Mars rover says: 'good evening gale crater!'

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Nasa’s Curiosity Mars rover has captured photos of the first Martian sand dune ever studied.

The rover encountered these dunes on an excursion up a layered mountain. The Martian sand dunes are a part of ‘Bagnold Dunes,' which run along the northwestern side of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater.

The Martian sand dunes are a part of ‘Bagnold Dunes, which run along the northwestern side of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. The images show the rippled surface of the ‘High Dune,’ taken by the Curiosity’s Mast Camera, and have been adjusted slightly to resemble daytime conditions on Earth


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.

Curiosity currently is investigating the lowest sedimentary layers of Mount Sharp, a section of rock 500 feet (150 meters) high dubbed the Murray formation.

The Gale Crater once contained lakes that remained for up to 10,000 years at a time - long enough to support life.

Rock formations photographed by the rover suggest that long ago a transient water system of deltas and lakes dominated the landscape.

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.

In 2005, the wheels of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity dug more than 10 centimeters (4 inches) deep into the soft, sandy material of a wind-shaped ripple in Mars' Meridiani Planum region during the rover's 446th martian day, or sol (April 26, 2005).

Getting the rover out of the ripple, dubbed "Purgatory Dune," required more than five weeks of planning, testing, and carefully monitored driving.

Opportunity used its navigation camera to capture this look back at the ripple during sol 491 (June 11, 2005), a week after the rover drove safely onto firmer ground.

The ripple that became a sand trap is about one-third meter (one foot) tall and 2.5 meters (8 feet) wide.

A wheel track left by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover exposes underlying material in a shallow sand sheet in this Dec. 2, 2015, view from Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam)

 

[PCGamerDR]

Can i ask where you guys get these pictures? i wanna set some of those as wallpapers

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

@PCGamerDR
Check my avatar. I have early access.

Please pm me.

Not really.......all items, pics or quotes come with credits to original artists or authors. If NASA isnt providing them i think its little green people with smart phones.

Check bottom left of pics for credits please in my posts.

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has drilled a hole into the surface of the planet and is collecting samples of the powdery results for analysis. NBC’s Lester Holt reports.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/33102980/ns/technology_and_science-mars_rover?q=Mars Rover


THE BEST PHOTO/WALLPAPER SOURCE
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

 

[PCGamerDR]

@PCGamerDR
Check my avatar. I have early access.

Please pm me.

Not really.......all items, pics or quotes come with credits to original artists or authors. If NASA isnt providing them i think its little green people with smart phones.

Check bottom left of pics for credits please in my posts.

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has drilled a hole into the surface of the planet and is collecting samples of the powdery results for analysis. NBC’s Lester Holt reports.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/33102980/ns/technology_and_science-mars_rover?q=Mars Rover


THE BEST PHOTO/WALLPAPER SOURCE
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

Haha! will do thanks

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Not rover pics.




More than a decade ago, Nasa announced the discovery of gullies carved in the surface of Mars, new research suggests these pathways were actually created by blocks of dry ice.

'Martian gully land forms resemble terrestrial debris flows formed by the action of liquid water,' said Dr Cedric Pilorget of Paris-Sud University of France.
'[They] have been interpreted as evidence for potential habitable environments on Mars within the past few millennia,' said Dr Cedric Pilorget of Paris-Sud University of France.
'However, ongoing gully formation has been detected under surface conditions much too cold for liquid water, but at times in the Martian year when a thin layer of seasonal CO2 frost is present and defrosting above the surface.'
Dr Cedric Pilorget and his team used computer simulations of the Martian surface to model the planet's underlying CO2 ice layer and atmosphere.
The models showed that the pores beneath the ice layer can be filled with CO2 ice and subjected to extreme pressure variations during the defrosting season.
'The subsequent gas fluxes can destabilize the surface material and induce gas-lubricated debris flows with geomorphic characteristics similar to Martian gullies,' he said

In 1888, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli announced the discovery of a network of narrow lines on Mars, which he described as 'canali,' an Italian word that means 'channels.'

In 1971, observations from the Mariner 9 suggested Mars could have had rivers and oceans in its history, but due to its weak gravity and thin atmosphere the water evaporated.

In the past 15 years, more evidence was sent back from five landers that suggested there was water on Mars.

The Phoenix dug patches of soil in 2008 that consisted of material that disappeared a few days later, suggesting the water vaporized in the soil samples.

Other evidence of subsurface water was confirmed five years, based on the Martian climate changes that allowed water to trickle into the ground.

Back in 2013, the Mars Curiosity rover discovered the extent of H2O present on the surface with two percent of water in every cubic foot of red soil.

THIS DOESN'T MEAN THERE ISN'T FLOWING WATER ON MARS

These dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks called recurring slope lineae flowing downhill on Mars are inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water. Scientists detected hydrated salts on these slopes, corroborating their original hypothesis that the streaks are indeed formed by liquid water.

Water on Mars

Water on Mars

Earlier this year scientists provided the best estimates yet, claiming Mars once had more water than the Arctic Ocean - and the planet kept these oceans for more than 1.5 billion years.

The findings suggest there was ample time and water for life on Mars to thrive, but over the last 3.7 billion years the red planet has lost 87 per cent of its water - leaving it barren and dry.

The study by scientists at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is the first to determine just how much water Mars had in its past.

During its wet Noachian period - 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago - it is estimated that it had enough water to cover the entire surface in a liquid layer 450 feet (137 metres) deep.

However, it's likely that most of the water formed an ocean that occupied the northern hemisphere of Mars, which would have been as deep as one mile (1.6km) in places - comparable to the Mediterranean Sea on Earth.

Published in the journal Science, the research estimates that, in total, what is now the planet's arid northern plains would have contained at least 12.4 million cubic miles (20 million cubic kilometres) of water.

'Our study provides a solid estimate of how much water Mars once had, by determining how much water was lost to space,' said Dr Geronimo Villanueva, first author of the paper and a scientist at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center.

'With this work, we can better understand the history of water on Mars.'

It is thought that while 87 per cent of the water has since been lost to space, owing largely to the planet losing its atmosphere, the remaining 13 per cent resides in the ice caps.

But in the past, the ocean would have covered about 20 per cent of the planet's surface area.

The most interesting conclusion, though, is that Mars stayed wet for longer than previously thought, which means it was habitable for longer.

'We now know that Mars was wet for a much longer time than we thought before,' said Dr Michael Mumma, co-author of the study and Senior Scientist at Nasa Goddard.

'Curiosity shows it was wet for 1.5 billion years, already much longer than the period of time needed for life to develop on Earth.

'And now we see that Mars must have been wet for a period even longer.'

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Nasa's Curiosity rover celebrated its arrival at the lee face of Namib Dune by taking its first ever coloured self-portrait.

The rover has used the Mastcam colour camera to take thousands of high resolution panoramic images of the red planet, but this is the first image taken of the rover's deck by the sensor.

Andrew Bodrov, a member of the International Virtual Reality Photography Association, stitched together the series of images to create a mosaic that stretches about 30,000 pixels in width and includes 138 images, including the deck of the rover and the seldom seen robotic arm that holds the MAHLI camera.

Curiosity has been using the MAHLI, a camera attached at the end of its robotic arm, to take self-portraits and pictures of the Martian land.

But with its arrival at the lee side of the active sand dune, scientists believe the deck camera is necessary to look for grains of sand that have blown onto the rover from the dune.

Although the self-portrait does not include the rover mast, it does contain the robotic arm that has been missing from previous photos.

I've collaged thumbnails of all of the individual images that include rover hardware, so you can see just how many frames it took to cover the whole thing,' stated Bodrov.

'Near the horizon, it takes 30 individual Mastcam frames to cover the full 360 degrees around the rover; they can use fewer as they go downward in elevation, but it still takes a lot of frames to cover the hemisphere.'

Bodrov noticed the deck was incredibly dusty, but found it fascinating how nonuniformed the dust was distributed.

'The cups that acted as lens caps for the cameras during landing (when the rover mast was folded down to the deck) are fairly uniformly filled with dust,' he explained.

'The front end of the rover is very, very, very dusty.'

'Yet the center of the deck is relatively dust free.'

'It's sort of sad that one of the dustiest spots on the rover is the bit of elevated deck that carries the calibration target for the Mastcams—it's so covered with dust now, I wonder how useful it is.'

Curiosity's dirty deck (pictured). It landed outside of Namib Dune earlier this month, which is an enormous region of rippled dark sand dunes known as Bagnold Dunes

The plan includes a Mastcam image of the rover deck to monitor the movement of particles,' wrote MSL science team member Lauren Edgar, Research Geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, in a mission update

While awaiting a decision on whether to cross the dune at Dingo Gap, Curiosity captured a 360-degree view of the dramatic landscape. Near the horizon, it takes 30 individual Mastcam frames to cover the full 360 degrees around the rover; they can use fewer as they go downward in elevation, but it still takes a lot of frames to cover the hemisphere

 

[alucasa]

Provided that there are tools and adequate resources - initially - to build an underground base, is it possible to inhabit underground on Mars?

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Provided that there are tools and adequate resources - initially - to build an underground base, is it possible to inhabit underground on Mars?

time will tell us that manned missions to mars are unrealistic for the percieved gains......, resources should be aimed at building a manhabitable station on the dark side of the moon.

Much more sensible in my opinion.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Orbiter pics.

Launched Aug. 12, 2005, the MRO spacecraft has been studying the surface of Mars from orbit since March 2006. Its High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, run by researchers at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, provides incredibly detailed images of Mars’ varied terrain in visible and near-infrared wavelengths.

This HiRISE observation shows the northwest quadrant of a fracture-filled crater on Mars.
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Polygonal terrain within and around a polar crater on Mars (monochrome red-filter HiRISE image.)

The entire crater is around 3 miles (5 km) across and its ancient interior has undergone countless millennia of freeze/thaw cycles that have broken the surface into polygonal shapes. This process is common on Mars and can even be found on Earth.


HiRISE is capable of resolving structures on Mars’ surface down to about a meter in size from its location in orbit. The image above was acquired from a distance of 196 miles (314 km). You can see many more images from HiRISE here.

 

[broken pixel]

Life existed on Mars but they farked it up like the humans are farking up the Earth. I predict Earth will be Mars 2.0 in about 10,000 years, maybe sooner. Now humans are trying to get to Mars & terraform it back to life, broadcast reality shows just so they can destroy it again.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Life existed on Mars but they farked it up like the humans are farking up the Earth. I predict Earth will be Mars 2.0 in about 10,000 years, maybe sooner. Now humans are trying to get to Mars & terraform it back to life, broadcast reality shows just so they can destroy it again.

Interesting. Terraforming won't work. Any atmosphere created will dissipate into space, leaving the same thin atmosphere it holds now. Mars lost its magnetic field, which is all the Earth has to keep the solar winds from dissipating Earth's atmosphere into space in the same way.

On another note, yesterday was the 12th anniversary of Opportunity Rover! Happy Birthday to a machine designed to run 90 days. Pretty impressive, not only for its longevity, but also for the wealth of knowledge about Mars we might not have gained otherwise.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...ver-still-going-strong-after-12-years-on-mars

 

[Drone]

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

The Curiosity Mars rover sends Earth a photo of itself after NASA pieces 57-photo composite together

In August 2015, the rover took a 92-image composite selfie after drilling a rock nicknamed 'Buckskin' in the Marias Pass area.
In June 2014, it snapped a self-portrait to celebrate being on Mars for exactly one full Martian year, which is the equivalent of 687 Earth days.
The latest selfie was released on Friday and is at least the third that Curiosity has sent back to NASA since the rover first landed on Mars in 2012.
The rover took the picture by the Red Planet's Namib Dune on January 19.
NASA scientists used the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imagers camera, which is at the end of its arm, to take the picture.
The arm with the Hand Lens is only partly visible because the image is a composite

 

[Drone]

This block of martian terrain, etched with an intricate pattern of landslides and wind-blown dunes, is a small segment of a vast labyrinth of valleys, fractures and plateaus.

The region, known as Noctis Labyrinthus – the “labyrinth of the night” – lies on the western edge of Valles Marineris, the grand canyon of the Solar System. It's part of a complex feature whose origin lies in the swelling of the crust owing to tectonic and volcanic activity in the Tharsis region, home to Olympus Mons and other large volcanoes.

As the crust bulged in the Tharsis province it stretched apart the surrounding terrain, ripping fractures several km deep and leaving blocks stranded within the resulting trenches. The entire network of fractures spans ~1200 km.

Landslides are seen in extraordinary detail. Wind has drawn the dust into dune fields that extend up onto the surrounding plateaus. Fault lines crossing each other in different directions suggest many episodes of tectonic stretching in the complex history of this region.


And new image of Opportunity's shadow

 

[Drone]

5 new images

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Unusual 'cauliflower' formations on Mars have provided scientists with the latest clues to ancient life on the red planet.

The Smithsonian reported on their results, which were announced at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December.

Valles Marineris. The area includes outcrops of opaline silica in which the 'cauliflower' formations have been seen

 

[Drone]

nice video

 

[Drone]

Those were images from HIRISE, Opportunity and Curiosity.

Here's new Curiosity's giant full-circle panorama (looks rather creepy) and same image with labels

View of the downwind face of "Namib Dune" on Mars covers 360 degrees, including a portion of Mount Sharp on the horizon. The site is part of the dark-sand "Bagnold Dunes" field of active dunes.

 

[Drone]

New images from HIRISE, Curiosity, Opportunity

 

[Drone]

new images of landscape and soil

 

[Drone]

New landscape image (HIRISE)

Opportunity

Curiosity

Wind at work (HIRISE)

Wind is one of the most active forces shaping Mars' surface in today's climate. The wind has carved the features we call “yardangs,” one of many in this scene, and deposited sand on the floor of shallow channels between them.

On the sand, the wind forms ripples and small dunes. In Mars' thin atmosphere, light is not scattered much, so the shadows cast by the yardangs are sharp and dark.

 

[Drone]

And some new images from HIRISE

Water has left its mark in a variety of ways in this Martian scene captured by ESA's Mars Express.

The region lies on the western rim of an ancient large impact basin, as seen in the context map. The image shows the western part of the Arda Valles, a dendritic drainage system 260 km north of Holden Crater and close to Ladon Valles. Vast volumes of water once flowed from the southern highlands, carving Ladon Valles.

 

[Drone]

Mars' permanent North Polar cap is ringed by sand dunes. In the winter and spring the dunes are covered by a seasonal cap of dry ice.

This scene from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity looks upward at "Knudsen Ridge" from the valley below.

 

[Drone]

Hargraves Crater

Other amazing images:

 

[Drone]

NASA's Mars Pathfinder & Sojourner Rover and Curiosity (360 View)

[simply play or pause the videos and then hold and move mouse cursor]