Opportunity takes a look at its heat shield...
NASA's Opportunity rover has trundled over to where a piece of its heat shield is lying on the Martian surface. There's also a small new crater made by the heat-shield's impact.
Press release here: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20050103a.html
The US space agency (Nasa) robot rover Spirit has been studying what could be its most important rock to date on the surface of the Red Planet.
The rock, dubbed Pearce, was found in exposed bedrock at Columbia Hills, an area of elevated land at Spirit's Gusev Crater landing site.
The rock shows clear signs of having been altered by water in the past.
"This may be what the bones of this mountain are really made of," said rover chief scientist, Steve Squyres.
"It gives us even more compelling evidence for water playing a major role for altering the rocks here," the Cornell University researcher added.
Peace contains more sulphate salt than any other rock Spirit has examined, and the rover's abrasion tool, which cut a centimetre into Pearce, shows the salt's presence goes deep inside.
Rover scientist Dr Ralf Gellert, of Max-Planck-Institut fur Chemie, Mainz, Germany, said: "Usually when we have seen high levels of sulphur in rocks at Gusev, it has been at the very surface.
"The unusual thing about this rock is that deep inside, the sulphur is still very high. The sulphur enrichment at the surface is correlated with the amount of magnesium, which points to magnesium sulphate."
Spirit's investigations reveal the rock contains significant amounts of the minerals olivine, pyroxene and magnetite, all of which are common in some types of volcanic rock.
The Pearce's texture appears to be sand-size grains coated with a material loosely binding the rock together.
"It looks as if you took volcanic rocks that were ground into little grains, and then formed a layered rock with them cemented together by a substantial quantity of magnesium-sulphate salt," Dr Squyres said.
"Where did the salt come from? We have two working hypotheses we want to check by examining more rocks. It could come from liquid water with magnesium sulphate salt dissolved in it, percolating through the rock, then evaporating and leaving the salt behind.
"Or it could come from weathering by dilute sulphuric acid reacting with magnesium-rich minerals that were already in the rock. Either case involves water," he said.
Spirit's twin rover, Opportunity, which is sited on the opposite side of Mars, has been examining the heat shield that protected the spacecraft as it slammed into Mars' atmosphere a year ago.
This is the first time experts have been able to examine a heat shield after it entered another planet's atmosphere. Engineers expect the findings to aid design for future missions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4275179.stm
Source - BBC News
NASA has approved another 18-months of crawling around on the Red planet for the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The rovers, which were originally designed to explore the surface of Mars for just three months, are holding up so well after their fourteen month stay on the red planet, that mission scientists say they are having to make long term plans for them.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/06/nasa_approves_extension/
The US space agency's (Nasa) Mars rover Opportunity has finally broken free of the sand trap that has prevented it from rolling over the Red Planet.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4612649.stm
Opportunity, the Mars rover, is edging ever closer to the edge of the Victoria crater, which has been its goal for more than half its time on the red planet.
NASA says the view from the edge of the crater will be the "grandest" yet, and that exploring the crater will yield a rich scientific trove.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/07/mars_rover_victoria/
Nasa's robotic Mars rover Opportunity is closing in on what could be the richest scientific "treasure trove" of its mission so far.
Within the next two weeks, Opportunity should reach the rim of a crater wider and deeper than any it has visited in more than two-and-a-half years on Mars.
More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5322962.stm
Take a look at the image taken by MRO which shows Opportunity at Victoria Crater.
More here (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08816?msource=ecard100606&tr=y&auid=2048980)
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is scheduled to begin a descent down a rock-paved slope into the Red Planet's massive Victoria Crater. This carries real risk for the long-lived robotic explorer, but NASA and the Mars Rover science team expect it to provide valuable science.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/28jun_descent.htm?list983005 (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/28jun_descent.htm?list983005)
Huge dust storms raging on Mars pose the worst threat yet to Nasa's robot rovers, the US space agency has said.
Dust is starving the rovers of power by blocking out the sunlight needed to charge their batteries.
The six-wheeled, solar-powered rovers - Opportunity and Spirit - are operating at two distant sites just south of the Martian equator.
More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6909656.stm
And: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20070720a.html
Giant dust storms that have pinned the Mars rovers down for the last six weeks are beginning to lift, allowing the two explorers to restart their slow crawl over the red planet's surface.
The storms have blotted out the light from the sun, leaving the craft virtually powerless as their solar panels lay in shadow. When the severity of the storms became clear, mission managers elected to have the craft hibernate to ride it out. Then, earlier this week, NASA said the craft could resume their exploration.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/31/rovers_moving/
Clearing dust storms on Mars have allowed the US space agency's robotic rovers to increase their workload.
The vehicles - Opportunity and Spirit - had been kept nearly inactive for six weeks to preserve the limited power being generated by their solar panels.
But Nasa says the skies have cleared sufficiently for the rovers to resume some limited driving.
More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6970561.stm
After weathering the dust storms of the past two months, the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have had their solar panels swept free off dust by kinder, gentler winds. With full power restored, the two explorers are now ready to renew their slow crawl over the surface of the red planet.
Opportunity now stands on the crest of Victoria crater (pictured below), and is set to begin its descent as early as September 11 (Tuesday).
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/10/rovers_ready_roving/
The Mars Rover Opportunity has started its exploration of the Victoria crater. The images it is sending back suggest any previous (or current, but hidden) inhabitants of the red planet had a bit of a thing for crazy paving.
NASA says it has checked to make sure the rover can climb back out of the crater once it is done exploring, by running it backwards over the sandy ridge at the crater's rim. That test completed, the rover roved its way down the side of the crater. NASA says that it started with just two wheels in Victoria, but finished the day 20 metres further down the crater's inner slope.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/14/mars_oportunity_victoria/
The Mars rover Opportunity has sent back yet another gobsmacking image from the red planet. This picture is close to true colour, the space agency says, and was captured from a spot known as Duck Bay.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/01/victoria_snaps/
Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been given the green light to keep on roving, possibly through to the end of 2009. The rovers' continued good health is the only limit mentioned in NASA's announcement of the mission extension.
The twin rovers landed on Mars in 2004. The original mission called for the pair to spend three months trundling across the Martian surface. They have now been exploring the planet for more than three years.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/16/nasa_rovers/
The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) folks that operate the Spirit and Opportunity robots on the red planet have gotten some bad news.
A directive has come from NASA Headquarters to take a 40 percent financial cut in their program — some $4 million in the remaining months of fiscal year 2008.
More: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080324-mars-rovers-update.html
We're not the only ones then :roll:
Nasa's robotic rover Opportunity is driving out of a giant crater on Mars nearly a year after its dangerous descent to examine exposed bedrock.
More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7584260.stm
NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity is about to set off on what may be its final odyssey - a seven-mile (11.3 km) jaunt to a crater around 20 times larger than the Victoria Crater from which it extricated itself earlier this month.
The distant feature, dubbed Endeavour, is 13.7 miles (22 km) across and 1,000 ft (300m) deep. It's described by Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the science instruments on Opportunity and twin rover Spirit, as "staggeringly large compared to anything we've seen before".
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/23/opportunity_jaunt/
The US space agency is to send its Mars rover Opportunity on a two-year trek to try to reach a crater called Endeavour.
The robot will have to move about 11km to get to its new target - a distance that would double what it has already achieved on the planet.
Endeavour is much bigger than anything investigated to date, and will allow a broader range of rocks to be studied.
Opportunity arrived on Mars in January 2004 on a mission scheduled initially to last just three months.
More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7630617.stm
NASA's Mars rover Spirit passed the fifth anniversary of its arrival on the Red Planet on 3 January 2004 - an achievement which will be matched on 24 January by its twin Opportunity.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/05/mars_rovers_anniversary/
A former advertising copywriter and web-biz maven turned inventor and rocket entrepreneur has proposed a novel plan for disposing of NASA's soon-to-be-retired space shuttles. Eric Knight, perhaps most famous for temporarily mislaying the ashes of James "Scotty from Star Trek" Doohan, believes that a pair of shuttles should be lashed together and sent to Mars.
:roll: More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/07/scotty_ashes_man_mars_shuttle_plan/ :roll:
NASA scientists are putting together diagnostic tests to find out why one of the space agency's two Mars rovers began failing to respond to instructions over the weekend.
The Mars rover Spirit started acting erratically early this week, according to NASA late on Wednesday afternoon. Spirit and its Mars rover companion, Opportunity, have been working on the red planet for five years despite initially being given an on-planet life span of three months.
More on Computerworld.com (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9126958)
The team controlling NASA's Mars rover Spirit is planning to carry out some diagnostic tests on the venerable vehicle after it earlier this week indulged in some "unexplained behavior", as the agency puts it.
On Sunday, Spirit reported that it had "received its driving commands for the day but had not moved" - a correct decision if it didn't know its orientation. Accordingly, NASA on Tuesday commanded the rover to re-establish its bearings by pinpointing the sun with its camera.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/29/rover_erratic_behaviour/
..and from the BBC: Glitch as Mars rover phones home
The rover Spirit failed to carry out directions it received on Sunday, its 1800th day on the Martian surface.
Another anomaly, according to Nasa, was that the day's activities were not saved to the rover's long-term memory.
As of Wednesday, the rover seems to have recovered and is responsive to commands from Earth.
More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7858125.stm
NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, which has been circling the red planet for nearly eight years, needs a risky reboot to address a long-known, potential vulnerability in its memory system.
The Odyssey team plans to perform the operation next week.
The chief concern about the potential memory vulnerability stems from the length of time that the spacecraft has been exposed to the accumulated effects of the space radiation environment since the last reboot, which occurred on Oct. 31, 2003.
More: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090305-odyssey-reboot.html (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090305-odyssey-reboot.html)
Quoteneeds a risky reboot to address a long-known, potential vulnerability in its memory system.
Ha. that'll teach them to use windows. :lol:
Quotepotential vulnerability in its memory system
Any more info on what this vulnerability is?
SP3 has buggered it :lol:
On its way toward its next destination on Mars, NASA's Spirit rover took a glance back at the tracks it has made on its journey, which exposed a bright patch of dirt.
Spirit is on its way from a low plateau called "Home Plate," where it spent the Martian winter, to two features dubbed von Braun and Goddard
More: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090401-spirit-tracks.html (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090401-spirit-tracks.html)
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit mysteriously rebooted its computer twice over the weekend; mission controllers are examining data sent back by Spirit to see if they can diagnose the problem behind the glitch.
"While we don't have an explanation yet, we do know that Spirit's batteries are charged, the solar arrays are producing energy and temperatures are well within allowable ranges. We have time to respond carefully and investigate this thoroughly," said Spirit project manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The rover is in a stable operations state called automode and taking care of itself. It could stay in this stable mode for some time if necessary while we diagnose the problem."
More: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090414-spirit-reboot.html (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090414-spirit-reboot.html)
Vista, we have a problem.................................................... :D
In what could be an attempt to trump Jesus of Nazareth's record for divine Easter resurrections, NASA has said its Mars Exploration Rover Spirit mysteriously rebooted twice during the holiday weekend.
"While we don't have an explanation yet, we do know that Spirit's batteries are charged, the solar arrays are producing energy and temperatures are well within allowable ranges," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a statement.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/14/nasa_reboot_over_easter_weekend/
After more than five years on Mars, NASA's tireless Opportunity rover trundled past the 10-mile mark on its odometer while on its way to its next target, Endeavor Crater, the agency said today.
Opportunity reached this marker after a 50-meter (164-feet) drive on sol 1,897 (sols are Martian days, which are about 40 minutes longer than Earth days). The rover's total odometry now sits at 16,133.96 meters or 10.025 miles.
"For a vehicle that was designed to travel 1 km over its lifetime, going 16+ km is a pretty substantial accomplishment!" said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in an email to SPACE.com. Squyres is the lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover Project.
More: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090526-opp-10-miles.html (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090526-opp-10-miles.html)
NASA's interplanetary robot rover "Opportunity", prowling the haematite steppes of the Meridiani Planum on Mars, has crept up on and photographed a mysterious space boulder or "cobble". Astro boffins theorise that the object may be alien in origin, rather than from the red planet.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/03/nasa_mars_rover_asteroid_hunt/
An unusual object recently found on Mars by a NASA robot - said to be "the size of a large watermelon" and to weigh a "half ton or more" - is thought by boffins to provide proof that the Red Planet once had a much denser atmosphere than it does now.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/11/block_island_in_close/
Efforts to free the stuck Spirit rover on Mars have been dragging on since May and today a NASA official said the robot may never get free.
"We are proceeding very cautiously and exploring all reasonable options," said John Callas, NASA project manager for Spirit and its twin, Opportunity. "There is a very real possibility that Spirit may not be able to get out, and we want to give Spirit the very best chance."
Callas and colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been testing ideas on a twin of Spirit at the California facility, in a pit designed to simulate the surface of Mars. It's tricky though, because of the difference in gravity of the two planets. The rover team is also refining a detailed computer model of rover mobility, calibrated with results from testing and measurements from Mars.
Mopre: http://www.space.com/news/090914-spirit-stuck.html (http://www.space.com/news/090914-spirit-stuck.html)
Bummer :(
NASA's intrepid Mars rover Opportunity has found yet another meteorite on the surface of the red planet.
Opportunity stumbled upon this new meteorite, dubbed "Shelter Island," less than three weeks after driving away from a larger meteorite that the rover examined for six weeks.
The rover began its approach to the meteorite with a 92-foot (28-meter) backwards drive on Oct. 1, the rover's 2,022nd day on Mars.
Opportunity and its twin rover Spirit — which is currently embedded in a soft spot of soil called Troy — have been on the Martian surface for more than five years.
Shelter Island is a pitted rock is about 18.5 inches (47 cm) long. The meteorite was first detected in images taken two Martian days earlier. (A Martian day is 24 hours and 40 minutes long.)
More: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091012-opportunity-meteorite.html (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091012-opportunity-meteorite.html)
NASA has come up with a plan to extricate their stuck rover Spirit that's been bogged down in a Martian sand trap since April.
Space agency brains have been conducting a lengthy series of trials using a test rover and sandbox on Earth to figure out the best way of freeing the hindered droid.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/13/nasa_spirit_rover_rescue_plan/
NASA engineers are set to take a second go at extricating the stuck rover Spirit from its sandy trap on Mars.
New commands for the rover to attempt to drive out of the sand it is stuck in will be sent up early in the morning on Thursday, according to a NASA report releasted late Wednesday.
Spirit has been mired in the sand pit, dubbed "Troy," since April.
The first attempt to free Spirit, which took place on Tuesday, hit a snag when the rover sensed it was tilting too much and stopped after less than one second of wheel spin.
More: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/091118-mars-spirit-rover-take2.html (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/091118-mars-spirit-rover-take2.html)
NASA's Spirit Mars rover could be facing the prospect of freezing to death after attempts to free it from a sand trap suggest it may now have two disabled wheels.
Spirit got bogged down back in April, and its three left wheels are almost completely buried. Its right-front wheel clapped out in 2006, and the right-rear wheel is also showing signs of failure.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/09/spirit_rover/
The long-crippled right-front wheel of NASA's beleaguered Mars rover Spirit surprised mission managers by spinning for the first time in three years last week.
NASA engineers decided to try switching on the bum wheel to see if they could gain more traction to try to extricate the rover from the sand trap it has been stuck in since May 6.
Engineers were "totally" surprised that the wheel actually showed signs of activity last week after being switched on for the first time since 2006, when its failure due to an open circuit was thought to be permanent, said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is deputy principal investigator for the science payloads on Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. That wheel failure forced engineers to drive the spacecraft backwards with the crippled wheel in tow.
"We've been dragging it around Mars for three years," Arvidson said.
More on Space.com (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/091221-spirit-wheel-spin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+spaceheadlines+%28SPACE.com+Headline+Feed%29)
Six years ago, NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity touched down on the red planet with a team of scientists eagerly looking ahead to their short, three-month missions.
As they embark on their seventh year on Mars, the longevity of the plucky rovers continues to amaze their minders back on Earth, even with Spirit potentially permanently stuck wheel-deep in Martian sand.
Spirit set down at Gusev Crater on Jan. 3, 2004, at 11:35 p.m. EST, with its younger sister rover Opportunity landing on the other side of the planet — on the plains of Meridiani Planum — more than two weeks later at midnight EST on Jan. 25. While Sunday marks the mission's sixth anniversary on Earth, it has only been 3.2 Martian years since one year on Mars is about 687 Earth days long.
More: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/100102-mars-rovers-year-seven.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+spaceheadlines+(SPACE.com+Headline+Feed) (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/100102-mars-rovers-year-seven.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+spaceheadlines+(SPACE.com+Headline+Feed))
The roving days are over for NASA's Mars rover Spirit after more than six years rolling across the Martian surface, the space agency announced Tuesday.
NASA engineers have decided to abandon efforts to rescue the Spirit rover from the deep Martian sand that snared it in May 2009. Instead, they are trying to prepare the rover to survive the harsh winter ahead in Mars' southern hemisphere. If the rover survives, it will serve as a fixed science outpost, mission managers said.
"This is not a day to mourn Spirit. This is not a day of loss," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars exploration program, in a teleconference. "Its driving days are likely over, however its contribution will continue."
More: Space.com (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit-mars-rover-future-100126.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+spaceheadlines+%28SPACE.com+Headline+Feed%29)
They should get Opportunity to trundle over to Spirit and winch it out.
NASA's Spirit rover should be able to wriggle free of its sandy trap on Mars after all, says a scientist for the mission. But the plucky robotic explorer will need to survive the bitter Martian winter first.
In April 2009, Spirit's wheels broke through a thin surface crust and got mired in the loose sand below. After months of trying unsuccessfully to free the rover, NASA declared on 26 January that Spirit would henceforth be a stationary lander mission rather than a rover.
More: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18596-mars-rover-spirit-could-rise-again.html
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has found a Martian rock covered in weird material as its odometer hit a major milestone this week, with the long-lived robot completing equivalent to a half–marathon on the red planet.
Opportunity, now in its seventh year on Mars, found the odd Mars rock during the past six weeks studying investigating a crater called "Concepción." The crater is about 33 feet (10 meters) in diameter, with dark rays extending from it, as seen from orbit, which made it a target of interest for rover inspection because they suggest the crater is young.
The rover made the pit stop to investigate the crater on its long journey to the large crater Endeavour, which is still about 7 miles (12 km) away. It was while Opportunity was at Concepción that the rover surpassed 12.43 miles (20 km) of total driving, about the length of a half-marathon.
More: Space.com (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/opportunity-mars-rover-weird-rocks-100325.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+spaceheadlines+(SPACE.com+Headline+Feed))
PASADENA, Calif. -- The ground where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit became stuck last year holds evidence that water, perhaps as snow melt, trickled into the subsurface fairly recently and on a continuing basis.
Stratified soil layers with different compositions close to the surface led the rover science team to propose that thin films of water may have entered the ground from frost or snow. The seepage could have happened during cyclical climate changes in periods when Mars tilted farther on its axis. The water may have moved down into the sand, carrying soluble minerals deeper than less soluble ones. Spin-axis tilt varies over timescales of hundreds of thousands of years.
The relatively insoluble minerals near the surface include what is thought to be hematite, silica and gypsum. Ferric sulfates, which are more soluble, appear to have been dissolved and carried down by water. None of these minerals are exposed at the surface, which is covered by wind-blown sand and dust.
More: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20101028.html
Opportunity reaches southeastern rim of Santa Maria crater
Opportunity is positioning herself for solar conjunction at the southeastern rim of the 80-meter (262-foot) diameter Santa Maria crater.
No communication has been received from Spirit since Sol 2210 (March 22, 2010).
The solar conjunction period (late-January to mid-February) will afford the rover the chance to conduct a long (multi-week) integration on a surface target with the mössbauer (MB) spectrometer. Solar conjunction is the period when communications between Earth and Mars are disrupted because the Sun is directly in between the two planets. Seen from orbit, the southeast region of the rim of Santa Maria shows evidence for hydrated sulfate minerals. On Sol 2471 (Jan. 5, 2011), a planned drive did not occur because the rover detected an error in the drive sequence sent from Earth. This was corrected and Opportunity drove on Sol 2474 (Jan. 8, 2011), covering over 78 meters (256 feet) around the southern edge of Santa Maria. On Sol 2476 (Jan. 10, 2011), the rover performed a 15-meter (49-foot) approach to the planned spot for solar conjunction. On the next sol, Opportunity bumped about 3 meters (10 feet) to the final target location.
More: Opportunity (http://spacespin.org/article.php/110135-opportunity-reaches-southeastern?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+spacespin+(Space+Spin))
NASA kills comms with deceased Mars rover
NASA will today end attempts to contact its Spirit Mars rover, killed by lack of sunlight during a "stressful" Martian winter.
The agency last heard from Spirit on 22 March 2010, when it transmitted from the sand trap in which it had been stuck since April 2009. The orientation of its solar panels led scientists to conclude it probably wouldn't be able to generate enough power to survive a harsh Red Planet winter, and as the rover's internal temperature fell to an estimated -55°C, it was doomed to an icy death.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/25/rip_spirit/
Opportunity Rolling Again After Fifth Mars Winter
With its daily supply of solar energy increasing, NASA's durable Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has driven off the sunward-tilted outcrop, called Greeley Haven, where it worked during its fifth Martian winter.
Opportunity's first drive since Dec. 26, 2011, took the rover about 12 feet (3.67 meters) northwest and downhill on Tuesday, May 8. The rover operations team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., received confirmation of the completed drive late Tuesday, relayed from NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-131
Dark Shadows on Mars: Scene from Durable NASA Rover
Like a tourist waiting for just the right lighting to snap a favorite shot during a stay at the Grand Canyon, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has used a low sun angle for a memorable view of a large Martian crater.
The resulting view catches a shadow of the rover in the foreground and the giant basin in the distance. Opportunity is perched on the western rim of Endeavour Crater looking eastward. The crater spans about 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. Opportunity has been studying the edge of Endeavour Crater since arriving there in August 2011.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-143
Opportunity in Standby as Commanding Moratorium Ends
During a moratorium on commanding this month while Mars passed nearly behind the sun - a phase called solar conjunction -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity entered a type of standby mode.
Mission controllers learned of the changed status on April 27 when they first heard from Opportunity after the period of minimized communication during the solar conjunction. They prepared fresh commands today (April 29) for sending to the rover to resume operations.
Update: NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project received confirmation from Mars this morning (May 1) that the Opportunity rover is back under ground control, executing a sequence of commands sent by the rover team. Opportunity is no longer in standby automode and has resumed normal operations.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-151
Now nearly a decade into her planned 3 month only expedition to Mars, NASA's longest living rover Opportunity, struck gold and has just discovered the strongest evidence to date for an environment favorable to ancient Martian biology – and she has set sail hunting for a motherlode of new clues amongst fabulous looking terrain!!
Barely two weeks ago in mid-May 2013, Opportunity's analysis of a new rock target named "Esperance" confirmed that it is composed of a "clay that had been intensely altered by relatively neutral pH water – representing the most favorable conditions for biology that Opportunity has yet seen in the rock histories it has encountered," NASA said in a statement.
The finding of a fractured rock loaded with clay minerals and ravaged by flowing liquid water in which life could have thrived amounts to a scientific home run for the golf cart sized rover!
"Water that moved through fractures during this rock's history would have provided more favorable conditions for biology than any other wet environment recorded in rocks Opportunity has seen," said the mission's principal investigator Prof. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/102224/opportunity-discovers-clays-favorable-to-martian-biology-and-sets-sail-for-motherlode-of-new-clues/
Overhead View of Mars Rover 10 Years After Launch
An image from Mars orbit taken 10 years after the launch of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the long-lived rover on its trek to a new destination on Mars.
The color image taken July 8, 2013, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter catches Opportunity crossing relatively level ground called "Botany Bay" on its way to a rise called "Solander Point."
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-224
Mars Rover Opportunity Working at Edge of 'Solander'
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is studying the area of contact between a rock layer formed in acidic wet conditions long ago and an even older one that may be from a more neutral wet environment.
This geological contact line recording a change in environmental conditions billions of years ago lies at the foot of a north-facing slope, "Solander Point," that the rover's operators chose months ago as Opportunity's work area for the coming Martian southern hemisphere winter.
Opportunity has survived five Martian winters since it landed on Mars in January 2004. A northern slope would tilt the rover's solar panels toward the winter sun, providing an important boost in available power.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-250
Phantom rock suddenly 'appears' on the surface of Mars
"It's about the size of a jelly doughnut," Squyres told Discovery News. "It was a total surprise, we were like 'wait a second, that wasn't there before, it can't be right. Oh my god! It wasn't there before!' We were absolutely startled."
More: http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.569230
...and on APOD (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140129.html).
Opportunity Heads Uphill After Solving 'Doughnut' Riddle
Researchers have determined the now-infamous Martian rock resembling a jelly doughnut, dubbed Pinnacle Island, is a piece of a larger rock broken and moved by the wheel of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in early January.
Only about 1.5 inches wide (4 centimeters), the white-rimmed, red-centered rock caused a stir last month when it appeared in an image the rover took Jan. 8 at a location where it was not present four days earlier.
More recent images show the original piece of rock struck by the rover's wheel, slightly uphill from where Pinnacle Island came to rest.
More: http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/mer/mer20140214/
And what? Are we now suppose to believe that. :roll:
This has got conspiracy written all over it.
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3718/12536670065_aa673b715c.jpg)
;)
Tony G
NASA Long-Lived Mars Opportunity Rover Passes 25 Miles of Driving
NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, which landed on the Red Planet in 2004, now holds the off-Earth roving distance record after accruing 25 miles (40 kilometers) of driving. The previous record was held by the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 rover.
"Opportunity has driven farther than any other wheeled vehicle on another world," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "This is so remarkable considering Opportunity was intended to drive about one kilometer and was never designed for distance. But what is really important is not how many miles the rover has racked up, but how much exploration and discovery we have accomplished over that distance."
A drive of 157 feet (48 meters) on July 27 put Opportunity's total odometry at 25.01 miles (40.25 kilometers). This month's driving brought the rover southward along the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover had driven more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) before arriving at Endeavour Crater in 2011, where it has examined outcrops on the crater's rim containing clay and sulfate-bearing minerals. The sites are yielding evidence of ancient environments with less acidic water than those examined at Opportunity's landing site.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-245
Memory Reformat Planned for Opportunity Mars Rover
An increasing frequency of computer resets on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has prompted the rover team to make plans to reformat the rover's flash memory.
The resets, including a dozen this month, interfere with the rover's planned science activities, even though recovery from each incident is completed within a day or two.
Flash memory retains data even when power is off. It is the type used for storing photos and songs on smart phones or digital cameras, among many other uses. Individual cells within a flash memory sector can wear out from repeated use. Reformatting clears the memory while identifying bad cells and flagging them to be avoided.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-292
Mars Rover Opportunity's Vista Includes Long Tracks
From a ridgeline viewpoint, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recently recorded a scene looking back over its own tracks made from nearly half a mile (more than 700 meters) of southbound driving.
Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) recorded the component images on Aug. 15, 2014, from an elevated portion of the west rim of Endeavour Crater. A brief video places the scene into context with the rover's entire driving route of more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) since the mission's 2004 landing in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-304
Opportunity's Heading to a Small Crater Called 'Ulysses'
Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater heading towards "Marathon Valley," a putative location for abundant clay minerals.
Recently, there were more Flash-related events. Two more "amnesia" events occurred on the evenings of Sols 3786 and 3789 (Sept. 17 and Sept. 20, 2014).
More: http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol3792
Opportunity Climbs to High Point on Rim
After completing two drives this week, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has paused to photograph the panoramic vista from the highest point the rover has reached during its 40 months of exploring the western rim of Mars' Endeavour Crater. The view is one of the grandest in Opportunity's Martian career of nearly 11 years and more than 25.8 miles (41.6 kilometers).
The rover has been having trouble with a section of its flash memory, the type of memory that can store data even when power is switched off. Opportunity's operators at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, have adopted a tactic of avoiding use of the flash memory, while they prepare a software remedy to restore its usability.
The rover is atop "Cape Tribulation" on Endeavour Crater's rim. Like the informal names for several other features around the 14-mile-wide (22-kilometer-wide) crater, the name Cape Tribulation is a reference to one of the locations visited by the HMS Endeavour captained by James Cook in his first voyage of discovery to Australia and New Zealand in 1769-1771.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4437
Hilltop Panorama Marks Mars Rover's 11th Anniversary
A panorama from one of the highest elevations that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached in its 11 years on Mars includes the U.S. flag at the summit.
The view is from the top of "Cape Tribulation," a raised section of the rim of Endeavour Crater. The panorama spans the interior of the 14-mile-wide (22-kilometer-wide) crater and extends to the rim of another crater on the horizon.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4455
Several Drives This Week Put Opportunity Near Marathon Distance
The project is operating the rover without using the Flash storage system to avoid reset problems and is using instead random access memory (RAM) for temporary storage of telemetry. The project is preparing to mask off the troubled sector of Flash and resume using the remainder of the Flash file system in normal operations.
Total odometry is 26.02 miles (41.88 kilometers).
More: http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol3909
Rover Examining Odd Mars Rocks at Valley Overlook
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity climbed last month to an overlook for surveying "Marathon Valley," a science destination chosen because spectrometer observations from orbit indicate exposures of clay minerals.
Near the overlook, it found blocky rocks so unlike any previously examined on Mars that the rover team has delayed other activities to provide time for a thorough investigation.
"We drove to the edge of a plateau to look down in the valley, and we found these big, dark-gray blocks along the ridgeline," said Opportunity Project Scientist Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "We checked one and found its composition is different from any ever measured before on Mars. So, whoa! Let's study these more before moving on."
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4502
NASA Reformats Memory of Longest-Running Mars Rover
After avoiding use of the rover's flash memory for three months, the team operating NASA's 11-year-old Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reformatted the vehicle's flash memory banks and resumed storing some data overnight for transmitting later.
The team received confirmation from Mars on March 20 that the reformatting completed successfully. The rover switched to updated software earlier this month that will avoid using one of the seven banks of onboard flash memory. Some of the flash-memory problems that prompted the team to adopt a no-flash mode of operations in late 2014 were traced to Bank 7. The remaining six banks provide more nonvolatile memory capacity than the rover has used on all but a few days since landing on Mars in January 2004.
In the no-flash mode of operations, Opportunity continued conducting science investigations and driving, but transmitted each day's accumulated data before powering down for overnight conservation of energy. Flash memory is nonvolatile, meaning it retains data even without power. Opportunity also uses random access memory, which retains data only while power is on.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4517
NASA's Opportunity Mars Rover Passes Marathon Distance
There was no tape draped across a finish line, but NASA is celebrating a win. The agency's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity completed its first Red Planet marathon Tuesday -- 26.219 miles (42.195 kilometers) - with a finish time of roughly 11 years and two months.
"This is the first time any human enterprise has exceeded the distance of a marathon on the surface of another world," said John Callas, Opportunity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "A first time happens only once."
The rover team at JPL plans a marathon-length relay run at the laboratory next week to celebrate.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4521
Rover on the Lookout for Dust Devils!
Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater next to the "Spirit of St. Louis" crater near the entrance of "Marathon Valley."
The rover had been conducting an in-situ (contact) science campaign at the outcrop named "Thermopylae."
More: http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol3990
Rock Spire in 'Spirit of St. Louis Crater' on Mars
An elongated crater called "Spirit of St. Louis," with a rock spire in it, dominates a recent scene from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.
Opportunity completed its 4,000th Martian day, or sol, of work on Mars on April 26, 2015. The rover has been exploring Mars since early 2004.
This scene from late March 2015 shows a shallow crater called Spirit of St. Louis, about 110 feet (34 meters) long and about 80 feet (24 meters) wide, with a floor slightly darker than surrounding terrain. The rocky feature toward the far end of the crater is about 7 to 10 feet (2 to 3 meters) tall, rising higher than the crater's rim.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4570
Martian Reminder of a Pioneering Flight
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is studying an elongated crater called "Spirit of St. Louis" and a rock spire called "Lindbergh Mound" within the crater.
The crater and several features in and near it are shown in a recent image from Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam).
Throughout Opportunity's 11-plus years on Mars, the science team for the rover has picked crater names from a list of "vessels of exploration," including ships, spacecraft and aircraft. The names informally assigned for this crater and features in it refer to Charles Lindbergh's May 1927 flight from New York to Paris in the airplane he named Spirit of St. Louis, the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4592
Opportunity Reaches 12 Years on Mars!
Opportunity is exploring 'Marathon Valley' on the rim of Endeavour crater. The rover is up on north-facing slopes for improved solar array energy production.
The rover is conducting an in-situ (contact) science campaign on the surface target 'Joseph Collin' (informally named for members of the Lewis and Clark expedition).
More: http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol4263
Studying Grooves
Opportunity is wrapping up exploration of 'Marathon Valley' on the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover has driven to an area were the rock outcrop has interesting grooves. The science team is using Opportunity to conduct an extensive visual documentation campaign at this area.
More: http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol4458
NASA's Opportunity Rover to Explore Mars Gully
NASA's Opportunity Mars rover will drive down a gully carved long ago by a fluid that might have been water, according to the latest plans for the 12-year-old mission. No Mars rover has done that before.
The longest-active rover on Mars also will, for the first time, visit the interior of the crater it has worked beside for the last five years. These activities are part of a two-year extended mission that began Oct. 1, the newest in a series of extensions going back to the end of Opportunity's prime mission in April 2004.
Opportunity launched on July 7, 2003 and landed on Mars on Jan. 24, 2004 (PST), on a planned mission of 90 Martian days, which is equivalent to 92.4 Earth days.
"We have now exceeded the prime-mission duration by a factor of 50," noted Opportunity Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Milestones like this are reminders of the historic achievements made possible by the dedicated people entrusted to build and operate this national asset for exploring Mars."
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6642