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