NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

[mickw]

NASA has finally revived its most powerful Mars orbiter from its months-long slumber due to a computer glitch.
The spacecraft, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, slipped into a protective "safe mode" in late August, stalling its science observations but safeguarding the $720 million probe from further damage. Instead of rousing the orbiter within a few days, as in past glitches, NASA engineers spent months trying to find the source of the probe's inexplicable computer rebooting malfunctions.

"The patient is out of danger, but more steps have to be taken to get it back on its feet," said Jim Erickson, the spacecraft's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

JPL engineers beamed the 4-year-old orbiter a vital software upgrade last week to patch a potentially mission-killing scenario in the spacecraft's onboard computer. That scenario, the unlikely occurrence of back-to-back computer reboots, could have sent the powerful Mars orbiter offline for good, mission managers said.

More:   http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/091209-mro-glitch-update.html

[Mac]

NASA engineers spent months trying to find the source of the probe's inexplicable computer rebooting malfunctions.

Should have stayed with XP, instead of upgrading to vista. 

have you noticed, this latest update is after windowz 7 has been released.

[mickw]

Naturally erupting dust clouds on Mars are creating structures that look surprisingly like trees near the planet's north pole. But don't be fooled – it's just an optical illusion, NASA scientists say.

The Martian "trees" are actually dark basaltic sand pushed to the surface of sand dunes by sun-heated solid carbon dioxide ice, or dry ice, sublimating directly into vapor, explained Candy Hansen, a member of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) team at the University of Arizona.

The sand dunes form a nearly complete ring around Mars' north pole and are covered by a thin layer of reddish Martian dust and patches of dry ice. To date, there is no firm evidence of any type of Martian biology, past or present, plant or otherwise.

More on Space.Com

[mickw]

A dramatic 3-D view rendered from Mars orbiter data reveals the highs and lows of Mars' Mojave Crater.

In the new image of a portion of the crater's walls, based on terrain modeling from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data, the vertical dimensions are exaggerated by three times compared to the horizontal dimensions. The resulting images look like the view from a low-altitude aircraft.

This enhanced view shows material that has ponded and is backed up behind massive blocks of bedrock in the crater's terrace walls. Hundreds of Martian impact craters have similar ponding with pitted surfaces.

Scientists believe these "pitted ponds" are created when material melted by the crater-causing impacts is captured behind the wall terraces.

More:   Martian craters

[mickw]

Just a bunch of Mars images -
Just click on the links

http://spacespin.org/article.php/110212-mro-hirise-images?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+spacespin+(Space+Spin)

[Rick]

NASA Mars Weathercam Helps Find Big New Crater

Researchers have discovered on the Red Planet the largest fresh meteor-impact crater ever firmly documented with before-and-after images. The images were captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The crater spans half the length of a football field and first appeared in March 2012. The impact that created it likely was preceded by an explosion in the Martian sky caused by intense friction between an incoming asteroid and the planet's atmosphere. This series of events can be likened to the meteor blast that shattered windows in Chelyabinsk, Russia, last year. The air burst and ground impact darkened an area of the Martian surface about 5 miles (8 kilometers) across.

More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-162#1

[Rick]

Epic map reveals Mars's geography in unrivalled detail

The map combines 16 years' worth of observations from four orbiting spacecraft: Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

It is the first global geological map of Mars since the Viking orbiter's effort in 1987 – which you can stroll through on Google Earth. It reveals that much of the Martian surface is older than previously thought, and confirms the planet was geologically active until recently.

More: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25907-epic-map-reveals-marss-geography-in-unrivalled-detail.html

Get a copy from the USGS here: http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3292/

[Rick]

One Decade after Launch, Mars Orbiter Still Going Strong

Ten years after launch, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revealed the Red Planet's diversity and activity, returning more data about Mars every week than all six other missions currently active there. And its work is far from over.

The workhorse orbiter now plays a key role in NASA's Journey to Mars planning. Images from the orbiter, revealing details as small as a desk, aid the analysis of potential landing sites for the 2016 InSight lander and Mars 2020 rover. Data from the orbiter will also be used as part of NASA's newly announced process to examine and select candidate sites where humans will first explore the Martian surface in the 2030s.

An Atlas V rocket launched the orbiter on an early Florida morning from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Aug. 12, 2005, propelling it on a course toward Mars.

More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4683

[Rick]

Study finds evidence for more recent clay formation on Mars

Clays and other minerals formed when rocks are altered by water have been found in multiple locations on Mars. It's been assumed that these minerals probably formed in the earliest Martian epoch, over 3.7 billion years ago. But a new study finds that later clay formation might have been more common than many scientists thought.

Read on: https://news.brown.edu/articles/2015/12/mars

[Rick]

Ten Years of Discovery by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

True to its purpose, the big NASA spacecraft that began orbiting Mars a decade ago this week has delivered huge advances in knowledge about the Red Planet.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revealed in unprecedented detail a planet that held diverse wet environments billions of years ago and remains dynamic today.

One example of MRO's major discoveries was published last year, about the possibility of liquid water being present seasonally on present-day Mars. It drew on three key capabilities researchers gained from this mission: telescopic camera resolution to find features narrower than a driveway; spacecraft longevity to track seasonal changes over several Martian years; and imaging spectroscopy to map surface composition.

More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=5749

[Rick]

New Gravity Map Gives Best View Yet Inside Mars

A new map of Mars' gravity made with three NASA spacecraft is the most detailed to date, providing a revealing glimpse into the hidden interior of the Red Planet.

The improved resolution of the new gravity map suggests a new explanation for how some features formed across the boundary that divides the relatively smooth northern lowlands from heavily cratered southern highlands. Also, the team confirmed that Mars has a liquid outer core of molten rock by analyzing tides in the Martian crust and mantle caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and the two moons of Mars. Finally, by observing how Mars' gravity changed over 11 years - the period of an entire cycle of solar activity -- the team inferred the massive amount of carbon dioxide that freezes out of the atmosphere onto a Martian polar ice cap when it experiences winter. They also observed how that mass moves between the south pole and the north pole with the change of season in each hemisphere.

More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6165

[Rick]

NASA Radar Finds Ice Age Record in Mars' Polar Cap

Scientists using radar data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have found a record of the most recent Martian ice age recorded in the planet's north polar ice cap.

The new results agree with previous models that indicate a glacial period ended about 400,000 years ago, as well as predictions about how much ice would have been accumulated at the poles since then.

Mars has bright polar caps of ice that are easily visible from telescopes on Earth. A seasonal cover of carbon-dioxide ice and snow is observed to advance and retreat over the poles during the Martian year. During summertime in the planet's north, the remaining northern polar cap is all water ice; the southern cap is water ice as well, but remains covered by a relatively thin layer of carbon dioxide ice even in southern summertime.

But Mars also undergoes variations in its tilt and the shape of its orbit over hundreds of thousands of years. These changes cause substantial shifts in the planet's climate, including ice ages. Earth has similar, but less variable, phases called Milankovitch cycles.

More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6519

[Rick]

Citizen Scientists Seek South Pole 'Spiders' on Mars

Ten thousand volunteers viewing images of Martian south polar regions have helped identify targets for closer inspection, yielding new insights about seasonal slabs of frozen carbon dioxide and erosional features known as "spiders."

From the comfort of home, the volunteers have been exploring the surface of Mars by reviewing images from the Context Camera (CTX) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and identifying certain types of seasonal terrains near Mars' south pole. These efforts by volunteers using the "Planet Four: Terrains" website have aided scientists who plan observations with the same orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. HiRISE photographs much less ground but in much greater detail than CTX.

Volunteers have helped identify more than 20 regions in mid-resolution images to investigate with higher resolution. "It's heartwarming to see so many citizens of planet Earth donate their time to help study Mars," said HiRISE Deputy Principal Investigator Candice Hansen, of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona. "Thanks to the discovery power of so many people, we're using HiRISE to take images of places we might not have studied without this assistance."

More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6654

[Rick]

Mars Volcano, Earth's Dinosaurs Went Extinct About the Same Time

New NASA research reveals that the giant Martian volcano Arsia Mons produced one new lava flow at its summit every 1 to 3 million years during the final peak of activity. The last volcanic activity there ceased about 50 million years ago -- around the time of Earth's Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, when large numbers of our planet's plant and animal species (including dinosaurs) went extinct.

Located just south of Mars' equator, Arsia Mons is the southernmost member of a trio of broad, gently sloping shield volcanoes collectively known as Tharsis Montes. Arsia Mons was built up over billions of years, though the details of its lifecycle are still being worked out. The most recent volcanic activity is thought to have taken place in the caldera-the bowl-shaped depression at the top -- where 29 volcanic vents have been identified. Until now, it's been difficult to make a precise estimate of when this volcanic field was active.

More: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6783