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Solar Eclipse on Mars Captured by the Perseverance Rover
Phobos is one of Mars’ moons. In an interesting turn of events, the Mars rover Perseverance has captured footage of the potato-shaped moon eclipsing the planet. The video was taken with the machine’s Mastcam-Z camera on April 2, the 397th Martian day of the mission. The eclipse lasted over forty seconds, which is actually just on par with the solar eclipses we see from Earth.What’s great about this footage, aside from capturing the astronomical event, was that it was able to provide the most zoomed-in image of the moon during an eclipse. “I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this amazing,” said Rachel Howson of Malin Space Science Systems in San DiegoImage credit: Planet Volumes#moons #space #Phobos #Mars #NASA #Perseverance #rover #eclipse
Star Dunes of Mars
A crater in Mars’ Tyrrhena Terra region can now be seen in high definition. The HiRISE images, which showcase the varying geographical formations that formed in that area, captured the sight.The images were part of research done with the CRISM instrument to detect possible clays. A set of star dunes can be seen on one of the smaller craters in the region. For reference, a star dune is formed by sand particles that were blown by the wind from multiple directions. The dune shape that results is a star pattern, hence the name. These beautiful dunes were theorized to be made most likely of basalt, which is a common volcanic rock.Image credit: NASA/JPL/UArizona#Mars #space #HiRISE #NASA #stardunes #craters #TyrrhenaTerra
Former Astronaut Chris Hadfield Test Drives the Astrolab Rover in Death Valley
Space colonization has always been humanity's dream. We see this theme in novels, cartoons, films, and TV shows. But before we can achieve that dream, we need to have an efficient transport network. This said network will enable us to live sustainably off Earth. Astrolab, a new company formed by leading planetary rover and robotics experts, aims to build just that, and the company's first step is the Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover. This rover can "pick up and deposit modular payloads. This means it is suitable for many tasks essential to sustainable living on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.The Astrolab team recently had a five-day field test of a full-scale prototype of the rover, and one of the guys who participated in the test was none other than the retired astronaut Chris Hadfield. You might know Hadfield from CSA's YouTube videos on life on the International Space Station. Hadfield says that he enjoyed driving the rover. He also got "an intuitive sense of what this rover can do."This might be the next chapter of planetary exploration and a step closer to space colonization.(Image Credit: Astrolab/ YouTube)#SpaceExploration #Space #Mars #Moon
NASA Curiosity Rover Spotted a "Flower" on Mars
A flower-shaped object was spotted by NASA’s curiosity rover during its traversal of the Martian surface. The delicate formation resembled a branching piece of an ocean coral. The formation invites comparisons with Earth objects. Kevin Gill posted the photo on Twitter, describing the object as a “Martian flower.” The Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (Mahli) instrument, the device that serves as the “magnifying hand lens” of the rover, took the photo, hence the image’s small resolution.The “Martian flower” is a reminder of the waters that once inhabited the planet, an area of study that scientists are undertaking to figure out if the planet was once capable of hosting microbial life. Image credit: Kevin M. Gill/ NASA #Mars #Curiosity #rovers #NASA #space #photographs #formation
Drifting Clouds Across the Skies of Mars Captured by NASA Rover Curiosity
On December 12, 2021, the navigation camera aboard NASA's Curiosity rover took two 1-second-8-frame images of the Red Planet's atmosphere. Unlike clouds here on Earth, clouds on Mars are very faint in the atmosphere, so it took special imaging techniques to see them. The clouds are also very high, some 80 km (about 50 miles) above the surface. It is extremely cold at this height, which suggests that these are carbon dioxide ice clouds and not water ice clouds (which can be found at lower altitudes). Literally cool.(Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/York University)#Mars #Clouds #Curiosity #NASA
NASA's Perseverance Rover Image Shows that Mars' Jezero Crater Was Once an Ancient Lake
NASA’s Perseverance rover has confirmed that Mars’ Jezero crater was once a lake, fed by a small river around 3.7 billion years ago. The images reveal evidence that the crater endured flash floods that were enough to sweep up large boulders tens of miles upstream and deposit them into the lakebed, where they lie today.The new analysis, published in the journal Science is based on the images of the outcropping rocks inside the crater on its western side. Satellites previously showed that from above, it resembled river deltas on Earth. Perseverance’s images taken from inside the crater confirm that this outcrop was a river delta.“If you look at these images, you’re basically staring at this epic desert landscape. It’s the most forlorn place you could ever visit, there’s not a drop of water anywhere, and yet, here we have evidence of a very different past. Something very profound happened in the planet’s history,” said Benjamin Weiss, professor of planetary sciences in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and a member of the analysis team.Scientists hope to uncover more clues to Jezero crater’s climatic evolution. Now that they have confirmed that it was once a lake, they believe its sediments could hold traces of ancient aqueous life.#Mars #Space #MartianLake #LifeInSpace #LifeInMarsImage Credit: NASA
A Colony on Mars Could Speed Up Human Evolution
Changes in an environment will put pressure on whatever lives there to change and adapt over generations. On Earth, these environmental changes come slowly, allowing mutations and natural selection to change species in ways that work with the world around them. These changes in species occur faster when a smaller population is isolated, which allows advantageous mutations to remain and reoccur in subsequent generations. Evolutionary changes also come faster when the environment changes quickly, as happens when groups of a species migrate to new places. So what would happen to a small population of human colonists on Mars? Their environment is changed relatively suddenly. Gravity is different. Their life support system is nothing like that on Earth. Environmental radiation is greater. The very act of traveling to another planet may influence a human body in the original generation. So how would their offspring and a few more generations change? Read of some evolutionary possibilities for humans living on Mars at Astronomy. -via Real Clear Science As I was reading the article, allI could think of was "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed," the first Ray Bradbury story I ever read. It isn't about evolution as we know it, but humans who were sent to colonize Mars turned into Martians without having to reproduce, just because of the environment. #Mars #evolution #Martian
Scientists Made Cosmic Concrete by Mixing Space Dust with Astronaut Blood, Sweat and Tears
Construction of a Martian colony can be pretty expensive with the transportation of a single brick costing more than a million British pounds. However, scientists at The University of Manchester have developed a way to potentially overcome this problem by using extraterrestrial dust and blood, sweat, and tears from astronauts to build concrete materials.In their study, protein from human blood mixed with urine, sweat or tears, could fuse a stimulated moon or Mars soil to produce a material stronger than regular concrete, that is suitable for extraterrestrial construction.In a Materials Today Bio article, scientists demonstrated that a common protein from blood plasma could be a binder for simulated moon or Mars dust to produce AstroCrete, a concrete material that has impressive strengths of 25 MPa (Megapascals) which is about the same as the 20-32 MPa seen in ordinary concrete. By adding urea, a biological waste found in urine, sweat and tears, scientists could further increase the strength by over 300% at 40 MPa which is significantly stronger than ordinary concrete.Scientists calculate that over 500 kg of AstroCrete could be produced over the course of a two year mission on Mars by six astronauts. If used as a mortar for sandbags or heat-fused regolith bricks, each member could produce enough AstroCrete to expand the housing for another crew member with each successive mission.#Mars #Masonry #Cosmic #OuterSpace #MartianColony #Construction #Astronaut #SpaceImage Credit:The University of Manchester
Tour a bit of Mars in this Panoramic Video of NASA's Curiosity Rover Exploring Mount Sharp
NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover landed on the Red Planet nine years ago and has beamed back a tremendous trove of images and data, to the delight of scientists and space geeks alike.Last week, NASA released a new panoramic video that shows the rover's exploration as it climbs Mount Sharp, a 5-mile-tall (8 km) mountain in the 86-mile wide (154 km) basin of the Martian Gale Crater.Curiosity Mars Rover's current location may hold the key in finding out how the area around Gale Crater dried up over time. "The rocks here will begin to tell us how this once-wet planet changed into the dry Mars of today, and how long habitable environments persisted even after that happened," said Abigail Fraeman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS#NASA #Mars #CuriosityRover #GaleCrater #JPL #panoramicvideo
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Discovered a Tiny Rock Arch on Mars That Looked Like a Cat
In the Gale Crater on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity Rover caught a glimpse and took photos of a strange tiny rock arch. Back on Earth, citizen scientist Kevin Gill managed to stitch the photographs together to create a mosaic perspective in the image seen above.Some people say that the tiny rock arch resembles a cat or an alien’s head, but NASA’s planetary geologist Abigail Fraeman characterized it as “a particularly whimsical image of an interesting rock texture.” She added in the Rover mission update, “I continue to be dazzled by the textures we’re seeing, especially the prevalence of centimeter sized bumps and lumps poking out of the bedrock. … The whole field of view is about 16.5 cm across, so this is a very tiny feature!”The delicate arch is most likely made of an erosion-resistant material, according to planetary geologist Michelle Minitti, as the Gale Crater is dusty and windy. Materials that cannot resist erosion would have been swept away long ago.#NASA #Mars #arch #cat #CuriosityRover #rock #geology #GaleCrater
Perseverance Mars Rover Left a "Heart" Shaped Tracks
During its ninth flight on July 5, 2021, NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity captured this image of a "heart" left by the rover Perseverance.In the image above, you can see the heart made by the car-sized Mars rover when it took a small detour before proceeding on its way.Well, we love you too, Perseverance!via Space#NASA #Mars #PerseveranceRover #IngenuityHelicopter #love #heart
Spot Robots Autonomously Explore Martian-Like Cavern
One day, hopefully we’ll explore underground caves on Mars which may harbor preserved remains or even living microbial life but for now, NASA scientists are preparing by training the dog-like Spot robots in caves here on Earth.NASA’s BRAILLE (Biologic and Resource Analog Investigations in Low Light Environments) collaborated with Boston Dynamics and JPL’s robotic team CoSTAR to explore the Valentine Cave in the Lava Beds National Monument in California.Initial demonstrations with a team of the quadruped Spot robots show the advantages of legged robots in exploring the uneven cavern terrains autonomously, with each robot being able to carry special instruments to detect, collect, and analyze scientifically interesting samples.#SpotRobot #robot #Mars #NASA #JPL #BostonDynamics #cave #lavatube #LavaBedsNationalMonument #ValentineCave
New Images of Discrete Aurora on Mars
On Earth, auroras are a phenomenon of lights in the skies that occur when solar winds hit the planet's magnetic field.Mars, on the other hand, has no global magnetic fields so scientists were surprised in 2016 when NASA's MAVEN spacecraft discovered that Mars, too, has auroras. Unlike terrestrial auroras, Martian ones are proton auroras and emit ultraviolet light.Today, Mars Hope Probe's EMUS (Emirate Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer) captured new images of another, weird type of auroras on the red planet's atmosphere called discrete auroras.From The Next Web:The pictures fully characterize the discrete aurora phenomenon in Mars’ atmosphere for the first time in history. Scientists believe they could challenge the notion that large scale solar events are needed to drive Mars auroral events.“The implications for our understanding of Mars’ atmospheric and magnetospheric science are tremendous and provide new support to the theory that solar storms are not necessary to drive Mars‘ aurora,” said Hessa Al Matroushi, the Emirates Mars Mission’s science lead.#Mars #aurora #EMUS #Emirates
So How Did NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Take Selfies Anyhow?
For you and I, taking a selfie is quick and simple - just point the cell phone's camera our way and snap the pic. But how did NASA's Mars rovers like Perseverance and Curiosity do it? It took about a dozen experts, a week to plot the commands, and 62 images for the rover to make it happen.From NASA:Like the Curiosity rover (this black-and-white video from March 2020 show how it takes a selfie), Perseverance has a rotating turret at the end of its robotic arm. Along with other science instruments, the turret includes the WATSON camera, which stays focused on the rover during selfies while being angled to capture a part of the scene. The arm acts like a selfie stick, remaining just out of frame in the final product.Commanding Perseverance to film its selfie stick in action is much more challenging than with Curiosity. Where Curiosity’s turret measures 22 inches (55 centimeters) across, Perseverance’s turret is much bigger, measuring 30 inches (75 centimeters) across. That’s like waving something the diameter of a road bike wheel just centimeters in front of Perseverance’s mast, the “head” of the rover.JPL created software to ensure the arm doesn’t collide with the rover. Each time a collision is detected in simulations on Earth, the engineering team adjusts the arm trajectory; the process repeats dozens of times to confirm the arm motion is safe. The final command sequence gets the robotic arm “as close as we could get to the rover’s body without touching it,” Verma said.#NASA #MarsRover #PerseveranceRover #Mars #selfie #JPL
First Video Clips of the Chinese Zhurong Mars Rover
The China National Space Agency (CNSA) has released the first videos of its Zhurong Mars rover that landed on the planet on May 14, 2021. The landing made China the second country that had successfully soft-landed a spacecraft on Mars.#Mars #spacecraft #Zhurong #CNSC #roverThe first video showed the Zhurong Rover backing away from a wireless camera placed on the ground.
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