NASA's New Mars Rover Sends Higher-Resolution Image

This is one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on the left "eye" of a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance cameras on the left-rear side of the rover. The image is one-half of full resolution. The clear dust cover that protected the camera during landing has been sprung open. Part of the spring that released the dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the rover's wheel.

On the top left, part of the rover's power supply is visible.

Some dust appears on the lens even with the dust cover off.

The cameras are looking directly into the sun, so the top of the image is saturated. Looking straight into the sun does not harm the cameras. The lines across the top are an artifact called "blooming" that occurs in the camera's detector because of the saturation.

As planned, the rover's early engineering images are lower resolution. Larger color images from other cameras are expected later in the week when the rover's mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

By NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CalTech
Published on : 6th August, 2012

About two hours after landing on Mars and beaming back its first image, NASA's Curiosity rover transmitted a higher-resolution image of its new Martian home, Gale Crater. Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., received the image, taken by one of the vehicle's lower-fidelity, black-and-white Hazard Avoidance Cameras - or Hazcams.
The black-and-white, 512 by 512 pixel image, taken by Curiosity's rear-left Hazcam, can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/msl5.html .

"Curiosity's landing site is beginning to come into focus," said John Grotzinger, project manager of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "In the image, we are looking to the northwest. What you see on the horizon is the rim of Gale Crater. In the foreground, you can see a gravel field. The question is, where does this gravel come from? It is the first of what will be many scientific questions to come from our new home on Mars."

While the image is twice as big in pixel size as the first images beamed down from the rover, they are only half the size of full-resolution Hazcam images. During future mission operations, these images will be used by the mission's navigators and rover drivers to help plan the vehicle's next drive. Other cameras aboard Curiosity, with color capability and much higher resolution, are expected to be sent back to Earth over the next several days.

Curiosity landed at 10:32 p.m. Aug. 5, PDT, (1:32 a.m. EDT, Aug. 6) near the foot of a mountain three miles (about five kilometers) tall inside Gale Crater, 96 miles (nearly 155 kilometers) 7in diameter. During a nearly two-year prime mission, the rover will investigate whether the region has ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life, including the chemical ingredients for life.

The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL, a division of Caltech.
For more information on the mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mars and http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .
Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at
http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity
2012-231

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

NASA Mars rover team aims for landing closer to prime science site

This image shows changes in the target landing area for Curiosity, the rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project. The larger ellipse was the target area prior to early June 2012, when the project revised it to the smaller ellipse centered nearer to the foot of Mount Sharp, inside Gale Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/MSSS

By NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Published: June 18, 2012
 
NASA has narrowed the target for its most advanced Mars rover, Curiosity, which will land on the Red Planet in August. The car-sized rover will arrive closer to its ultimate destination for science operations, but also closer to the foot of a mountain slope that poses a landing hazard.

"We're trimming the distance we'll have to drive after landing by almost half," said Pete Theisinger from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "That could get us to the mountain months earlier."

It was possible to adjust landing plans because of increased confidence in precision landing technology aboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft, which is carrying the Curiosity rover. That spacecraft can aim closer without hitting Mount Sharp at the center of Gale Crater. Rock layers located in the mountain are the prime location for research with the rover.

Curiosity is scheduled to land at approximately 1:31 a.m. EDT August 6. Following checkout operations, Curiosity will begin a two-year study of whether the landing vicinity ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life.

The landing target ellipse had been approximately 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide and 16 miles (25km) long. Continuing analysis of the new landing system's capabilities has allowed mission planners to shrink the area to approximately 4 miles (7km) wide and 12 miles (20km) long, assuming winds and other atmospheric conditions are as predicted.

Even with the smaller ellipse, Curiosity will be able to touch down at a safe distance from steep slopes at the edge of Mount Sharp.

"We have been preparing for years for a successful landing by Curiosity, and all signs are good," said Dave Lavery from NASA. "However, landing on Mars always carries risks, so success is not guaranteed. Once on the ground, we'll proceed carefully. We have plenty of time since Curiosity is not as life-limited as the approximate 90-day missions like NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers and the Phoenix lander.”

Since the spacecraft was launched in November 2011, engineers have continued testing and improving its landing software. MSL will use an upgraded version of flight software installed on its computers during the past two weeks. Additional upgrades for Mars surface operations will be sent to the rover about a week after landing.

Other preparations include upgrades to the rover's software and understanding effects of debris coming from the drill the rover will use to collect samples from rocks on Mars. Experiments at JPL indicate that Teflon from the drill could mix with the powdered samples. Testing will continue past landing with copies of the drill. The rover will deliver the samples to onboard instruments that can identify mineral and chemical ingredients.

"The material from the drill could complicate but will not prevent analysis of carbon content in rocks by one of the rover's 10 instruments. There are workarounds,” said John Grotzinger from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "Organic carbon compounds in an environment are one prerequisite for life. We know meteorites deliver non-biological organic carbon to Mars, but not whether it persists near the surface. We will be checking for that and for other chemical and mineral clues about habitability."

Curiosity will be in good company as it nears landing. Two NASA Mars orbiters, along with a European Space Agency (ESA) orbiter, will be in position to listen to radio transmissions as MSL descends through Mars' atmosphere.

Mars Science Laboratory : The Historic Voyage to Mars

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, sealed inside its payload fairing atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, clears the tower at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The mission lifted off at 10:02 a.m. EST November 26, beginning an eight-month interplanetary cruise to Mars.

Photo by NASA/Bill White

Published By : NASA (Goddard & GPL)
Edited By : Engineer Yousuf Ibrahim Khan

Date : 29th November, 2011

NASA began a historic voyage to Mars with the November 26 launch of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), which carries a car-sized rover named Curiosity. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard an Atlas V rocket occurred at 10:02 a.m. EST.

Some Key Facts and NASA's Earlier Concerns about MSL:

The MSL mission has four science goals:

1. Determine whether Mars could ever have supported life
2. Study the climate of Mars
3. Study the geology of Mars
4. Plan for a human mission to Mars

To contribute to these goals, MSL has six main scientific objectives:

1. Determine the mineralogical composition of the Martian surface and near-surface geological materials.
2. Attempt to detect chemical building blocks of life (bio-signatures).
3. Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils.
4. Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) Martian atmospheric evolution processes.
5. Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide.
6. Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic radiation, cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons.

Mass of Rover: 1,950 pounds (890 kilograms)
Launch Vehicle:
Atlas V 541 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL
Arrival at Mars: August 6-20, 2012

The Mars Science Laboratory is designed to enable scientists to determine whether past or present environmental conditions at a selected area on the Red Planet could support microbial life and its preservation in the rock record. Outfitted with six wheels and a sophisticated suite of scientific equipment that includes a large robot arm, a laser, a weather station, and a drill, the Mars Science Laboratory’s jeep-sized rover is named Curiosity. The technology of the rover and its landing system is designed to demonstrate substantial new capabilities and operational techniques that would benefit future NASA missions, from precision landing in a small target zone to extended surface life-times to the transmission of extremely large data volumes back to Earth. Scheduled for launch on an Atlas V rocket, Curiosity will derive its electrical power from a Multi Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG). Similar to the radioisotope power systems used to safely and successfully power numerous solar system exploration missions from Voyager to Pluto/New Horizons for more than 40 years, the MMRTG will significantly enhance the range and lifetime of the rover. It will also promote greater operability of the rover’s science experiments, which include the first ever plans to drill into Martian rocks for powdered samples to analyze on-site. The MMRTG contains 10.6 pounds (4.8 kilograms) of plutonium dioxide as the source of the steady supply of heat used to produce the onboard electricity and to warm the rover’s systems during the frigid Martian night. As with any NASA mission that relies on a radioisotope power system, the Mars Science Laboratory has undergone a comprehensive multi-agency environmental review, including public meetings and open comment periods, as part of NASA’s compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. Additionally, the mission will not launch until formal approval is received from the Office of the President. Like previous generations of this type of electrical power generator, the MMRTG is built with several layers of protective material designed to contain its plutonium dioxide fuel in a wide range of potential accidents, verified through impact testing. Each MMRTG carries eight individually shielded general purpose heat source modules (compared to 18 modules in the previous generation). The thickness of the protective graphite material in the center of the modules and between the shells of each module in the MMRTG has been increased by 20 percent over previous modules. Extensive technical analysis of the planned launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, including review of all similar past expendable rocket launches, has been conducted by NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy (which provides the MMRTG), and external experts. This work has determined that the chances of any launch accident are small (3.3 percent), and the chances of an accident of the type that would release plutonium are about ten times smaller. In the event of a launch accident, it is unlikely that any plutonium would be released or that anyone would be exposed to nuclear material. The type of plutonium used in a radioisotope power system is different from the material used in weapons, and cannot explode like a bomb. It is manufactured in a ceramic form that does not become a significant health hazard unless it becomes broken into very fine pieces or vaporized and then inhaled or swallowed. Those people who might be exposed in a Mars Science Laboratory launch accident would receive an average dose of 5-10 millirem, equal to about a week of background radiation. The average American receives 360 millirem of radiation each year from natural sources, such as radon and cosmic rays. NASA, several other federal agencies, the State of Florida and the local governments surrounding Kennedy Space Center are preparing in advance to respond to any launch accident through specific communication procedures, the use of advanced environmental sensors around the launch area, rehearsal of coordinated response to various launch scenarios, and informational briefings to local communities and emergency responders. In the case of a launch accident, related alerts could include precautionary measures such as directions for people to stay indoors for a limited duration.

But Finally it Happened :


Fig : Artist’s concept of Curiosity on Mars

“We are very excited about sending the world’s most advanced scientific laboratory to Mars,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. “MSL will tell us critical things we need to know about Mars, and while it advances science, we’ll be working on the capabilities for a human mission to the Red Planet and to other destinations where we’ve never been.”

The mission will pioneer precision landing technology and a sky-crane touchdown to place Curiosity near the foot of a mountain inside Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. During a nearly two-year prime mission after landing, the rover will investigate whether the region has ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life, including the chemical ingredients for life.


Fig: Full-scale cutaway models of an MMRTG and one of its heat source modules, which produce electricity passively using thermocouples with no moving parts.(The MMRTG is 26 inches [67 centimeters] tall.)

“The launch vehicle has given us a great injection into our trajectory, and we’re on our way to Mars,” said Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager Peter Theisinger of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “The spacecraft is in communication, thermally stable, and power positive.”


The Atlas V initially lofted the spacecraft into Earth orbit and then, with a second burst from the vehicle’s upper stage, pushed it out of Earth orbit into a 352-million-mile (567 million kilometers) journey to Mars.

“Our first trajectory correction maneuver will be in about two weeks,” Theisinger said. “We’ll do instrument checkouts in the next several weeks and continue with thorough preparations for the landing on Mars and operations on the surface.”

Curiosity’s ambitious science goals are among the mission’s many differences from earlier Mars rovers. It will use a drill and scoop at the end of its robotic arm to gather soil and powdered samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into analytical laboratory instruments inside the rover. Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science- instrument payloads on the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some of the tools are the first of their kind on Mars, such as a laser-firing instrument for checking the elemental composition of rocks from a distance and an X-ray diffraction instrument for definitive identification of minerals in powdered samples.


To haul and wield its science payload, Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. Because of its 1-ton mass, Curiosity is too heavy to employ airbags to cushion its landing as previous Mars rovers could. Part of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is a rocket-powered descent stage that will lower the rover on tethers as the rocket engines control the speed of descent.

The mission’s landing site offers Curiosity access for driving to layers of the mountain inside Gale Crater. Observations from orbit have identified clay and sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history.


Precision landing maneuvers as the spacecraft flies through the martian atmosphere before opening its parachute make Gale a safe target for the first time. This innovation shrinks the target area to less than one-fourth the size of earlier Mars landing targets. Without it, rough terrain at the edges of Curiosity’s target would make the site unacceptably hazardous.

The innovations for landing a heavier spacecraft with greater precision are steps in technology development for human Mars missions.

In addition, Curiosity carries an instrument for monitoring the natural radiation environment on Mars, important information for designing human Mars missions that protect astronauts’ health.

MSL and Others are on their way :


Fig : This artist's concept shows the MAVEN spacecraft orbiting Mars. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Maybe because it appears as a speck of blood in the sky, the planet Mars was named after the Roman god of war. From the point of view of life as we know it, that’s appropriate. The martian surface is incredibly hostile for life. The Red Planet’s thin atmosphere does little to shield the ground against radiation from the Sun and space. Harsh chemicals, like hydrogen peroxide, permeate the soil. Liquid water, a necessity for life, can’t exist for very long there — any that does not quickly evaporate in the diffuse air will soon freeze out in subzero temperatures common over much of the planet.

It wasn’t always this way. There are signs that in the distant past, billions of years ago, Mars was a much more inviting place. Martian terrain is carved with channels that resemble dry riverbeds. Spacecraft sent to orbit Mars have identified patches of minerals that form only in the presence of liquid water. It appears that in its youth, Mars was a place that could have harbored life with a thicker atmosphere warm enough for rain that formed lakes or even seas.

Two new NASA missions, one that will roam the surface and another that will orbit the planet and dip briefly into its upper atmosphere, will try to discover what transformed Mars. “The ultimate driver for these missions is the question, ‘Did Mars ever have life?’” said Paul Mahaffy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Did microbial life ever originate on Mars, and what happened to it as the planet changed? Did it just go extinct, or did it go underground where it would be protected from space radiation and temperatures might be warm enough for liquid water?”

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission features Curiosity, the largest and most advanced rover ever sent to the Red Planet. The Curiosity rover bristles with multiple cameras and instruments, including Goddard’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite. By looking for evidence of water, carbon, and other important building blocks of life in the martian soil and atmosphere, SAM will help discover whether Mars ever had the potential to support life. Scheduled to launch in late November or December 2011 (first window of opportunity being November 26), Curiosity will be delivered to Gale Crater, a 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) crater that contains a record of environmental changes in its sedimentary rock, in August 2012.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission, scheduled to launch in late 2013, will orbit Mars and is devoted to understanding the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere. It will help determine what caused the martian atmosphere — and water — to be lost to space, making the climate increasingly inhospitable for life.

“Both MAVEN and Curiosity/SAM will determine the history of the martian climate and atmosphere using multiple approaches,” said Bruce Jakosky from the University of Colorado in Boulder. “Measurements of isotope ratios are an approach shared by both missions.”

Isotopes are heavier versions of an element. For example, deuterium is a heavy version of hydrogen. Normally, two atoms of hydrogen join to an oxygen atom to make a water molecule, but sometimes the heavy (and rare) deuterium takes a hydrogen atom’s place.

When water gets lofted into Mars’ upper atmosphere, solar radiation can break it apart into hydrogen (or deuterium) and oxygen. Hydrogen escapes faster because it is lighter than deuterium. Since the lighter version escapes more often, over time the martian atmosphere has less and less hydrogen compared to the amount of deuterium remaining. The martian atmosphere therefore becomes richer and richer in deuterium.

The MAVEN team will measure the amount of deuterium compared to the amount of hydrogen in Mars’ upper atmosphere, which is the planet’s present-day deuterium to hydrogen (D/H) ratio. They will compare it to the ratio Mars had when it was young — the early D/H ratio. The early ratio can be measured from the D/H ratio in ancient martian minerals and estimated from observations of the D/H ratio in comets and asteroids, which are believed to be pristine “fossil” remnants of our solar system’s formation.

Comparing the present and early D/H ratios will allow the team to calculate how much hydrogen — and, therefore, water — has been lost over Mars’ lifetime. MAVEN will also determine how much martian atmosphere has been lost over time by measuring the isotope ratios of other elements in the high atmosphere, such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and noble gases like argon.

MAVEN is expected to reach Mars in 2014. By then, SAM on board the Curiosity rover will have made similar measurements from Gale Crater, which will help guide the interpretation of MAVEN’s upper atmosphere measurements.

Measuring isotopes in the atmosphere will reveal its present state. To find out what the martian atmosphere was like in the past, scientists will use what they discover with MAVEN about the various ways the atmosphere is being removed. With that data, they will build computer simulations to estimate the condition of the Red Planet’s atmosphere billions of years ago.

Scientists estimate Gale Crater may have formed more than three billion years ago. Curiosity will grind up Gale Crater minerals and deliver them to SAM so the isotope ratios can be measured, giving a glimpse of the martian atmosphere from long ago, perhaps when it could have supported life. “SAM’s inputs from the surface of past martian history will help the MAVEN team work backwards to discover how the martian atmosphere evolved,” said Joseph Grebowsky from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

“For example, MAVEN will focus primarily on how solar activity erodes the martian atmosphere,” said Mahaffy. Things like the solar wind, a tenuous stream of electrically conducting gas blown from the surface of the Sun, explosions in the Sun’s atmosphere called solar flares, and eruptions of solar material called coronal mass ejections can all strip away the upper atmosphere of Mars in various ways. “If we figure out how much atmosphere is removed by changes in solar activity, we can extrapolate back to estimate what the isotope ratios should have been billions of years ago. However, if the measurements of the ancient ratios from SAM don’t match up, this suggests that we may have to look at other ways the atmosphere could have been lost, such as giant impacts from asteroids,” said Mahaffy. Some scientists believe giant impacts could have blasted significant amounts of the martian atmosphere into space.

Also, Curiosity will carry a weather station, which will help the MAVEN team understand how changes in the upper atmosphere are related to changes at the surface. “For example, if the rover detects a dust storm, it may have an effect higher up because of the winds and the gravity waves — the bobbing up and down of a parcel of air — it sets up,” said Grebowsky.

“Curiosity will focus on geology and minerals to determine if the environment on Mars in the distant past had the potential to support life,” said Mahaffy. “It will be digging in the dirt trying to understand the habitability issue in a place where water may have flowed, where there could have been a lake. Habitability is also the basic theme of MAVEN — it will be trying to understand from the top down how the atmosphere evolved over time and how it was lost, which ties back to how clement it was early on.”

For further information about these missions, contact:
David Lavery
Science Mission Directorate
NASA Headquarters
Washington, DC 20546
(202) 358-4684
david.lavery@hq.nasa.gov

Mars orbiter shows angled view of martian crater

Oblique view of Victoria Crater. NASA/JPL-caltech/University of Arizona

August 12, 2009

The high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has returned a dramatic oblique view of the martian crater that a rover explored for two years.

The new view of Victoria Crater shows layers on steep crater walls, difficult to see from straight overhead, plus wheel tracks left by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity between September 2005 and August 2007. The orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera shot it at an angle comparable to looking at landscape from an airplane window. Some of the camera's earlier, less angled images of Victoria Crater aided the rover team in choosing safe routes for Opportunity and contributed to joint scientific studies.



Martian dust devil with track and shadow. NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Another new image from the same camera catches an active dust devil leaving a trail and casting a shadow. These whirlwinds have been a subject of investigation by Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been studying Mars with an advanced set of instruments since 2006. It has returned more data about the planet than all other past and current missions to Mars combined.

Provided by JPL, Pasadena, California

NASA's Phoenix continues to weaken

This illustration shows NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander on the Red Planet. NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

November 5, 2008

Provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Information received during the weekend indicates NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is running out of power each afternoon or evening but reawakening after its solar arrays catch morning sunlight. Since October 30, Phoenix communicated with controllers daily through relays to Mars orbiters.

The fraction of Sun above the horizon is declining every day at the martian arctic landing site. Plus, dust raised by a storm last week continues to block some of the sunshine.

"This is exactly the scenario we expected for the mission's final phase, though the dust storm brought it a couple weeks sooner than we had hoped," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California. "We will be trying to gain some additional science during however many days we have left. Any day could be our last."

Mission engineers at JPL and at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, are attempting this week to upload commands to be stored in the lander's flash memory for science activities to be conducted when the lander wakes up each day.

"Weather observations are our top priority now," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith. "If there's enough energy, we will try to get readings from the conductivity probe that has been inserted into the soil, and possibly some images to assess frost buildup."

Phoenix landed on Mars May 25. It accomplished its main science goals during the 3 months originally planned as its prime mission, then continued operating, now in its sixth month.

Phoenix finishes successful work on Mars

The Phoenix Mars Lander spent 5 months on the Red Planet collecting data on the martian soil and atmosphere before ceasing communications with Earth. Corby Waste of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

November 11, 2008

Provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than 5 months. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander's instruments.

Mission engineers last received a signal from the lander November 2. In addition to shorter daylight, Phoenix has encountered a dustier sky, more clouds, and colder temperatures as the northern Mars summer approaches autumn. The mission exceeded its planned operational life of 3 months to conduct and return science data.

The project team will listen carefully during the next few weeks to hear if Phoenix revives and phones home. However, engineers now believe that this is unlikely because of the worsening weather conditions on Mars. While the spacecraft's work has ended, the analysis of data from the instruments is in its earliest stages.

"Phoenix has given us some surprises, and I'm confident we will be pulling more gems from this trove of data for years to come," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Launched August 4, 2007, Phoenix landed May 25, 2008, farther north than any previous spacecraft to land on the martian surface. The lander dug, scooped, baked, sniffed, and tasted the Red Planet's soil. Among early results, it verified the presence of water-ice in the martian subsurface, which NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter first detected remotely in 2002. Phoenix's cameras also returned more than 25,000 pictures from sweeping vistas to near the atomic level using the first atomic force microscope ever used outside Earth.

"Phoenix not only met the tremendous challenge of landing safely, it accomplished scientific investigations on 149 of its 152 martian days as a result of dedicated work by a talented team," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Phoenix's preliminary science accomplishments advance the goal of studying whether the martian arctic environment has ever been favorable for microbes. Additional findings include documenting a mildly alkaline soil environment unlike any found by earlier Mars missions; finding small concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life; discovering perchlorate salt, which has implications for ice and soil properties; and finding calcium carbonate, a marker of effects of liquid water.

Phoenix discoveries also support the goal of learning the history of water on Mars. These findings include excavating soil above the ice table, which revealed at least two distinct types of ice deposits; observing snow descending from clouds; providing a mission-long weather record, with data on temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind; making observations of haze, clouds, frost, and whirlwinds; and coordinating with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to perform simultaneous ground and orbital observations of martian weather.

"Phoenix provided an important step to spur the hope that we can show Mars was once habitable and possibly supported life," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters in Washington. "Phoenix was supported by orbiting NASA spacecraft providing communications relay while producing their own fascinating science. With the upcoming launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, the Mars Program never sleeps."

Mars orbiter completes primary mission

Artist's concept of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. NASA/JPL

December 12, 2008

Provided by JPL, Pasadena, California

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has completed its primary, 2-year science phase. The spacecraft found signs of a complex martian history of climate change that produced a diversity of past watery environments.

The orbiter returned 73 terabits of science data, more than all earlier Mars missions combined. The spacecraft will build on this record as it continues to examine Mars in unprecedented detail during its next 2-year phase of science operations.

Among the major findings during the primary science phase is the revelation that the action of water on and near the surface of Mars occurred for hundreds of millions of years. This activity was at least regional and possibly global in extent, though possibly intermittent. The spacecraft also observed that signatures of a variety of watery environments, some acidic, some alkaline, increasing the possibility that there are places on Mars that could reveal evidence of past life, if it ever existed.

Since moving into position 186 miles (299 kilometers) above Mars' surface in October 2006, the orbiter also has conducted 10,000 targeted observation sequences of high-priority areas. It has imaged nearly 40 percent of the planet at a resolution that can reveal house-sized objects in detail and 1 percent in enough detail to see desk-sized features. This survey has covered almost 60 percent of Mars in mineral mapping bands at stadium-size resolution. The orbiter also assembled nearly 700 daily global weather maps, dozens of atmospheric temperature profiles, and hundreds of radar profiles of the subsurface and the interior of the polar caps.

"These observations are now at the level of detail necessary to test hypotheses about when and where water has changed Mars and where future missions will be most productive as they search for habitable regions on Mars," said Richard Zurek, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

Included in the observations are hundreds of stereo pairs used to make detailed topography maps and classic images in support of other Mars missions. One image showed the Mars rover Opportunity poised on the rim of Victoria Crater and another of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander during its descent to the surface. MRO data prompted the Phoenix team to change the spacecraft's landing site. MRO data is also being used to select the landing location for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, which is scheduled for launch in 2011. For 5 months of Phoenix operations on Mars that ended in November, MRO and NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter shared the responsibility of relaying commands to the lander and data from Phoenix back to Earth.

The MRO also found repetitive layering in Mars' permanent polar ice caps. The patterns suggest climate-change cycles continuing to the present. They may record possible effects of cyclical changes in Mars' tilt and orbit on global sunlight patterns. Recent climate cycles are indicated by radar detection of subsurface icy deposits outside the polar regions, closer to the equator, where near-surface ice is not permanently stable. Other results reveal details of ancient streambeds, atmospheric hazes, and motions of water, along with the ever-changing weather on Mars.

Most observations from the orbiter will be discontinued for a few weeks while the Sun is between Earth and Mars, which will disrupt communications. Later this month, the orbiter will begin a new phase, with science observations continuing as Mars makes another orbit around the Sun, which takes approximately 2 Earth years.

"This spacecraft truly exemplifies the best in capabilities to support science and other martian spacecraft activities," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters in Washington. "MRO has exceeded its own goals and our expectations. We look forward to more discoveries as we continue to look at the Red Planet in spectacular detail."

Next NASA Mars mission rescheduled for 2011

Mars Science Laboratory, scheduled to launch in October 2011, is planned to last at least one martian year (687 days). A landing site has not been chosen, but will be selected based on an assessment of its capacity to sustain life. NASA / JPL

Provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA rescheduled the launch of Mars Science Laboratory for 2011, 2 years later than previously planned. The mission will send a next-generation rover with unprecedented research tools to study the early environmental history of Mars.

A launch date of October 2009 no longer is feasible because of testing and hardware challenges that must be addressed to ensure mission success. The window for a 2009 launch ends in late October. The relative positions of Earth and Mars are favorable for flights to Mars only a few weeks every 2 years. The next launch opportunity after 2009 is in 2011.

"We will not lessen our standards for testing the mission's complex flight systems, so we are choosing the more responsible option of changing the launch date," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Up to this point, efforts have focused on launching next year, both to begin the exciting science and because the delay will increase taxpayers' investment in the mission. However, we've reached the point where we can not condense the schedule further without compromising vital testing."

The Mars Science Laboratory team recently completed an assessment of the progress it has made in the past 3 months. As a result of the team's findings, the launch date was changed.

"Despite exhaustive work in multiple shifts by a dedicated team, the progress in recent weeks has not come fast enough on solving technical challenges and pulling hardware together," said Charles Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The right and smart course now for a successful mission is to launch in 2011."

The advanced rover is one of the most technologically challenging interplanetary missions ever designed. It will use new technologies to adjust its flight while descending through the martian atmosphere and to set the rover on the surface by lowering it on a tether from a hovering descent stage. Advanced research instruments make up a science payload 10 times the mass of instruments on NASA's Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers.

The Mars Science Laboratory is engineered to drive longer distances over rougher terrain than previous rovers. It will employ a new surface propulsion system.

Rigorous testing of components and systems is essential to develop such a complex mission and prepare it for launch. Tests during the middle phases of development resulted in decisions to re-engineer key parts of the spacecraft.

"Costs and schedules are taken very seriously on any science mission," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. "However, when it's all said and done, the passing grade is mission success."

The mission will explore a Mars site where images taken by NASA's orbiting spacecraft indicate there were wet conditions in the past. Four candidate landing sites are under consideration. The rover will check for evidence of whether ancient Mars environments had conditions favorable for supporting microbial life and preserving evidence of that life if it existed there.

Ice Cold Sunrise on Mars

Date: August 26, 2008

From the location of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, above the Martian arctic circle, the sun does not set during the peak of the Martian summer.

This period of maximum solar energy is past -- on Sol 86, the 86th Martian day after the Phoenix landing, the sun fully set behind a slight rise to the north for about half an hour.

This red-filter image taken by the lander's Surface Stereo Imager, shows the sun rising on the morning of sol 90, Aug. 25, 2008, the last day of the Phoenix nominal mission.

The image was taken at 51 minutes past midnight local solar time during the slow sunrise that followed a 75 minute "night." The skylight in the image is light scattered off atmospheric dust particles and ice crystals.

The setting sun does not mean the end of the mission. In late July, the Phoenix Mission was extended through September, rather than the 90-sol duration originally planned as the prime mission.

The mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University

Phoenix Lander Digs and Analyzes Soil as Darkness Gathers

This false color image, taken by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager, was taken on the 131st Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Oct. 7, 2008). The image shows color variations of the trench, informally named "La Mancha," and reveals the ice layer beneath the soil surface. The trench's depth is about 5 centimeters deep.

The color outline of the shadow at the bottom of the image is a result of sun movement with the combined use of infrared, green, and blue filters.

Date: October 8, 2008

As fall approaches Mars' northern plains, NASA's Phoenix Lander is busy digging into the Red Planet's soil and scooping it into its onboard science laboratories for analysis.

Over the past two weeks, Phoenix's nearly 2.4-meter-long (8 feet) arm moved a rock, nicknamed "Headless," about 0.4 meters (16 inches), and snapped an image of the rock with its camera. Then, the robotic arm scraped the soil underneath the rock and delivered a few teaspoonfuls of soil onto the lander's optical and atomic-force microscopes. These microscopes are part of Phoenix's Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA).

Scientists are conducting preliminary analysis of this soil, nicknamed "Galloping Hessian." The soil piqued their interest because it may contain a high concentration of salts, said Diana Blaney, a scientist on the Phoenix mission with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

As water evaporates in arctic and arid environments on Earth, it leaves behind salt, which can be found under or around rocks, Blaney said. "That's why we wanted to look under ‘Headless,' to see if there's a higher concentration of salts there."

More digging is underway. Phoenix scientists want to analyze a hard, icy layer beneath the Martian soil surface, and excavating to that icy layer underneath a rock might give scientists clues about processes affecting the ice.

So the robotic arm has dug into a trench called "La Mancha," in part to see how deep the Martian ice table is. The Phoenix team also plans to dig a trench laterally across some of the existing trenches in hopes of revealing a cross section, or profile, of the soil's icy layer.

"We'd like to see how the ice table varies around the workspace with the different topography and varying surface characteristics such as different rocks and soils," said Phoenix co-investigator Mike Mellon of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "We hope to learn more about how the ice depth is controlled by physical processes, and by looking at how the ice depth varies, we can pin down how it got there."

Over the weekend, on the 128th Martian day, or sol, Phoenix engineers successfully directed the robotic arm to dig in a trench called "Snow White" in the eastern portion of the lander's digging area. The robotic arm then delivered the material to an oven screen on Phoenix's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer.

The Phoenix team will try to shake the oven screen so the soil can break into smaller lumps and fall through for analysis.

The Phoenix lander, originally planned for a three-month mission on Mars, is now in its fifth month. As fall approaches, the lander's weather instruments detect diffuse clouds above northern Mars, and temperatures are getting colder as the daylight hours wane.

Consequently, Phoenix faces an increasing drop in solar energy as the sun falls below the Martian horizon. Mission engineers and scientists expect this power decline to curtail activities in the coming weeks. As darkness deepens, Phoenix will primarily become a weather station and will likely cease all activity by the end of the year.

The Phoenix mission is led by Principal Investigator Peter Smith at the University of Arizona. Project management is the responsibility of JPL, with development partnership by Lockheed Martin in Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University

Phoenix detects Red Planet snow

photo: Phoenix carries seven science instruments

Date: Tuesday, 30 September 2008

The Phoenix spacecraft on Mars has detected snow above its landing site

The US robot used its lidar instrument to probe the structure of clouds and saw large water ice-crystals falling through the Martian "air".

The instrument, which works by scattering pulses of laser light off particles in the sky, did not follow the snow to the ground.

The data suggests the snow vaporised before it reached the surface - but Phoenix is monitoring the situation.

"We're going to be watching very closely over the next month for evidence that the snow is actually landing on the surface," said Jim Whiteway, of York University, Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix.

"This is a very important factor in the hydrological cycle on Mars with the exchange of water between the surface and the atmosphere."

Changing seasons

Phoenix touched down successfully on Mars' northern plains on 25 May this year.



photo: The laser pulses a green light into the sky 100 times a second

The static lander carries a number of instruments to study the geochemistry and environment of the Martian "Arctic".
Its weather station continuously monitors the temperature, pressure and wind around the robot.

The station has detailed the rise in temperatures as the summer season has taken hold; and seen the temperatures begin to fall again as the Sun dips below the horizon for increasing periods of time with the onset of winter.

"Over the first two months of the mission, the humidity of the atmosphere was increasing as water [ice] sublimated from the ground and the polar ice cap; and over the second half of the mission we've started to see frost, ground fog and clouds. And this is now occurring every night," explained Dr Whiteway.

Standing water?

Other key results released this week by the US space agency (Nasa) include the identification in the soil around Phoenix of calcium carbonate, which on Earth is a chief component of limestone rock.



photo: The ice crystals fell through the clouds from 4km up down to about 2.5km

Phoenix has also detected sheet-like particles which are probably clays of some kind.

The significance of both minerals is that they form only in the presence of liquid water.Orbiters have identified such minerals in other parts of Mars, but only in areas where there is clear evidence of flowing water. The difference with the Phoenix landing site is that it is an open plain with no obvious geological features that have been cut by running water.

"Assuming we really do need liquid water to form these carbonates - which appears to be the case - then what this says is that we might have had standing water at some point in the past," speculated Bill Boynton of the University of Arizona and the lead scientist on the Tega instrument.

"It's possible that the ice that is there [just below the surface] has melted in-situ and stayed right in that spot and the reaction happened there."

Cold death

Phoenix's original mission was set to last just 90 Martian days, but this has now been extended indefinitely - not that engineers expect the spacecraft to live for much longer.



photo: The Sun is spending an increasing amount of time below the horizon

The Arctic Sun now spends four hours a day below the horizon, and the lander is getting less power into its batteries and is having to expend more energy on heating its systems.

The nights will gradually get longer until, in April next year, the Sun will stay below the horizon for three months.

The ability of Phoenix to gather sunlight is also expected to be severely compromised by the settling of carbon dioxide frost on its solar panels.

On current projections, the robot will probably go silent at the end of November or in early December.

"We're trying to... make hay as the Sun shines and get the most out of the instruments in these last few days before the end of the mission," said Barry Goldstein, the Phoenix project manager at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"As the ice builds up on the solar arrays, we may see the solar arrays crack, if not fall off. We're going to go through a glassification temperature where the material around the circuit boards gets so brittle that it turns into a glass-like material and actually cracks."

The temperature at winter solstice will be at most -120C (-184F) and perhaps even colder.