// February 8th, 2013 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
The Mars Curiosity Rover has drilled a hole in Mars for the first time yesterday. Curiosity used the drill at the tip of its robotic arm to drill a small .8 inch (2 centimeter) hole into the Martian rock affectionately named “John Klein”. The so-called “mini-drill test” marked the first time Curiosity used both the […]
// January 28th, 2013 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, or MRO, has discovered an interesting process on the surface of Mars – exploding sand dunes! Enormous pressure from underground frozen carbon dioxide deposits is being released through the surface creating feathery looking sand dunes in Mar’s northern hemisphere. The results of these new studies will be published in the […]
// January 22nd, 2013 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
On Sunday, January 20, officials announced that data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft provides evidence of a wet underground environment, and clues that suggest a groundwater-fed lake could have existed in McLaughlin Crater, a crater fifty-seven miles in diameter and 1.4 miles deep. According to NASA: “A combination of […]
// January 16th, 2013 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
No spacecraft has ever penetrated the rocky surface of Mars, or any planet for that matter, but that is about to change. In the past few weeks, Curiosity Rover has been stationed in a region called Yellowknife Bay, which features fractured ground with different temperature swings compared to other nearby terrain – and plenty of […]
// November 27th, 2012 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
Not content with simply blasting civilians into the stratosphere, Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of the private spaceflight company SpaceX, is now aiming his sights towards starting a Mars colony of up to 80,000 people. Once the infrastructure is in place, Musk intends to ferry people to Mars at a cost of $500,000 per […]
// November 20th, 2012 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
NPR reported today that NASA has some ‘”big news” to report – but will not release the finding until they’ve had more time to confirm the results. According to NASA: “We’re getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting, The science team is busily chewing away on […]
// November 5th, 2012 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
NASA’s Curiosity Rover has sent back a high-res photo of itself in the Gale crater on Mars. The image was taken by Curiosity’s MAHLI hand held camera which sits on the end of the rover’s extendable arm. MAHLI took a total of 55 pictures which were stitched together to create the stunning hi-res self portrait. […]
// October 31st, 2012 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover conducted its first soil sample analysis using its miniaturized X-Ray diffraction instrument that is a part of CheMin instrument (a miniature lab on wheels). The soil sample was collected from an area known as Rocknest in the Gale Crater. The analysis revealed that the sample is a weathered volcanic type similar […]
// October 23rd, 2012 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
Scientists at the European Geosciences Union meeting reported that Lichen collected from Antarctica were placed inside Germany’s Mars Simulation Laboratory for 34 days where they were subjected to the same conditions they would experience on the Martian surface – same atmospheric, temperature, radiation, and pressure conditions. They survived.
// October 9th, 2012 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
Curiosity Rover scooped its first soil samples yesterday and while scooping, took a picture of something that NASA cannot identify. It’s a small, silver metallic looking chip or flake of some kind. It could be something left over from the MSL descent mechanisms or some previously unknown soil anomaly.
// September 27th, 2012 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
NASA announced today (on the evening of Sol 51), that Curiosity Rover has found evidence of an ancient flowing stream on Mars at a few sites. Round-shaped rocks, called clasts, have lead Geologists to the conclusion that they have been moved about by water. The clasts are too heavy to have been moved by wind.
// September 25th, 2012 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
This past weekend, on route to Glenelg, the Curiosity Rover’s first target on Mars, Curiosity arrived at the “Jake Matijevic” rock where it stopped and probed the rock with its huge robotic arm to determine its chemical composition. Curiosity also blasted the specimen with its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. Then Curiosity shot laser pulses at […]
// September 14th, 2012 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
It might not be accurately termed “a snowball’s chance in hell” but it comes close. NASA thinks it might be snowing on Mars, just not the sort of snow we’d expect. NASA has obtained evidence that it snows Dry Ice, the stuff we use to simulate fog in haunted houses. That’s pretty cool given that […]
// September 8th, 2012 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
Curiosity Rover has certainly left its mark on the planet Mars. Photos taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have been released showing the tire tracks left by Curiosity on the planet’s surface. The bluish color spots are where Curiosity landed (named Bradbury landing after famous science fiction writer, Ray Bradbury) blowing Mars dust away from […]
// September 5th, 2012 // No Comments » // Astronomy and Space News
As part of the Mars Science Lab Mission (MSL), Curiosity is now sending back telescopic images from Mars. This image is from a test series used to characterize the 100-millimeter Mast Camera on NASA’s Curiosity rover. It was taken on Aug. 23, 2012, and looks south-southwest from the rover’s landing site. The 100-millimeter Mastcam has […]
