Fiscal yr 2015 NASA budget includes robotic mission to Jupiter's watery moon Europa, that could take place by 2025

By ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD
DAILYMAIL
March 5, 2014

2015 NASA budget in brief:
--2015 space budget remains essentially flat at $17.5 billion
--$15 million has been set aside to plan a mission to Europa
--Agency could have $1.1 billion for commercial flights to ISS
--Budget has $2.8 billion for rockets to launch manned missions
--James Webb Space Telescope, a successor to Hubble, will launch in 2018
--Budget also includes funds for a new telescope to probe dark energy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A daring robotic mission to Jupiter's watery moon Europa could take place by 2025.

...The space agency has set aside $15 million in its budget proposal to start planning some kind of mission to Europa. Nasa is making preparations to plan a robotic mission to Jupiter's watery moon Europa, a place where astronomers speculate there might be life

Nasa is making preparations to plan a robotic mission to Jupiter's watery moon Europa, a place where astronomers speculate there might be life, credit: AP

Nasa’s chief financial officer Elizabeth Robinson said the high radiation environment around Jupiter and distance from Earth would be a challenge. When Nasa sent Galileo to Jupiter in 1989, it took the spacecraft six years to get to the fifth planet from the sun. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute astronomer Laurie Leshin said it could be ‘a daring mission to an extremely compelling object in our solar system.’ Past Nasa probes have flown by Europa, especially Galileo, but none have concentrated on the moon, one of dozens orbiting Jupiter.

Astronomers have long lobbied for a mission to Europa, but proposals would have cost billions of dollars. Last year, scientists discovered liquid plumes of water shooting up through Europa's ice. Flying through those watery jets could make Europa cheaper to explore than just circling it or landing on the ice, said Nasa Europa scientist Robert Pappalardo.

Nasa will look at many competing ideas for a Europa mission, so the agency doesn't know how big or how much it will cost, Dr Robinson said. She said a major mission goal would be searching for life in the strange liquid water under the ice-covered surface. Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb said going to Europa would be more exciting than exploring dry Mars.
‘There might be fish under the ice,’ he said...

[Read the full article here by clicking here]

Former NASA scientist claims possible evidence of life on Mars got destroyed

posted by Open Minds Productions
Published on Feb 19, 2014

Former NASA Scientist Richard Hoover shares revelations with journalist Lee Speigel from the Huffington Post. Hoover talks about the fact that someone may have destroyed evidence of life on Mars. This took place at the Open Minds 2014 International UFO Congress and Film Festival in Fountain Hills Arizona

FAIR USE STATEMENT: This Video may contain copyrighted material, the use of which may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making this material available in an effort to advance understanding of , political, religion, human rights, economic, and social justice issues, etc

This video and/or material may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this video and/or information is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.Fair Use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of Fair Use (Moe, AllSeeingEye). If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'Fair Use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act-
In Aug 2008, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose, California, ruled that copyright holders cannot order a deletion of an online file without determining whether that posting reflected "fair use" of the copyrighted material.
[View the blog`s full Fair Use Copyright Disclaimer at the end of the homepage] 

Has a UFO been spotted on MARS?

Has Nasa's Curiosity rover spotted a UFO on MARS? Rover images reveals conical object streaking through the sky
--Image taken by the Curiosity rover on the Martian surface
--Shows white streaking object in the air which appears to have a conical shape and vapor trail
By DAILY MAIL
January 28, 2014 

UFO hunters believe that may have found evidence of a UFO streaking through the sky - on Mars.

They claim a picture taken by the Curiosity rover shows a possible extra terrestrial craft.
In the image, a bright object can been seen appearing to leave a trail in the Martian sky.

UFO spotters claim the object in the top right of the sky could be a UFO - saying the conical shape exhibits all the hallmarks of an extra terrestrial craft, credit JPL/NASA

The video, posted by prolific UFO hunter Streetcap1 uses an image stored on Nasa's servers.

'Enlargement of the object reveals a spherical top cone, a rounded center mass and what looks like some kind of propellant ejecting from its tail,' the Bublews site claims.



Does Mars have its own space program?'

According to the ufosightingsdaily site, 'Another UFO was caught in a Mars rover photo.

'If you look at it closely, you see that it has a trail behind it and it looks to be moving to the upper right side of the photo.' The image is one of several UFO hunters have claimed show mysterious objects in the sky. However on further inspection many turn out to be meteors in the sky.

One Youtube commenter points this out, saying 'I'm sure they will have a meteor excuse but the trail says otherwise.' The finding is not Curiosity's first brush with extraterrestrial life - according to some experts.

This iguana-shaped rock is seen on the top right of this image. It would be easy to miss, but the keen eye of Scott C. Warin, was able to spot the iguana rock in several photos taken by the Mars Curiosity rover

In May, a science blogger claimed to have spotted a lizard meandering around Mars. The unknown spotter from Japan alerted Mr Warin of the unusual sight. The claim, posted on UFO Sightings Daily, caused some excitable conspiracy theorists to fear that Nasa could be planting life on the planet for scientific testing. ‘Then again, is NASA placing animals from tiny cryogenic chambers inside the rover onto the surface of Mars to conduct tests?' he continued. 

Curiosity landed on Mars on August 6, 2012, and has spent its time investigating and analyzing the landscape and geology of the red planet. The $2.5 billion rover was sent to the planet to assess if the planet most like Earth has or ever had the chemical ingredients and environments for microbial life.

Forget global warming, worry about the Earth`s MAGNETOSPHERE...will Earth eventually turn into Mars?

Forget global warming, worry about the MAGNETOSPHERE: Earth's magnetic field is collapsing and it could affect the climate and wipe out power grids
--Earth's magnetic field has weakened by 15 per cent over the last 200 years
--Could be a sign that the planet's north and south poles are about to flip
--If this happens, solar winds could punch holes into the Earth's ozone layer
--This could damage power grids, affect weather and increase cancer rates
--Evidence of flip happening in the past has been uncovered in pottery
--As the magnetic shield weakens, the spectacle of an aurora would be visible every night all over the Earth

By ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD
DAILYMAIL
January 27, 2014

Deep within the Earth, a fierce molten core is generating a magnetic field capable of defending our planet against devastating solar winds.

The protective field extends thousands of miles into space and its magnetism affects everything from global communication to animal migration and weather patterns. But this magnetic field, so important to life on Earth, has weakened by 15 per cent over the last 200 years. And this, scientists claim, could be a sign that the Earth’s poles are about to flip.

The Earth's protective field extends thousands of miles into space and its magnetism affects everything from global communication to animal migration and weather patterns, credit: Ian Cuming/Ikon images/Crobis

The Earth's protective field extends thousands of miles into space and its magnetism affects everything from global communication to animal migration and weather patterns. Experts believe we're currently overdue a flip, but they're unsure when this could occur. 

If a switch happens, we would be exposed to solar winds capable of punching holes into the ozone layer. The impact could be devastating for mankind, knocking out power grids, radically changing Earth’s climate and driving up rates of cancer.

‘This is serious business’, Richard Holme, Professor of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences at Liverpool University told MailOnline. ‘Imagine for a moment your electrical power supply was knocked out for a few months – very little works without electricity these days.’

The Earth's climate would change drastically. In fact, a recent Danish study believes global warming is directly related to the magnetic field rather than CO2 emissions. The study claimed that the planet is experiencing a natural period of low cloud cover due to fewer cosmic rays entering the atmosphere.

The Earth's magnetic field explained:


Radiation at ground level would also increase, with some estimates suggesting overall exposure to cosmic radiation would double causing more deaths from cancer. Researchers predict that in the event of a flip, every year a hundred thousand people would die from the increased levels of space radiation.

'Radiation could be 3-5 times greater than that from the man-made ozone holes. Furthermore, the ozone holes would be larger and longer-lived,' said Dr Colin Forsyth from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at UCL.

The magnetosphere is a large area around the Earth produced by the planet's magnetic field. It presence means that charged particles of the solar wind are unable to cross the magnetic field lines and are deflected around the Earth, credit: NASA

The magnetosphere is a large area around the Earth produced by the planet’s magnetic field. It presence means that charged particles of the solar wind are unable to cross the magnetic field lines and are deflected around the Earth.

Space agencies are now taking the threat seriously. In November, three spacecraft were launched as part of the SWARM mission to uncover how the Earth’s magnetic field is changing.
The mission plans to provide better maps of our planet's magnetic field and help scientists understand the impact of space weather on satellite communication and GPS.

‘Whilst we have a basic understanding of the interior of the Earth, there is much we still don’t know,’ said Dr Forsyth. ‘We do not fully understand how the Earth’s magnetic field is generated, why it is variable and the timescales of these variations.’

The mission will provide a current map of Earth’s magnetic field. But historic evidence of its decline has already been found in a surprising source – ancient pottery. Scientists have discovered that ancient pots can act as a magnetic time capsule. This is because they contain an iron-based mineral called magnetite. When pots form, the magnetite minerals align with the Earth’s magnetic field, just like compass needles.

By examining pottery from prehistory to modern times, scientists have discovered just how dramatically the field has changed in the last few centuries. They’ve found that Earth’s magnetic field is in a permanent state of flux. Magnetic north drifts and every few hundred thousand years the polarity flips so a compass would point south instead of north. If the magnetic field continues to decline, over billions of years, Earth could end up like Mars - a once oceanic world that has become a dry, barren planet incapable of supporting life.

But scientists claim the rate of decline is too fast for the Earth’s core to simply burn out. Instead, the story told by ancient pottery suggests the Earth's poles could be about to undergo another flip.

According to the British Geological Survey, the Earth's magnetic field has on average four or five reversals in polarity every million years and we’re now overdue a similar event.
‘At the moment, we cannot accurately determine whether or not the Earth’s field is about to flip,’ said Dr Forsyth. ‘We have only been recording the Earth’s field for around 170 years; about 1-15 per cent of the time a flip is expected to take.’

If a flip occurs, it would cause the Earth’s magnetic shield to be weakened for thousands of years, opening up our defenses and causing cosmic radiation to get through.

'We have a double layer defense shield,' Jim Wild a space scientists at Lancaster University.
'Space is full of stuff that’s not great for biological tissue. If we didn’t have an atmosphere, that stuff would be hitting us. It’s the magnetic field protects atmosphere from the solar wind.'

‘Some speculative studies have suggested that as the Earth’s magnetic field weakens we could see an increase in cloud coverage in the troposphere and an increase in the polar ozone holes,’ added Dr Forsyth. 'This would be particularly evident in the northern hemisphere where up to 40 per cent of the ozone within the hole region could be lost, far greater than the current losses.’

In fact, in one area, there is evidence that a flip is already occurring. ‘The increasing strength of the South Atlantic anomaly, an area of weak field over Brazil, is already a problem,’ said Professor Holme.

Not all of the effects of a weak magnetic field will be bad. The much sought-after spectacle of an aurora would be visible every night all over the Earth as solar winds hit the atmosphere

‘Satellites flying over have far more problems than in other locations. Astrophysical satellite are just switched off in this location, but from my perspective, this isn’t much good if you want to study the Brazilian rainforest.’

'The very highly charged particles can have a deleterious effect on the satellites and astronauts,' added Dr Mona Kessel, a Magnetosphere discipline scientist at Nasa.
Scientists however, are quick to point out that while a magnetic flip could cause problems for mankind, the event won’t be a catastrophic.

‘We’ve had many reversals in the past, and haven’t been able to show that they had anything to do with, for example, mass extinctions,’ said Professor Holme. And not all of the effects will be bad. The much sought-after spectacle of an aurora would be visible every night all over the Earth as solar winds hit the atmosphere. There remains, however, much work yet to be done in understanding the properties of the deep Earth.

The Earth’s core is a hostile world where the crushing forces and temperatures, similar to that of the surface of the sun, take our scientific understanding and abilities to the limit.

'This isn't some crazy theory that might happen,' said Professor Wild. 'There is evidence, but we still need to do more science to understand the impact...I'm confidence we can come up with a solution.'

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

NASA designs largest rocket ever built, hopeful to carry man to Mars...finally

NASA reveal plans for the biggest rocket ever made to take man to Mars - dwarfing the shuttle and the Saturn rockets that took us to the moon
--Construction of the SLS system has already begun
--Rocket will be 384 feet tall and weigh 6.5 million pounds
--First test flight scheduled for 2017
--Will be able to carry 130 tonnes into space
--Expected to be used to launch far larger interplanetary probes
--Could be used as part of Manned Mars missions
By MARK PRIGG
DailyMail
January 15, 2014

NASA`s SLS rocket, set for launch in 2017 credit: NASA

It is set to become the largest rocket ever built, dwarfing the rockets that took man to the moon and paving the way for manned missions to Mars.

Nasa today reveal stunning new pictures of its SLS (Space Launch System), which will eventually be capable of lifting 130 tonnes into orbit.

The rocket will be used to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, and to help us explore the outer reaches of the solar system.

It is even hoped the craft could play a role in manned missions to Mars, being able to launch 'stepping stone' bases into orbit.

'The potential use of SLS for science will further enhance the synergy between scientific exploration and human exploration,' said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

'SLS has the promise of enabling transformational science in our exploration of the solar system and cosmos.'

Currently under construction, NASA’s Space Launch System will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle.

Designed to enable human exploration missions to deep space destinations, including an asteroid and Mars, SLS is working toward a first launch in 2017.

For that first flight test, the rocket will be able to launch 70 metric tons (77 tons) of payload into low-Earth orbit, almost three times what the space shuttle could carry.

From there, SLS will be evolved to a configuration that will be able to carry 130 metric tons (143 tons), more weight than any rocket ever has been able to carry.

'While many people think of the Space Launch System in terms of human exploration, SLS could have a wide application in a lot of other areas, including space science,” said Steve Creech, assistant program manager for strategy and partnerships for SLS.

How it compares: NASA`s SLS is larger than the Saturn V that took man to the moon, credit: NASA

NASA`s previous rockets: The Saturn, Shuttle and right: the smaller version of the SLS, credit: NASA

'For missions to the outer planets, for example, SLS could make it possible to do things that are currently impossible, such as sending larger scientific spacecraft with more instruments to far off destinations with reduced transit times.'

Agency scientific and engineering teams have been evaluating whether there would be potential benefits from launching deep space robotic spacecraft, such as the Europa Clipper, a proposed mission to one of Jupiter's icy moons, on the SLS rocket, and determined the rocket would enable the spacecraft to fly direct trajectories to our solar system’s outer planets, rather than using planetary gravities to gain speed, reducing transit time compared to current launch vehicles.

In the case of the Europa Clipper, for example, the transit time would be reduced to less than half of what it would be using other launch vehicles.

'For as long as people have been launching rockets into space, mission designers have had to work within certain limitations – a spacecraft can only be so heavy and it has to fit within a certain width,” Creech said.

'Depending on how large you make it, it can only go so fast, which in some cases limits where you can go.

An artists impression of the giant rocket taking off, credit: NASA

An artist`s impression of the vast hanger needed to set the rocket up for flight, credit: NASA

'Today, if you want to send a mission to the outer planets, you have to be able to make it fit within that box. With SLS, we’re about to make that box much larger.

'With the space shuttle, for example, we were able to launch missions like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope that were about the size of a school bus.

'With SLS, you can design a spacecraft even larger than the space shuttle that carried Hubble.
'It’s going to open up an entirely new way of thinking about how we plan and design planetary science missions.'

'The Space Launch System could be really game-changing for space science,” said ACO manager Reggie Alexander.

'For some missions, it makes it much easier and quicker to carry them out.

'A Mars sample return mission, for example, could be flown using only one rocket instead of three.

'But for other destinations, SLS lets you do things we could only dream of before – like collecting samples from the geysers of Saturn’s moon Enceladus.'

The top section of the rocket, credit: NASA

New study says life on Earth has another good 1.75 billion years to go...unless we humans screw it up beforehand

How Much Longer Can Earth Support Life?
[Life on Earth has another good 1.75 billion years to go, study says]
by Wynne Parry 
LiveScience
Sep. 18, 2013 

Earth could continue to host life for at least another 1.75 billion years, as long as nuclear holocaust, an errant asteroid or some other disaster doesn't intervene, a new study calculates.

But even without such dramatic doomsday scenarios, astronomical forces will eventually render the planet uninhabitable. Somewhere between 1.75 billion and 3.25 billion years from now, Earth will travel out of the solar system's habitable zone and into the "hot zone," new research indicates.

These zones are defined by water. In the habitable zone, a planet (whether in this solar system or an alien one) is just the right distance from its star to have liquid water. Closer to the sun, in the "hot zone," the Earth's oceans would evaporate. Of course, conditions for complex life — including humans — would become untenable before the planet entered the hot zone.

But the researchers' main concern was the search for life on other planets, not predicting a timeline for the end of life on this one.

The evolution of complex life on Earth suggests the process requires a lot of time.

Simple cells first appeared on Earth nearly 4 billion years ago. "We had insects 400 million years ago, dinosaurs 300 million years ago and flowering plants 130 million years ago," lead researcher Andrew Rushby of the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom said in a statement." Anatomically modern humans have only been around for the last 200,000 years — so you can see it takes a really long time for intelligent life to develop."

Rushby and his colleagues developed a new tool to help evaluate the amount of time available for the evolution of life on other planets: a model that predicts the time a planet would spend in its habitable zone. In the research, published Wednesday in the journal Astrobiology, they applied the model to Earth and eight other planets currently in the habitable zone, including Mars.

They calculated that Earth's habitable-zone lifetime is as long as 7.79 billion years. (Earth is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old.) Meanwhile, the other planets had habitable-zone lifetimes ranging from 1 billion years to 54.72 billion years.

"If we ever needed to move to another planet, Mars is probably our best bet," Rushby said in a statement. "It's very close and will remain in the habitable zone until the end of the sun's lifetime — 6 billion years from now."

While other models have been developed for Earth, they are not suitable for other planets, he added.


Original article published on LiveScience.

NASA Rover Finds Conditions Once Suited for Ancient Life on Mars

Read NASA/JPL`s full  Press Release - 03.12.13

Nasa's Curiosity rover finds conditions WERE once right for primitive life on Mars - and scientists say there was even DRINKABLE water on the red planet
--Groundbreaking analysis by the chemical lab onboard the Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars   
   could have supported living microbes
--Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon - some of the 
   key chemical ingredients for life - in the powder
By MARK PRIGG
DAILYMAIL
March 12, 2013

Nasa's Curiosity rover has found that the red planet could have once supported primitive life.
An analysis of a rock sample collected by the rover found key chemical ingredients.
'We have found a habitable environment that is so benign and supportive of life, that probably if this water was around and you had been there, you would have been able to drink it,' said John Grotzinger, Curiosity's project scientist.


This powered rock that shows there may once have been life on Mars: Analysis of a rock sample collected by the curiosity rover found key chemical ingredients for life, Nasa said today

'A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment,' said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington.

'From what we know now, the answer is yes.'

The groundbreaking analysis by the chemical lab onboard the Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes. Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon - some of the key chemical ingredients for life - in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet last month.

Clues to this habitable environment come from data returned by the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments.

The data indicated the Yellowknife Bay area the rover is exploring was the end of an ancient river system or an intermittently wet lake bed that could have provided chemical energy and other favorable conditions for microbes.

The rock is made up of a fine-grained mudstone containing clay minerals, sulfate minerals and other chemicals. This ancient wet environment, unlike some others on Mars, was not harshly oxidizing, acidic or extremely salty. The patch of bedrock where Curiosity drilled for its first sample lies in an ancient network of stream channels descending from the rim of Gale Crater.

The bedrock also is fine-grained mudstone and shows evidence of multiple periods of wet conditions, including nodules and veins.


This set of images shows the different types of rocks seen by NASA's Opportunity rover and Curiosity rover at two different parts of Mars. On the left is 'Wopmay' rock, in Endurance Crater, Meridiani Planum, as studied by the Opportunity rover. On the right are the rocks of the 'Sheepbed' unit in Yellowknife Bay, in Gale Crater, as seen by Curiosity.

Curiosity's drill collected the sample at a site just a few hundred yards away from where the rover earlier found an ancient streambed in September 2012.

'Clay minerals make up at least 20 percent of the composition of this sample,' said David Blake, principal investigator for the CheMin instrument at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
These clay minerals are a product of the reaction of relatively fresh water with igneous minerals, such as olivine, also present in the sediment, Nasa said.

The reaction could have taken place within the sedimentary deposit, during transport of the sediment, or in the source region of the sediment.

The presence of calcium sulfate along with the clay suggests the soil is neutral or mildly alkaline.

Scientists were surprised to find a mixture of oxidized, less-oxidized, and even non-oxidized chemicals, providing an energy gradient of the sort many microbes on Earth exploit to live.
This partial oxidation was first hinted at when the drill cuttings were revealed to be gray rather than red.


This side-by-side comparison shows the X-ray diffraction patterns of two different samples collected from the Martian surface by NASA's Curiosity rover. The Rocknest reading (left) suggests a dry, aeolian (wind-shaped) environment with low water activity. The John Klein pattern (right) suggests a lacustrine (lakebed) environment with high water activity.

'The range of chemical ingredients we have identified in the sample is impressive, and it suggests pairings such as sulfates and sulfides that indicate a possible chemical energy source for micro-organisms,' said Paul Mahaffy, principal investigator of the SAM suite of instruments at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

An additional drilled sample will be used to help confirm these results for several of the trace gases analyzed by the SAM instrument.

'We have characterized a very ancient, but strangely new 'gray Mars' where conditions once were favorable for life,' said John Grotzinger, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.


This false-color map shows the area within Gale Crater on Mars, where NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Aug. 5, and the location where Curiosity collected its first drilled sample at the 'John Klein' rock

'Curiosity is on a mission of discovery and exploration, and as a team we feel there are many more exciting discoveries ahead of us in the months and years to come.'

Scientists now plan to work with Curiosity in the 'Yellowknife Bay' area for many more weeks before beginning a long drive to Gale Crater's central mound, Mount Sharp.

Investigating the stack of layers exposed on Mount Sharp, where clay minerals and sulfate minerals have been identified from orbit, may add information about the duration and diversity of habitable conditions.

Newest discovery on Mars: Robotic finger or door handle to hidden chamber? You decide

The wild theories after Mars rover Curiosity discovers mysterious metal object sticking out of rock

UPDATE (2/13/13): NASA says `wait nothing to see here,' just a result of natural wind-erosion 

• Images show bizarre shiny object protruding from the surface
• Metallic object likely to measure just 0.5cm or less
• Pictures beamed back from Mars show small hole surrounded by dust
• Mission scientists to assess dust to see whether it can be analysed
• Analysis should show whether life has ever existed on the planet

By DAMIEN GAYLE
DAILYMAIL
February 8, 2013

Nasa's Curiosity rover has discovered a mysterious metal object emerging from rock on the surface of Mars.

These images were captured by a camera on Curiosity, and reveal the bizarre finger-like structure protruding from the Martian surface and casting a shadow on to the rock below.
Science buffs have suggested the small, shiny-looking object, which makes for an incongruous sight amid the rocks, could be composed of material less susceptible to erosion than its surroundings.


Robotic finger? An image captured by Nasa's Curiosity rover shows the strange metallic object protruding from the surface of the rock


Incongruous: The unidentified object is seen nestled on the rocky surface

A report on Universe Today said the structure was likely to measure just 0.5cm or less.
It was spotted in the picture beamed back from Mars, which was taken on January 30.

Pictures of the mysterious object emerged after Curiosity drilled its first hole in the surface of Mars, to generate dust it can analyse to detect any traces of life which may once have existed on the planet.

(Click here to read and view the full article)

Video explaining the recent discovery by Curiosity rover of an ancient streambed on Mars.

Curiosity science team member Sanjeev Gupta explains how rounded pebbles spotted by the rover are convincing evidence of an ancient streambed on Mars.


Published on Sep 28, 2012 by JPLnews


FAIR USE STATEMENT: This Video may contain copyrighted material, the use of which may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making this material available in an effort to advance understanding of , political, religion, human rights, economic, and social justice issues, etc

This video and/or material may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this video and/or information is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.Fair Use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of Fair Use (Moe, AllSeeingEye). If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'Fair Use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act-
In Aug 2008, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose, California, ruled that copyright holders cannot order a deletion of an online file without determining whether that posting reflected "fair use" of the copyrighted material.
[View the blog`s full Fair Use Copyright Disclaimer at the end of the homepage] 

Mars Curiosity rover images ancient stream-bed once flowing with water

New hope for life on Mars as Curiosity beams back pictures proving planet was covered in 'waist-deep' streams of water
By DAILY MAIL
September 27, 2012

Hopes that Mars could have supported life have received a boost following the discovery of evidence that water once flowed on the planet in streams several feet deep.

The news, which has left top NASA scientists 'excited', comes thanks to photographs of bedrock beamed back from the red planet by the Curiosity rover.

There have been previous signs that water existed on Mars long ago, but the images released on Thursday showing pebbles rounded off, probably by water, offered the most convincing evidence so far of an ancient streambed which could have been waist-deep.

Carved out: These rounded rocks on Mars were probably caused by rnning water, according to scientists

There was 'a vigorous flow on the surface of Mars,' said chief scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology. 'We're really excited about this.'

The discovery did not come as a complete surprise. NASA decided to land Curiosity inside Gale Crater near the Martian equator because photos from space hinted that the spot possessed a watery past.

The six-wheeled rover safely landed on August 5 after a nail-biting plunge through the Martian atmosphere. It is on a two-year, $2.5billion mission to study whether the Martian environment could have been favorable for microbial life.

Mars is now a frozen desert with no hint of water on its radiation-scarred surface, but geological studies of rocks by previous missions suggest the planet used to be warmer and wetter.

Exciting: The discovery, beamed back by the Curiosity rover, makes it more likely that Mars once supported life

Spot the difference: The Martian landscape, left, is similar to bedrock formations on Earth, right

The latest evidence came from photos that Curiosity took revealing rounded pebbles and gravel - a sign that the rocks were transported long distances by water and smoothed out.
The size of the rocks - ranging from a sand grain to a golf ball - indicates that they could not have been carried by wind, said mission scientist Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona.

Though Curiosity did not use its high-tech instruments to drill into the rocks or analyze their chemical makeup, Mr Grotzinger said scientists were sure that water played a role based on just studying the pictures.

It is unclear how long the water persisted on the surface, but it easily could have lasted 'thousands to millions of years,' said mission scientist Bill Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley.

Procession: This overhead image shows the route Curiosity is currently travelling across Mars

Curiosity chanced upon the dried-up streambed while driving to Glenelg, an intriguing spot where three types of terrain meet. Its ultimate destination is Mount Sharp, a mountain rising from the center of crater floor, but it is not expected to travel there until the end of the year.

Finding past water is a first step toward learning whether the environment could have supported microbes. Scientists generally agree that besides water and an energy source such as the sun, organic carbon is a necessary prerequisite for life.

While an ancient streambed holds promise as a potentially habitable environment, scientists do not think it is a good place to preserve the carbon building blocks of life.

The rover will therefore continue its trek to the foothills of Mount Sharp where there is a better chance of finding organic material.

India to launch Mars mission in 2013

France24 News
September 17, 2012

credit: NASA

AFP - India plans to launch a space probe that will orbit Mars in November 2013, a senior official from the country's space research establishment said on Monday.

"We are scheduling to launch the Mars mission November 27, 2013 when the red planet will be closer to the earth," K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told reporters in Bangalore.

"We plan to put a spacecraft in an elliptical orbit for studying its atmosphere and detect presence of life on its surface," he said in the southern Indian city, where ISRO is headquartered.

The project would mark another step in India's ambitious space programme, which placed a probe on the moon three years ago and envisages its first manned mission in 2016.

According to Radhakrishnan, the unmanned mission could cost nearly five billion rupees ($90 million).

India has a well-established space programme, which is a source of strong national pride, but it has also attracted criticism as the government struggles to tackle dire poverty and child malnutrition.

In September 2009, India's Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe discovered water on the moon, boosting the country's credibility among more experienced space-faring nations.

But the space programme suffered a setback in December 2010 when a satellite launch vehicle blew up and fell into the Bay of Bengal after veering from its intended flight path.

The United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and China have all sent missions to Mars.

The US robot Curiosity is currently on the surface of the "Red Planet" after landing on Mars more than a month ago.

It is a nuclear-powered vehicle that is designed for a two-year mission, though scientists hope it will last at least twice that long.

Most High-Res video frames from Mars Curiosity rover`s descent to Mars

Published on Aug 23, 2012 by JPLnews

This movie from NASA's Curiosity rover shows most of the high-resolution frames acquired by the Mars Descent Imager between the jettison of the heat shield and touchdown.


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Mars Curiosity rover starts first drive on Martian planet

This 360-degree panorama shows evidence of a successful first test drive for NASA's Curiosity rover. On Aug. 22, 2012, the rover made its first move, going forward about 15 feet (4.5 meters), rotating 120 degrees and then reversing about 8 feet (2.5 meters). Curiosity is about 20 feet (6 meters) from its landing site, now named Bradbury Landing.

Visible in the image are the rover's first track marks. A small 3.5-inch (9-centimeter) rock can be seen where the drive began, which engineers say was partially under one of the rear wheels. Scour marks left by the rover's descent stage during landing can be seen to the left and right of the wheel tracks. The lower slopes of Mount Sharp are visible at the top of the picture, near the center.

This mosaic from the rover's Navigation camera is made up of 23 full-resolution frames, displayed in a cylindrical projection.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has begun driving from its landing site, which scientists announced today they have named for the late author Ray Bradbury.

Making its first movement on the Martian surface, Curiosity's drive combined forward, turn and reverse segments. This placed the rover roughly 20 feet (6 meters) from the spot where it landed 16 days ago.

NASA has approved the Curiosity science team's choice to name the landing ground for the influential author, who was born 92 years ago today and died this year. The location where Curiosity touched down is now called Bradbury Landing.

View from Hazard Avoidance camera Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

"This was not a difficult choice for the science team," said Michael Meyer, NASA program scientist for Curiosity. "Many of us and millions of other readers were inspired in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the possibility of life on Mars."

Curiosity`s first drive tracks on Bradbury Landing, Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

 Today's drive confirmed the health of Curiosity's mobility system and produced the rover's first wheel tracks on Mars, documented in images taken after the drive. During a news conference today at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the mission's lead rover driver, Matt Heverly, showed an animation derived from visualization software used for planning the first drive.

"We have a fully functioning mobility system with lots of amazing exploration ahead," Heverly said.

Curiosity will spend several more days of working beside Bradbury Landing, performing instrument checks and studying the surroundings, before embarking toward its first driving destination approximately 1,300 feet (400 meters) to the east-southeast.

"Curiosity is a much more complex vehicle than earlier Mars rovers. The testing and characterization activities during the initial weeks of the mission lay important groundwork for operating our precious national resource with appropriate care," said Curiosity Project Manager Pete Theisinger of JPL. "Sixteen days in, we are making excellent progress."

The science team has begun pointing instruments on the rover's mast for investigating specific targets of interest near and far. The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument used a laser...

(click here to continue reading the article at NASA)

More information about Curiosity is online at:
http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

credit: 
Guy Webster/D.C. Agle 818-354-6278/818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov / agle@jpl.nasa.gov 
Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov 

Mars rover Curiosity zaps it`s first Martian rock with a laser

Let's hope no Martians are watching! Nasa's Curiosity vapourises part of the nearest rock with a laser

• Successful ChemCham test described as 'target practice'
• Laser sent 30 pulses over 10 seconds to vapourise a pinhead sized piece of rock, which was then analysed by a microscope on Curiosity

By MARK PRIGG
DAILYMAIL
PUBLISHED: 20 August 2012

The Mars rover Curiosity zapped its first rock on Sunday with a high-powered laser gun designed to analyze Martian mineral content, and scientists declared their target practice a success.

The robotic science lab aimed its laser beam at the fist-sized stone nearby and shot the rock with 30 pulses over a 10-second period, NASA said in a statement issued from mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles.

Each pulse delivers more than 1 million watts of energy for about five one-billionths of a second, vapourising a pinhead-sized bit of the rock to create a tiny spark, which is analyzed by a small telescope mounted on the instrument.

Curiosity has begun its science mission on Mars by 'zapping' a rock with its laser analysis equipment.

The ionized glow, which can be observed and recorded from up to 25 feet away, is then split into its component wavelengths by three spectrometers that give scientists information about the chemical makeup of the target rock.

The combined system, called the Chemistry-and-Camera instrument, or ChemCam, is capable of discerning more than 6,000 different wavelengths in the ultraviolet, infrared and visible light spectrum and is designed to take about 14,000 measurements throughout Curiosity's Mars mission.

The purpose of Sunday's initial use of the laser, conducted at roughly 3 a.m. Pacific time (7.00 a.m. EDT), was as 'target practice' for the instrument.

But scientists will examine the data they receive to determine composition of the rock, which they dubbed 'Coronation,' NASA said.

'We got a great spectrum of Coronation - lots of signal,' said ChemCam principal investigator Roger Wiens of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the instrument was developed.

'After eight years of building the instrument, it's payoff time.'

Curiosity, a one-ton, six-wheeled vehicle the size of a compact car, landed inside a vast, ancient impact crater near Mars' equator on August 6 after an eight-month, 354-million-mile voyage through space.

Its two-year mission is aimed at determining whether or not the planet most like Earth could have hosted microbial life.

The first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The square inset is further magnified and processed to show the difference between images taken before and after the test.

The rover's primary target is Mount Sharp, a towering mound of layered rock rising from the floor of Gale Crater. But mission controllers are gradually checking out Curiosity's sophisticated array of instruments before sending it on its first road trip across the Martian landscape.

The $2.5 billion Curiosity project marks NASA's first astrobiology mission since the Viking probes to Mars during the 1970s and the most advanced robotic science lab sent to another world.

The technique employed by ChemCam has been used to examine the composition of materials in other extreme environments, such as inside nuclear reactors and on the sea floor.

The technology also has experimental applications in environmental monitoring and cancer detection.

But Sunday's exercise, conducted during Curiosity's 13th full day on Mars, was the first use in interplanetary exploration, NASA said...

(Click here to read the full article on DAILYMAIL)