Showing posts with label Opportunity rover. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opportunity rover. Show all posts
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Mars Rock Mysteriously Appears
NASA scientists are baffled by a piece of rock that has mysteriously appeared in front of the Mars Opportunity rover. The doughnut-sized rock, nicknamed Pinnacle Island, showed up in photos taken a few days ago but is noticeably absent from photos snapped earlier this month. The six-wheeled rover has not moved in several weeks due to rough weather conditions on the Red Planet. News of the strange rock was announced by NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres. More at Discovery News
A comparison of two raw Pancam photographs from sols 3528 and 3540 of Opportunity's mission (a sol is a Martian day). Notice the "jelly doughnut"-sized rock in the center of the photograph to the right. Minor adjustments for brightness and contrast. NASA/JPL-CALTECH
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Mars Opportunity rover wakes up from winter hibernation alongside Endeavor crater
Spring time on Mars: Nasa's Rover Opportunity wakes up from winter sleep to incredible view over misty blue Endeavour crater
By ROB WAUGH
Daily Mail
May 24, 2012
Nasa's Mars Rover Opportunity recently 'woke up' from a winter-long 'sleep' where it couldn't charge its solar panels - but even while it rested, it found time to capture a spectacular image of the 14-mile-wide Endeavour crater, the largest the robot vehicle has explored.
The Rover even 'sees itself' using its panoramic camera - Pancam - as it took the mosaic image between 4.30 and 5pm, local time on Mars.
Most of the component images were recorded during the 2,888th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars. Opportunity had spent 19 weeks stuck in one place to 'weather out' the dark months of the Martian winter on an outcrop called Greeley Haven.
At that time, Opportunity was spending low-solar-energy weeks of the Martian winter at the Greeley Haven outcrop on the Cape York segment of Endeavour's western rim.
Opportunity has worked through four Martian southern hemisphere winters since it landed in in January 2004 about 14 miles northwest of its current location.
Closer to the equator than its twin rover, Spirit, Opportunity has not needed to stay on a sun-facing slope during the previous winters.
Now, however, Opportunity's solar panels carry a thicker coating of dust, and the team is using a strategy employed for three winters with Spirit: staying on a sun-facing slope.
In order to give the mosaic a rectangular aspect, some small parts of the edges of the mosaic and sky were filled in with parts of an image acquired earlier as part of a 360-degree panorama from the same location.
Opportunity has been studying the western rim of Endeavour Crater since arriving there in August 2011. This crater spans 14 miles , or about the same area as the city of Seattle.
This is more than 20 times wider than Victoria Crater, the largest impact crater that Opportunity had previously examined. The interior basin of Endeavour is in the upper half of this view.
The view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see, such as the dark sandy ripples and dunes on the crater's distant floor.
Daily Mail
May 24, 2012
Nasa's Mars Rover Opportunity recently 'woke up' from a winter-long 'sleep' where it couldn't charge its solar panels - but even while it rested, it found time to capture a spectacular image of the 14-mile-wide Endeavour crater, the largest the robot vehicle has explored.
The Rover even 'sees itself' using its panoramic camera - Pancam - as it took the mosaic image between 4.30 and 5pm, local time on Mars.
 |
| The Rover even 'sees itself' using its panoramic camera - Pancam - as it took the mosaic image between 4.30 and 5pm, local time on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL [larger image] |
At that time, Opportunity was spending low-solar-energy weeks of the Martian winter at the Greeley Haven outcrop on the Cape York segment of Endeavour's western rim.
Opportunity has worked through four Martian southern hemisphere winters since it landed in in January 2004 about 14 miles northwest of its current location.
Closer to the equator than its twin rover, Spirit, Opportunity has not needed to stay on a sun-facing slope during the previous winters.
Now, however, Opportunity's solar panels carry a thicker coating of dust, and the team is using a strategy employed for three winters with Spirit: staying on a sun-facing slope.
 |
| A view captured by Opportunity before starting its first drive of 2012. The Rover has been 'stuck' in the same place for 19 weeks, waiting for the sun to provide enough power. Credit: NASA/JPL |
Opportunity has been studying the western rim of Endeavour Crater since arriving there in August 2011. This crater spans 14 miles , or about the same area as the city of Seattle.
This is more than 20 times wider than Victoria Crater, the largest impact crater that Opportunity had previously examined. The interior basin of Endeavour is in the upper half of this view.
The view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see, such as the dark sandy ripples and dunes on the crater's distant floor.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Best evidence yet of water on ancient Mars
Article:
NASA Rover Finds Convincing Evidence of Water on Ancient Mars
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior WriterDate: 07 December 2011 Time: 09:07 PM ET
The Opportunity rover, which landed on Mars nearly eight years ago, has discovered a thin, bright mineral vein along the rim of a huge crater called Endeavour. This mineral is almost certainly gypsum that was deposited by liquid water billions of years ago, researchers said.
...After analyzing the vein with Opportunity's cameras and X-ray spectrometer last month, researchers concluded that it is gypsum, a hydrated calcium sulfate that on Earth is used to make drywall and plaster of Paris. The vein likely formed right where Opportunity found it, researchers said.
"There was a fracture in the rock, water flowed through it, gypsum was precipitated from the water. End of story," Squyres said. "There's no ambiguity about this, and this is what makes it so cool..."
NASA Rover Finds Convincing Evidence of Water on Ancient Mars
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior WriterDate: 07 December 2011 Time: 09:07 PM ET
This color view of a mineral vein called "Homestake" comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU
SAN FRANCISCO — A well-traveled NASA Mars rover has found some of the best evidence yet that water flowed on the Red Planet's surface long ago, researchers announced today (Dec. 7).CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU
The Opportunity rover, which landed on Mars nearly eight years ago, has discovered a thin, bright mineral vein along the rim of a huge crater called Endeavour. This mineral is almost certainly gypsum that was deposited by liquid water billions of years ago, researchers said.
...After analyzing the vein with Opportunity's cameras and X-ray spectrometer last month, researchers concluded that it is gypsum, a hydrated calcium sulfate that on Earth is used to make drywall and plaster of Paris. The vein likely formed right where Opportunity found it, researchers said.
"There was a fracture in the rock, water flowed through it, gypsum was precipitated from the water. End of story," Squyres said. "There's no ambiguity about this, and this is what makes it so cool..."
Additional Resource:
[Rubaiat`s Blog] Post (11/02/11): NASA Study of Clays Suggests Watery Mars Underground
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