Buddhas Hand Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 Checking a Bright Object on the Ground Tue, 09 Oct 2012 09:57:51 AM UTC+1100 Curiosity's first scooping activity appeared to go well on Oct. 7. Subsequently, the rover team decided to refrain from using the rover's robotic arm on Oct. 8 due to the detection of a bright object on the ground that might be a piece from the rover. Instead of arm activities during the 62nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission, Curiosity is acquiring additional imaging of the object to aid the team in identifying the object and assessing possible impact, if any, to sampling activities. Sol 62, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, will end at 12:23 a.m. Oct. 9, PDT (3:23 a.m., EDT) http://www.nasa.gov/...ia_id=153559401 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 Breaking news ,just heard on the radio that they have found metal on mars . Dr Karl will tell us more about this in an hour or so . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special Ed Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 Breaking news ,just heard on the radio that they have found metal on mars . Dr Karl will tell us more about this in an hour or so . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpshooter Posted October 11, 2012 Author Share Posted October 11, 2012 Breaking news ,just heard on the radio that they have found metal on mars . Dr Karl will tell us more about this in an hour or so . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Dr Karl Podcasts (Dr Karl: ABC Science) - ABC.net.au The official Dr Karl Kruszelnicki Web Site ... Science on Mornings, on triple j. Dr Karl's famous triplej mission, to bring science to the peeps! This guy has a science show on jjj 11am thursday morning's , i heard the sound bite at 9.am,said that they had found metal, then missed the show , flat out at work knocked off late missed the news I cannot find anything on the internet about metal being found by curiousity ,except the object that halted the scooping , What Is This Shiny Metallic Thing Found On Mars? View ProfileEmailTwitterAIMGoogle PlusRSS While grabbing its first scoop of Martian soil, the Mars Curiosity Rover team noticed a weird thing, something that was not supposed to be there: a bright object on the ground. What is it? NASA's scientists don't know yet. The image—taken by the right Mast Camera during the mission's 61st Martian day—shows Curiosity's robotic arm's scoop full of sand and dust, waiting to be deposited inside its analysis unit. But, after looking closer at the photo, someone noticed that unusual bright piece. The scooping operation was then halted and the rover was instructed to take a closer look of the object, which hasn't arrived yet to ground control. NASA suspects that this may be piece of rover hardware, but they are not sure yet. Can it be some screw that got loose and fell off the rover? Just in case, Curiosity's team will wait until they get the close up of the object. That will help them "in assessing possible impact, if any, to sampling activities." If it is a piece of the rover, I wonder how a lost piece can affect the rover's functions. JPL hasn't said anything about it Sorry if i got your hopes up click on image to enlarge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Mars Rock Touched by NASA Curiosity has Surprises 10.11.12 This image shows where NASA's Curiosity rover aimed two different instruments to study a rock known as "Jake Matijevic."Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS › Full image and caption › Image gallery This image shows the wall of a scuffmark NASA's Curiosity made in a windblown ripple of Martian sand with its wheel. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS › Full image and caption PASADENA, Calif. -- The first Martian rock NASA's Curiosity rover has reached out to touch presents a more varied composition than expected from previous missions. The rock also resembles some unusual rocks from Earth's interior. The rover team used two instruments on Curiosity to study the chemical makeup of the football-size rock called "Jake Matijevic" (matt-EE-oh-vick) The results support some surprising recent measurements and provide an example of why identifying rocks' composition is such a major emphasis of the mission. Rock compositions tell stories about unseen environments and planetary processes. "This rock is a close match in chemical composition to an unusual but well-known type of igneous rock found in many volcanic provinces on Earth," said Edward Stolper of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who is a Curiosity co-investigator. "With only one Martian rock of this type, it is difficult to know whether the same processes were involved, but it is a reasonable place to start thinking about its origin." On Earth, rocks with composition like the Jake rock typically come from processes in the planet's mantle beneath the crust, from crystallization of relatively water-rich magma at elevated pressure. Jake was the first rock analyzed by the rover's arm-mounted Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument and about the thirtieth rock examined by the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument. Two penny-size spots on Jake were analyzed Sept. 22 by the rover's improved and faster version of earlier APXS devices on all previous Mars rovers, which have examined hundreds of rocks. That information has provided scientists a library of comparisons for what Curiosity sees. "Jake is kind of an odd Martian rock," said APXS Principal Investigator Ralf Gellert of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. "It's high in elements consistent with the mineral feldspar, and low in magnesium and iron." ChemCam found unique compositions at each of 14 target points on the rock, hitting different mineral grains within it. "ChemCam had been seeing compositions suggestive of feldspar since August, and we're getting closer to confirming that now with APXS data, although there are additional tests to be done," said ChemCam Principal Investigator Roger Wiens (WEENS) of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Examination of Jake included the first comparison on Mars between APXS results and results from checking the same rock with ChemCam, which shoots laser pulses from the top of the rover's mast. The wealth of information from the two instruments checking chemical elements in the same rock is just a preview. Curiosity also carries analytical laboratories inside the rover to provide other composition information about powder samples from rocks and soil. The mission is progressing toward getting the first soil sample into those analytical instruments during a "sol," or Martian day. "Yestersol, we used Curiosity's first perfectly scooped sample for cleaning the interior surfaces of our 150-micron sample-processing chambers. It's our version of a Martian carwash," said Chris Roumeliotis (room-eel-ee-OH-tiss), lead turret rover planner at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Before proceeding, the team carefully studied the material for scooping at a sandy patch called "Rocknest," where Curiosity is spending about three weeks. "That first sample was perfect, just the right particle-size distribution," said JPL's Luther Beegle, Curiosity sampling-system scientist. "We had a lot of steps to be sure it was safe to go through with the scooping and cleaning." Following the work at Rocknest, the rover team plans to drive Curiosity about 100 yards eastward and select a rock in that area as the first target for using the drill. During a two-year prime mission, researchers will use Curiosity's 10 instruments to assess whether the study area ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the project and built Curiosity. For more about the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover mission mm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Curiosity Preparing for Second Scoop 10.12.12 This 360-degree scene shows the surroundings of the location where NASA Mars rover Curiosity arrived on the 59th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Oct. 5, 2012). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech › Full image and caption › Latest images › Curiosity gallery › Curiosity videos On Sol 65 (Oct. 11, 2012) of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity completed several activities in preparation for collecting its second scoop of soil. Like the first scoop, the next will come from a ripple of sand and dust at "Rocknest," and will be used for cleaning interior surfaces of the sample-handling chambers on the arm. The Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) tool on the end of arm shook out remnants of the first scoopful and posed for camera inspection to verify it was emptied. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) moved close some loose material on the ground to get a good look. Seeing more detail in the object will help engineers finish assessing whether this loose material from the spacecraft poses any concern for future operations. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=153780591 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heretic Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 This just in: NASA's robot Curiosity has found no signs of sports, beer, nor porn. This makes it very clear that men are not from Mars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrawfull Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Yep, it totally looks like a piece of plastic from the rover to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpshooter Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 Great pic, nice resolution and colour. Yep, seems the NASA guys were on the mark about it being a plastic piece from the Rover. I wonder where it came off of though, and if it'll have any impact to any instruments or science experiments. Hopefully not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Rover's Second Scoop Discarded, Third Scoop Commanded 10.15.12 This image contributed to an interpretation by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity science team that some of the bright particles on the ground near the rover are native Martian material. Other light-toned material nearby (see PIA16230) has been assessed as small debris from the spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS › Full image and caption › Latest images › Curiosity gallery › Curiosity videos Commands will be sent to Curiosity today instructing the rover to collect a third scoop of soil from the "Rocknest" site of windblown Martian sand and dust. Pending evaluation of this Sol 69 (Oct. 15, 2012) scooping, a sample from the scoopful is planned as the first sample for delivery -- later this week -- to one of the rover's internal analytical instruments, the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument. A later scoopful will become the first solid sample for delivery to the rover's other internal analytical instrument, the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. The rover's second scoopful, collected on Sol 66 (Oct. 12), was intentionally discarded on Sol 67 due to concern about particles of bright material seen in the hole dug by the scooping. Other small pieces of bright material in the Rocknest area have been assessed as debris from the spacecraft. The science team did not want to put spacecraft material into the rover's sample-processing mechanisms. Confidence for going ahead with the third scooping was based on new assessment that other bright particles in the area are native Martian material. One factor in that consideration is seeing some bright particles embedded in clods of Martian soil. Further investigations of the bright particles are planned, including some imaging in the Sol 69 plan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Three bite marks left in the Martian ground by the scoop on the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity are visible in this image taken by the rover's right Navigation Camera during the mission's 69th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 15, 2012). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Mars Soil Sample Delivered for Analysis Inside Rover Mission Status Report PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has ingested its first solid sample into an analytical instrument inside the rover, a capability at the core of the two-year mission. The rover's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument is analyzing this sample to determine what minerals it contains. "We are crossing a significant threshold for this mission by using CheMin on its first sample," said Curiosity's project scientist, John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "This instrument gives us a more definitive mineral-identifying method than ever before used on Mars: X-ray diffraction. Confidently identifying minerals is important because minerals record the environmental conditions under which they form." The sample is a sieved portion -- about as much material as in a baby aspirin -- from the third scoop collected by Curiosity as a windblown patch of dusty sand called "Rocknest." The rover's robotic arm delivered the sample to CheMin's opened inlet funnel on the rover's deck on Oct. 17. The previous day, the rover shook the scooped material inside sample-processing chambers to scrub internal surfaces of any residue carried from Earth. One earlier scoopful was also used for cleaning. Additional repetitions of this cleaning method will be used before delivery of a future sample to the rover's other internal analytic instrument, the Sample Analysis at Mars investigation, which studies samples' chemistry. Various small bits of light-toned material on the ground at Rocknest have affected the rover's activities in the past several days. One piece about half an inch (1.3 centimeters) long was noticed on Oct. 7. The rover team postponed use of the robotic arm for two days while investigating this object, and assessed it to be debris from the spacecraft. Images taken after Curiosity collected its second scoop of Rocknest material on Oct. 12 showed smaller bits of light-toned material in the hole dug by the scooping action. This led to discarding that scoopful rather than using it to scrub the processing mechanisms. Scientists assess these smaller, bright particles to be native Martian material, not from the spacecraft. "We plan to learn more both about the spacecraft material and about the smaller, bright particles," said Curiosity Project Manager Richard Cook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. "We will finish determining whether the spacecraft material warrants concern during future operations. The native Mars particles become fodder for the mission's scientific studies." During a two-year prime mission, researchers are using Curiosity's 10 instruments to assess whether the study area has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. Bright Particle in Hole Dug by Scooping of Martian Soil This image shows part of the small pit or bite created when NASA's Mars rover Curiosity collected its second scoop of Martian soil at a sandy patch called "Rocknest." The bright particle near the center of this image, and similar ones elsewhere in the pit, prompted concern because a small, light-toned shred of debris from the spacecraft had been observed previously nearby (PIA16230). However, the mission's science team assessed the bright particles in this scooped pit to be native Martian material rather than spacecraft debris. This image was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on Curiosity's arm during the 69th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Oct. 15, 2012), about a week after the scoop dug this hole. The view here covers an area of ground about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) across. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nux4lyfe Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 this is some fascinating stuff!..great res on the pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Curiosity's First Three Bites Into Martian Ground Three bite marks left in the Martian ground by the scoop on the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity are visible in this image taken by the rover's right Navigation Camera during the mission's 69th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 15, 2012). The third scoopful, collected on that sol, left the bite or pit farthest to the right. Each of the three bites is about 2 inches (5 centimeters) wide. Of the two bites to the left, the lower one is where Curiosity collected its first scoopful of Martian material, on Sol 61 (Oct. 7, 2012). The upper one is the site of the second scooping, on Sol 66 (Oct. 12, 2012). The location for all of these scoops, and two more planned, is a ripple of windblown dust and sand at a location called "Rocknest." The bright circular part of the rover near the bottom center of this image is the observation tray, which is 3 inches (7.8 centimeters) in diameter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 Curiosity Rover Collects Fourth Scoop of Martian Soil 10.22.12 The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used its laser and spectrometers to examine what chemical elements are in a drift of Martian sand during the mission's 74th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 20, 2012). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/LPGN/CNRS › Full image and caption NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shook a scoopful of dusty sand inside its sample-handling mechanism on Sol 75 (Oct. 21, 2012) as the third scrubbing of interior surfaces of the mechanism. The rover team is instructing the rover to deliver a sieved sample from this scoopful -- the mission's fourth -- onto Curiosity's observation tray on Oct. 22 and plans to analyze another sample from the same scoopful with the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument this week. Curiosity collected this fourth scoop of soil on Sol 74 (Oct. 20). A later scoop will become the first delivered to the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. While continuing with scooping activities at the "Rocknest" site, the rover also has been examining surroundings with the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and Mast Camera (Mastcam) instruments, and monitoring environmental conditions with the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instruments of its science payload http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=154192961 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobble Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 So did they ever determine what that white material was, other than just a "native Martian material"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 So did they ever determine what that white material was, other than just a "native Martian material"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 I thought this might interest you to hobble Black glass holds first Mars soil sample on Earth19:00 11 October 2012 by Joanna Carver Veins of black glass in a meteorite that recently crashed in Morocco contain the first chemical traces of Martian soil brought to Earth. The find represents a rare chance to look closely at ancient surface conditions on Mars. Robots sent to Mars, such as NASA's Curiosity rover, only have limited capabilities to analyse the soil samples that they take. Until the launch of a sample-return mission, the most thorough way to study Martian rock is via meteorites that originated on Mars, says Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane of Hassan II University in Casablanca. In July 2011 people saw a fireball streak across the sky and smash into the Moroccan desert. The 7-kilogram meteorite, dubbed Tissint, broke apart as it fell, and both scientists and private collectors quickly retrieved the fragments. Initial analysis showed that the rock's chemical composition matches that of a type of Martian basalt. The meteorite was most likely thrown up from the planet about 700,000 years ago as the result of an asteroid impact. Pristine sample Tissint is only the fifth Martian meteorite collected promptly after falling to Earth. Most of the 90 or so known Mars rocks that have been found on Earth had been lying around for years. By contrast, the Tissint fragments should provide an unadulterated look at Mars's geology. "It's so fresh, such pristine material," says Aoudjehane. Her team found that the meteorite is laced with a large amount of bubbly black glass. It contains carbon and nitrogen isotopes that are characteristic of those found in Mars's atmosphere, something that has been seen in other Martian meteorites. More surprisingly, the glass contains relatively high amounts of light rare-earth elements not found in the rest of the meteorite, including an unusual ratio of cerium isotopes that indicates some of the cerium got oxidised. Conditions that would oxidise cerium are most likely to exist close to Mars's surface. The team says weakly acidic water may have leached rare-earth elements from Martian soil and deposited them in fractures in surface rocks. Heat from the asteroid impact that ejected Tissint melted the material in the fractures, which crystallised as it cooled to form the black glass. Further analysis of Tissint should reveal more details of such geochemical processes on Mars, rounding out our picture of the planet's past. "The history of Mars is interesting for us because it's related to the history of the Earth, and it's important to know how Mars was in the past and how it evolved with the times," says Aoudjehane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Assessing Drop-Off to Mars Rover's Observation Tray 10.25.12 Sample material from the fourth scoop of Martian soil collected by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is on the rover's observation tray in this image taken during the mission's 78th Martian day, or sol, (Oct. 24, 2012) by Curiosity's left Navigation Camera. The tray is 3 inches (7.8 centimeters) in diameter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech › Larger view NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used its Mast Camera (Mastcam) during the mission's 78th sol (Oct. 24, 2012) to view soil material on the rover's observation tray. The observations will help assess movement of the sample on the tray in response to vibrations from sample-delivery and sample-processing activities of mechanisms on the rover's arm. Curiosity is working with material from the fourth scoop of soil it collected at the "Rocknest" patch of dust and sand. On Sol 77, a sieved portion from this scoop was delivered to the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument inside the rover. This is the second soil sample for CheMin analysis. The material from the fourth scoop is also being used to scrub internal surfaces of the rover's sample-processing mechanisms in preparation for delivery of a sample from a later scoop to the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. Sol 78 activities included analysis of an atmosphere sample by SAM's Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer and monitoring of environmental conditions by the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD). http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=154597771 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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