Cool Video

Just a quick update here, I went looking for another article to discuss when I found this video. Its pretty cool, its a mission demonstration, and its good quality too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyM1bgKWzng

Spirit Lives On

I recently talked about the Martian rover Spirit, and how it is no longer functioning. Well, i wanted to give a little more information about what happened to it. Spirit actually was supposed to be running for 3 months, but ended up staying functional for 6 years! Eventually all good things must come to an end as Spirit inevitably became a victim of the harsh conditions of the surface of Mars. For more info on the history of Spirit, and what happened go to : http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/quirks-quarks-blog/2011/05/end-of-mars-mission-way-beyond-warranty.html

Latest Mars Mission: A Bust?

Howdy, I was just reading this intriguing article about the latest rover's scheduled launch. The launch was scheduled for November (2011) and it does not look like it is going to happen anytime soon. In actual fact, the research team has gone over the budget by 1.1 billion dollars (U.S currency). The team is now over budget and behind schedule. For more on this article feel free to check out:
http://www.ksnt.com/news/national/story/Audit-Mars-mission-faces-hurdles-before-launch/4xyS6LfBZE-0l2CEoSLqWg.cspx

"A Martian Moment"

Hellooooooo everybody. Just found this awesome picture of rippling sand on the surface of our favorite planet!  Check it out!!

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/readers-19/

NASA Spirit Rover Completes Mission on Mars

This recent news can be seen as a positive and a negative. Just in case the title wasn't clear, one of NASA's rovers called Spirit is officially done on it's mission. Although Spirit's twin, Opportunity will be staying on the red planet and help scientists with their on going research. The negative component to this news is that now NASA only has one operating rover on Mars, but the positive is that Opportunity has done more for them anyways, so if they had to lose one, they picked the better one. For more information about Spirit's retirement, go to http://marsrover.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20110525a.html

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE

Hey guys, just read this cool article on a new record that Opportunity just set, this is just a quick update and i don't want to ruin the surprise, so check it out!

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html

Power Innovations for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission

So as I previously stated, I will be talking about the different components of the Mars rover and how it works. So the next step is power. How does this thing even operate? Well, the rover was given solar panels to absorb the Sun's energy and create it's own power. For more information on the solar panels check out this cool link!

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/technology/bb_power.html

Telecommunications Innovations for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission

I figured it would be rather ignorant of me to assume that everyone is fully educated about the Mars rover program, so I decided to inform you guys about it, and what goes into this fascinating program! So first things first, how do we even communicated with a rover that is on another planet? Well, there is a probe orbiting Mars, and it takes the data submitted by the rover and sends it back to us. Although, the probe does orbit Mars and that takes around 16 minutes to do, and it is not able to communicate with us for 6 of the 16 minutes. You can find more help information and interesting facts bout how we communicate with something so far away right here : http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/technology/bb_telecommunications.html.

Thanks guys, there will be more information coming soon! :)

Opportunity Heads Toward 'Spirit Point'

Recently one of the Mars rovers; Opportunity, was in the news because it is on the verge of entering another crater. This is really big news considering Opportunity has only driven 18 kilometers since August 2008. This article is really informative, and it gives information on the new crater that approaches.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20110608a.html

Russian Mars Program

Astronauts walked on the surface of Mars in February, nearly a year into a mission to Mars. Unfortunately, it's only a simulation, designed to test what would happen on a real flight to Mars. The point of this project is to simulate a manned mission to Mars, many world class scientists are involved in this program. The international team of researchers are in a  locked in a windowless capsule for about a year and a half, which is the time it takes to travel to Mars. Starting in June of last year, the all-male crew of six -- three from Russia, one from France, one from Italy and one from China -- began spending 520 days in the cramped and claustrophobic conditions of a special facility in Moscow, following a strict program of exercise and diet. They are still developing the program and it does look promising for the future.

United States' Rover

The NASA space program launched twin rovers toward Mars on June 10 and July 7, 2003, in search of answers about the history of water on Mars. They landed on Mars January 3 and January 24 PST, 2004 (January 4 and January 25 UTC, 2004). The rovers are a long term program that will help expand the current understanding that humans have about Mars. The main purpose that the rovers serve is to find as many rocks and soil samples that show past water activity on Mars. The rovers were sent to opposite sides of Mars, to study areas that are assumed to have had contact with water.

Rover Tools:

  
"These are the primary science instruments carried by the rovers:

• Panoramic Camera (Pancam): for determining the mineralogy, texture, and structure of the local terrain.
  
• Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES): for identifying promising rocks and soils for closer examination and for determining the processes that formed Martian rocks. The instrument is designed to look skyward to provide temperature profiles of the Martian atmosphere.
  
• Mössbauer Spectrometer (MB): for close-up investigations of the mineralogy of iron-bearing rocks and soils.
  
• Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS): for close-up analysis of the abundances of elements that make up rocks and soils.
  
• Magnets: for collecting magnetic dust particles. The Mössbauer Spectrometer and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer are designed to analyze the particles collected and help determine the ratio of magnetic particles to non-magnetic particles. They can also analyze the composition of magnetic minerals in airborne dust and rocks that have been ground by the Rock Abrasion Tool.
  
• Microscopic Imager (MI): for obtaining close-up, high-resolution images of rocks and soils.
  
• Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT): for removing dusty and weathered rock surfaces and exposing fresh material for examination by instruments onboard. "

Why I Chose to Blog About Mars

The reason why I chose to blog about Mars is because I've always been fascinated with the solar system and the big questions that we have about it. I enjoy the exploration, and the things we learn about other planets by sending rovers and other tools over to them. We seem to learn a lot, especially since we thought there was no life on any other planets, and we also thought that life couldn't even be sustained outside of Earth. Yet, as human technology develops, there is no way to tell how far we can take this, and its interesting to see how much we will get done in the next few years, considering how much we got done in the last 50.