental evolution of Mars. That was a major reason NASA chose this area of Mars for this mission. The lowermost of these slices of time ascending the mountain includes a pale outcrop called "Pahrump Hills." It bears layers of diverse textures that the mission has been studying since Curiosity acquired a drilled sample from the outcrop in September.

In its first pass up this outcrop, Curiosity drove about 360 feet (110 meters), and scouted sites ranging about 30 feet (9 meters) in elevation. It evaluated potential study targets from a distance with mast-mounted cameras and a laser-firing spectrometer.

"We see a diversity of textures in this outcrop -- some parts finely layered and fine-grained, others more blocky with erosion-resistant ledges," said Curiosity Deputy Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Overlaid on that structure are compositional variations. Some of those variations were detected with our spectrometer. Others show themselves as apparent differences in cementation or as mineral veins. There's a lot to study here."

During a second pass up the outrcrop, the mission is using a close-up camera and spectrometer on the rover's arm to examine selected targets in more detail. The second-pass findings will feed into decisions about whether to drill into some target rocks during a third pass, to collect sample material for onboard laboratory analysis.

"The variations we've seen so far tell us that the environment was changing over time, both as the sediments were laid down and also after they hardened into bedrock," Vasavada said. "We have selected targets that we think give us the best chance of answering questions about how the sediments were deposited -- in standing water? flowing water? sand blowing in the wind? -- and about the composition during deposition and later changes."

The first target in the second pass is called "Pelona," a fine-grained, finely layered rock close to the September drilling target at the base of Pahrump Hills outcrop. The second is a more erosion-resistant ledge called "Pink Cliffs."

Before examining Pelona, researchers used Curiosity's wheels as a tool to expose a cross section of a nearby windblown ripple of dust and sand. One motive for this experiment was to learn why some ripples that Curiosity drove into earlier this year were more difficult to cross than anticipated.

While using the rover to investigate targets in Pahrump Hills, the rover team is also developing a work-around for possible loss of use of a device used for focusing the telescope on Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, the laser-firing spectrometer.

Diagnostic data from ChemCam suggest weakening of the instrument's smaller laser. This is a continuous wave laser used for focusing the telescope before the more powerful laser is fired. The main laser induces a spark on the target it hits; light from the spark is received though the telescope and analyzed with spectrometers to identify chemical elements in the target. If the smaller laser has become too weak to continue using, the ChemCam team plans to test an alternative method: firing a few shots from the main laser while focusing the telescope, before performing the analysis. This would take advantage of more than 2,000 autofocus sequences ChemCam has completed on Mars, providing calibration points for the new procedure.

Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012, but before beginning the drive toward Mount Sharp, the rover spent much of the mission's first year productively studying an area much closer to the landing site, but in the opposite direction. The mission accomplished its science goals in that Yellowknife Bay area. Analysis of drilled rocks there disclosed an ancient lakebed environment that, more than three billion years ago, offered ingredients and a chemical energy gradient favorable for microbes, if any existed there.

Curiosity spent its second year driving more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) from Yellowknife Bay to the base of Mount Sharp, with pauses at a few science waypoints.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1753

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1252 on: 12/03/2014 11:22 pm »
NASA to Hold Dec. 8 Media Teleconference on Mars Rover Curiosity Observations

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4396

NASA will host a media teleconference at 9 a.m. PST (noon EST) Monday, Dec. 8, to discuss geological observations made by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.

Teleconference participants will be:

-- Michael Meyer, Mars Exploration Program lead scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington

-- Sanjeev Gupta, Curiosity science team member at Imperial College in London

-- John Grotzinger, Curiosity project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California

-- Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena

Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012 in a crater 96 miles (154 kilometers) in diameter, dubbed Gale Crater. Researchers have since been using the rover to investigate the Red Planet to determine current environmental conditions and hunt for clues about the environments of ancient Mars. The rover currently is examining geological layers at the base of a layered mountain in the middle of the crater.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

Visuals for the teleconference will be posted at the start of the event at:

http://go.nasa.gov/curiositytelecon

The teleconference and visuals will be streamed together at:

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

For information about NASA's Curiosity rover mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

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Offline Dalhousie

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1253 on: 12/05/2014 08:17 pm »
NASA to Hold Dec. 8 Media Teleconference on Mars Rover Curiosity Observations

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4396

NASA will host a media teleconference at 9 a.m. PST (noon EST) Monday, Dec. 8, to discuss geological observations made by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.

Teleconference participants will be:

-- Michael Meyer, Mars Exploration Program lead scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington

-- Sanjeev Gupta, Curiosity science team member at Imperial College in London

-- John Grotzinger, Curiosity project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California

-- Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena

Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012 in a crater 96 miles (154 kilometers) in diameter, dubbed Gale Crater. Researchers have since been using the rover to investigate the Red Planet to determine current environmental conditions and hunt for clues about the environments of ancient Mars. The rover currently is examining geological layers at the base of a layered mountain in the middle of the crater.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

Visuals for the teleconference will be posted at the start of the event at:

http://go.nasa.gov/curiositytelecon

The teleconference and visuals will be streamed together at:

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

For information about NASA's Curiosity rover mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

Given the make up of the team present (Mars program lead, Curosity PS, Deputy PSI and Long Term Planner)  I would guess the conference is about where they go next.
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1254 on: 12/05/2014 08:33 pm »
11.18.2014
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Second Time Through, Mars Rover Examines Chosen Rocks

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has returned to the bottom of a three-story-slope to conduct close-up examinations of targets identified by an initial scouting climb.....

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1753

Given the complexity of the outcrop I find it surprising they didn't do the drive round before collecting the sample.
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline robertross

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1255 on: 12/08/2014 09:01 pm »
December 8, 2014

RELEASE 14-326
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Clues to How Water Helped Shape Martian Landscape

Observations by NASA’s Curiosity Rover indicate Mars' Mount Sharp was built by sediments deposited in a large lake bed over tens of millions of years.

This interpretation of Curiosity’s finds in Gale Crater suggests ancient Mars maintained a climate that could have produced long-lasting lakes at many locations on the Red Planet.

"If our hypothesis for Mount Sharp holds up, it challenges the notion that warm and wet conditions were transient, local, or only underground on Mars,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. “A more radical explanation is that Mars' ancient, thicker atmosphere raised temperatures above freezing globally, but so far we don't know how the atmosphere did that."

Why this layered mountain sits in a crater has been a challenging question for researchers. Mount Sharp stands about 3 miles (5 kilometers) tall, its lower flanks exposing hundreds of rock layers. The rock layers – alternating between lake, river and wind deposits -- bear witness to the repeated filling and evaporation of a Martian lake much larger and longer-lasting than any previously examined close-up.

"We are making headway in solving the mystery of Mount Sharp," said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. "Where there's now a mountain, there may have once been a series of lakes."

Curiosity currently is investigating the lowest sedimentary layers of Mount Sharp, a section of rock 500 feet (150 meters) high dubbed the Murray formation. Rivers carried sand and silt to the lake, depositing the sediments at the mouth of the river to form deltas similar to those found at river mouths on Earth. This cycle occurred over and over again.

"The great thing about a lake that occurs repeatedly, over and over, is that each time it comes back it is another experiment to tell you how the environment works," Grotzinger said. "As Curiosity climbs higher on Mount Sharp, we will have a series of experiments to show patterns in how the atmosphere and the water and the sediments interact. We may see how the chemistry changed in the lakes over time. This is a hypothesis supported by what we have observed so far, providing a framework for testing in the coming year."

After the crater filled to a height of at least a few hundred yards and the sediments hardened into rock, the accumulated layers of sediment were sculpted over time into a mountainous shape by wind erosion that carved away the material between the crater perimeter and what is now the edge of the mountain.

On the 5-mile (8-kilometer) journey from Curiosity’s 2012 landing site to its current work site at the base of Mount Sharp, the rover uncovered clues about the changing shape of the crater floor during the era of lakes.

"We found sedimentary rocks suggestive of small, ancient deltas stacked on top of one another," said Curiosity science team member Sanjeev Gupta of Imperial College in London. "Curiosity crossed a boundary from an environment dominated by rivers to an environment dominated by lakes."

Despite earlier evidence from several Mars missions that pointed to wet environments on ancient Mars, modeling of the ancient climate has yet to identify the conditions that could have produced long periods warm enough for stable water on the surface.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project uses Curiosity to assess ancient, potentially habitable environments and the significant changes the Martian environment has experienced over millions of years. This project is one element of NASA's ongoing Mars research and preparation for a human mission to the planet in the 2030s.

"Knowledge we're gaining about Mars' environmental evolution by deciphering how Mount Sharp formed will also help guide plans for future missions to seek signs of Martian life," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington.


http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/december/nasa-s-curiosity-rover-finds-clues-to-how-water-helped-shape-martian-landscape/

Offline robertross

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1256 on: 12/08/2014 09:05 pm »
video link to higher quality videos:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/videos/

(low quality attached)

Online catdlr

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1257 on: 12/08/2014 10:20 pm »
Curiosity Rover Report: The Making of Mount Sharp (Dec. 8, 2014)

Published on Dec 8, 2014
Layers of intrigue: See how a Martian mountain inside of a crater came to be

Tony De La Rosa, ...I'm no Feline Dealer!! I move mountains.  but I'm better known for "I think it's highly sexual." Japanese to English Translation.

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1258 on: 12/08/2014 11:49 pm »
Data trumps modelling every time.
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline John44

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #1259 on: 12/09/2014 12:57 pm »
NASA Teleconference - Mars Rover Curiosity Observations December 8
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9205

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