Deench

Everything for Everyone

Category Archives: mars

Mars Opportunity rover reaches Endeavour crater, finds signs of ancient Martian water

Over seven years into its (originally) 90-day mission, the Mars rover Opportunity arrived at the rim of Endeavour Crater. While the crater itself was formed from an ancient meteorite impact, the rocks at its rim show signs of a watery past. Chemical analysis found deposits typical of hydrothermal vents on Earth, along with features usually associated with evaporation. Together, these pieces of evidence suggest warm, shallow water formerly existed in the region of Endeavour.

In a new Science paper, S. W. Squyres and colleagues describe the process Opportunity used to obtain and analyze the rock samples. The landscape around Endeavour is very old, dating back to the era when Mars was under constant bombardment by meteorites, which is why it was chosen as a site for exploration by rover. If Mars' history parallels Earth's in any way, the early cataclysmic period gave way to calmer times, and water—possibly life—may have been present. Based both on the sedimentary and evaporative characteristics of the rocks around the crater, the researchers conclude the region may have been habitable for at least a short period of time.

Read the rest of this article...

Read the comments on this post


Opportunity rover finds signs of ancient water in Mars crater

The Opportunity rover at Chester Lake, as seen by the HiRISE Mars orbiter. (North is at the bottom of this image.)
Photograph by hirise.lpl.arizona.edu
Signs of old hydrothermal vents greet the rover after a seven year drive.

Over seven years into its (originally) 90-day mission, the Mars rover Opportunity arrived at the rim of Endeavour Crater. While the crater itself was formed from an ancient meteorite impact, the rocks at its rim show signs of a watery past. Chemical analysis found deposits typical of hydrothermal vents on Earth, along with features usually associated with evaporation. Together, these pieces of evidence suggest warm, shallow water formerly existed in the region of Endeavour.

In a new Science paper, S. W. Squyres and colleagues describe the process Opportunity used to obtain and analyze the rock samples. The landscape around Endeavour is very old, dating back to the era when Mars was under constant bombardment by meteorites, which is why it was chosen as a site for exploration by rover. If Mars' history parallels Earth's in any way, the early cataclysmic period gave way to calmer times, and water—possibly life—may have been present. Based both on the sedimentary and evaporative characteristics of the rocks around the crater, the researchers conclude the region may have been habitable for at least a short period of time.

As on Earth, Mars has regions where the rocks date back to early times, shortly after the planets cooled sufficiently to allow the surface to solidify. On Mars, this era is known as the Noachian period (in reference to the biblical figure Noah), as the now-dry planet probably had a lot of surface water. This period was also characterized by heavy meteorite bombardment: Noachian landscape is heavily cratered, and bears some resemblance to the highland regions on Earth's Moon.

Read more on Ars Technica&hellip


NASA’s 1966 plan for a mission to Mars

Piloted spaceflight planning typically emphasizes transportation; that is, methods of traveling from Earth to some destination and back again. Other than landing and liftoff, astronaut activities on the surface of a target world normally receive little attention. This is not too surprising at the present stage of spaceflight development, given the many challenges inherent in moving humans between worlds.

What is more surprising is that, as early as 1965, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) turned its attention to the scientific tasks astronaut-scientists might perform on Mars. In that year, as part of an ongoing series of Mars mission studies that began in 1962 with the EMPIRE manned Mars/Venus flyby/orbiter study, the Huntsville, Alabama-based NASA center contracted with Avco/RAD to study manned Mars surface operations. This truly was far-sighted thinking; when MSFC paired with Avco/RAD, NASA, with President John F. Kennedy’s end-of-decade deadline for a manned moon landing fast approaching, had barely begun to pay serious attention to the scientific tasks that Apollo astronauts would perform on the moon.

Read the rest of this article...

Read the comments on this post


Gypsum deposit on Mars provides definitive evidence of water

The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity is on its way to the red planet, scheduled for a landing in August. In the meantime, the Opportunity rover, which has been operating for nearly eight years, is still sending back scientific results. Its latest, announced at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, provides a clear indication that water once flowed through underground fissures, giving us a better picture of Mars' geological history.

The findings are based on a vein of material that's picked up the name "Homestake," found near the rim of the Endeavour Crater. The material is only a couple centimeters across, but about 50cm long. Readings with a spectrometer indicated it was a form of calcium sulfate, and that it contained significant amounts of water. Gypsum crystals are formed when calcium sulfate associates with water; they tend to dissolver readily, but Mars' dry climate allows them to be stable. The material has been spotted elsewhere on Mars, in the form of sand dunes in the northern polar region.

Gypsum is formed when calcium-containing water comes in contact with sulfates, either from rocks or via volcanic activity. The calcium sulfate precipitates, capturing water molecules within the crystal structure in the process. The gypsum vein clearly indicates that water was flowing through through cracks below the surface of Mars at some point in its past; the rover's scientific lead, Cornell's Steve Squyres, calls it a "slam-dunk story."

By now, the evidence for liquid water on Mars' surface in its past is so extensive that we can probably treat it as a fact. But, so far at least, we haven't found a way to determine whether that water ever supported living creatures. Still, the Homestake find is another indication that Mars' waters were present in a variety of environments, both on the surface and percolating beneath it.

(Incidentally, many of you may be familiar with a common form of gypsum: drywall. If we ever want to put a housing development on Mars, we maybe able to locally source some of the material.)

Read the comments on this post