Mars Rover Blog and Forum

LRO, LROC, LCROSS, imaging and instrumentation.
http://wms.lroc.asu.edu/lroc_browse
LROC Browse Gallery for full resolution source images.

[link]
News release on active mission, and links to source webpages.

http://wms.lroc.asu.edu/lroc_browse/view/nacl000000fd
A first calibration image of 128MB.

The initial source image shows unusual geological activity possibly. Possible venting and sublimed or explosive sourcing of phase changes in materials?

I would like to take this opportunity to formally apologize for any and all inappropriate behavior over the years on this forum. I have gotten professional help and with a lot of therapy may be able to contribute in a more socially acceptable way.
The problem with mind altering substance of any kind is that they may give you a keen perspective but in the end tolerance will produce delusions.
I hope I will be able to contribute again soon, but at this time it will be limited. Keep posting the images Hort.
Fred

I can think of no greater leading indicator for the coming hurricane season, than NASA's Hubble repair mission to the giant eye in the sky, [blocked from landing] by the season opener. Heck, they're even afraid to admit that it's a tropical system.

Pitiful ... pitiful ...

[Scientists Discover Least Inhabited Place on Earth] - Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The sparse microbes the scientists discovered appeared to be partially subsisting on hydrogen atoms released when radioactive elements at the bottom of the ocean decayed and broke apart water molecules.

This somewhat rare process produces only small amounts of food. The other half of the microbes' diet comes from organic matter that drifts from the surface down to the depths of the ocean.

"If you can support the concentrations we see on a food source that's basically half hydrogen from the radioactive splitting of water, then maybe you can support a few hundred cells in wet sediments on Mars or Europa," D'Hondt said. "It suggests that life is resilient enough under very low access to food."

[Space.com] is reporting yesterday, that the leak which has grounded space shuttle Endeavour is "mysterious" in origin. The reason is, it keeps popping up, despite numerous attempts to fix the same piece of equipment.

All I can say, is that nothing has been given to me to pass along, except that which has already been revealed.

I will say that I have been getting some vibes regarding the "land of the rising sun" producing the key component being added to the space station during the upcoming mission, however, I haven't been moved to publish the "vibe," which may or may not be of any concern. I'm much more concerned about the need to keep landing in California.

What must also be considered, is the time of the year which the attempt to fly is being made. You saw what happened the last time. Call it a coincidence if you want, but some ["theological arguments"] are not without merit.

Two very interesting reports from yesterday:

[link]
[link]

The old shorelines are in Shalbatana Vallis:

"Estimated to be more than 3 billion years old, the lake appears to have covered as much as 80 square miles and was up to 1,500 feet deep -- roughly the equivalent of Lake Champlain bordering the United States and Canada, said CU-Boulder Research Associate Gaetano Di Achille, who led the study. The shoreline evidence, found along a broad delta, included a series of alternating ridges and troughs thought to be surviving remnants of beach deposits.

"This is the first unambiguous evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars," said Di Achille. "The identification of the shorelines and accompanying geological evidence allows us to calculate the size and volume of the lake, which appears to have formed about 3.4 billion years ago."

The "huge and sudden" bursts of dry lightning are in large dust storms:

"What we saw on Mars was a series of huge and sudden electrical discharges caused by a large dust storm," Ruf said. "Clearly, there was no rain associated with the electrical discharges on Mars. However, the implied possibilities are exciting."

Paul

The credit crunch has hit everywhere and ExoMars will have its Humboldt experiment removed from the mission which would have studied Marsquakes, the make up of the soil, radiation levels and some meteorolgy.

Interesting to see future missions will be NASA/ESA badged with both agencies pulling resources to get there on budget and sometime in our life time. Even Soyuz vehicles are soon to be launched from the ESA site in French Guyana. It is the only way to go in such times.

Still 7 years to launch and another to get there the gap is to long.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8102086.stm

[Microbe Wakes Up After 120,000 Years in Ice] - Fox News - June 15, 2009

After more than 120,000 years trapped beneath a block of ice in Greenland, a tiny microbe has awoken. The long-lasting bacteria may hold clues to what life forms might exist on other planets.

The new bacteria species was found nearly 2 miles (3 km) beneath a Greenland glacier, where temperatures can dip well below freezing, pressure soars, and food and oxygen are scarce.

"We don't know what state they were in," said study team member Jean Brenchley of Pennsylvania State University. "They could've been dormant, or they could've been slowly metabolizing, but we don't know for sure."

Dormant would mean the bacteria were in a spore-like state in which there's not a lot of metabolism going on, so the bacteria wouldn't be reproducing much.

It's possible the bacteria could have been slowly metabolizing and replicating.

"Microbes have found ways to survive in harsh conditions for long times that we don't yet fully understand," Brenchley told LiveScience.

• Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Natural Science Center.

To coax the bacteria back to life, Brenchley, Jennifer Loveland-Curtze and their Penn State colleagues incubated the samples at 36 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) for seven months, followed by more than four months at 41 degrees F (5 degrees C).

The resulting colonies of the originally purple-brown bacteria, now named Herminiimonas glaciei, are alive and well.

"We were able to recover it and get it to grow in our laboratory," Brenchley said. "It was viable."

Such vigor is partially due to the microbe's small size, the scientists speculate ... cont. at link above.

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Another interesting thing to ponder; what if we melt the polar ice caps and release some long hidden killer into the environment?

Perhaps what killed off some of our ancestors is lurking in the ice someplace.

I wonder if Mars Atmosphere is thick enough for flying anything...
I've read around that Nasa is thinking at something flying in the mars atmosphere.
Well, I wonder:
1) Is it possible to fly something in the Martian atmosphere just in the same way we do on earth? If so, I think the phisical properties of that "atmosphere" are hard to simulate here, so HOW are they trying with?
2) Let's imagine we can fly something. I can suppose the "propellers" needed HAVE TO BE bigger than Earth's one since the lower density: but how much bigger?
3) if an atmosphere "enough for flying" do exist, what's the relative sonic boom speed (if any) up there?
4) Maybe would be interesting to send a lander up there, capable of generating a "known spectra sound" or selectable frequencies; and trying to record the resulting sound using a suitable microphone. Beaming the recorded result back to earth, just we already do with light and the changing color filters on the pancams...
Maybe would be interesting to have a better knowledge on the Mars atmosphere mixture, the density and the chemical/phisical properties.

[Radical new theory suggests Earth's magnetism may be linked to movement of ocean currents] - Daily Mail - June 15, 2009

An interesting read, especially as it relates to what we might see on Mars, if we could somehow melt the oceans. Would the seas be deep or extensive enough to provide a magnetosphere?

On June 10 the Japanese probe named the Kaguya lunar orbiter was purposefully crash landed on the moon's surface.

[link]

The Anglo-Australian Telescope captured images showing a bright flash at the time of impact.

My question is:
What was the bright flash composed of?

Was it simply a could of moon dust thrown up upon impact and if so why was it just a brief flash instead of lingering for a few moments.

or

Was the bright flash the result of the 3 ton probe impacting the surface at 4,000 to 6,000 mph and generating heat and light as the forward momentum was converted to friction and energy.

Latest findings on inner Solar System Meteorite Impacts suggest that both Earth and Mars got their Water and Atmosphere from these impacts at the same time around 4 Billion Years ago. Earth unlike Mars and Venus retained its Electromagnetic Sphere and held onto these properties.

I wonder how long it took the Sun to blow the Martian Atmosphere away and when did it finally hit Triple Point and start to boil its Oceans away? The Earth Metoerite experiments need to be carried out on a Meteorite from a return mission onboard the ISS as I don't think we can get neither Man or the right type of ovens up there for the foreseable future. In fact our most realistic plan is to do a sample return from one of the Moons, easier to land easier to take off again.

Could MSL or ExoMars do this? I am not aware of that type of equipment being installed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8079796.stm

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A first look at the ESP_011341_0980 HiRISE image is memorable, with details so repeated and regular as to motivate me to post a topic about the most unique of Mars landform features.
Will we be defining these as other than terrain, climatic, and geological upon close evaluation?
In this image, these all have core structuring, patterned orderliness, and, the largest have transparent surface shapes which prevent the fans from depositing material in sharply defined areas.
Clearly these structures dominate the scene below the surface as well.

Cool tool, designed for the mars rovers. [link]

The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) images that were taken on the Phoenix mission have been released to the Planetary Data Systems (PDS) archive. Unfortunately, they are contained in .dat binary files apparently as byte arrays rather than in the standard image formats, so they are not easy to view.

"
Mars Phoenix Lander Mission Data
The NASA Planetary Data System announces the third and final release of data from the Mars Phoenix Lander mission. This release includes raw and derived data products from Sols 91 through 152, July 27 - October 29, 2008.

Data are being released for the following experiments:

* ASE - EDRs only
* MET LIDAR and Pressure-Temperature Sensors (includes reprocessing of data from Releases 1 and 2.) MECA (TECP, AFM, and WCL only; AFM RDRs to be released by approximately June 1, 2009) TEGA Telltale Anemometer

For OM, RAC and SSI data, please check the Imaging Node site for release status.

PDS offers two services for searching the Phoenix archives:

* The Planetary Image Atlas at the Imaging Node allows selection of Phoenix data by specific search criteria.
* The Phoenix Analyst's Notebook at the Geosciences Node allows searching and browsing of Phoenix data in the context of mission events, for the expert user.
"