The Martian Ice-Filled, Oyster Shell-Shaped Crater (HiRISE Images)

The unusually-shaped polar crater is filled with ice (HiRISE/NASA)

[/caption]This striking view of the Martian surface shows a stark contrast (false colour) between ice deposits and layered deposits (composed mainly of ice, rock and regolith) on the edge of the polar ice cap. In the centre, there is a lone crater, approximately 200 meters in diameter, collecting a basinful of ice. The ice is thought to have been there for about 10,000 years.

However, there are some oddities in this scene. Why is the crater abnormally shaped? After all, craters are normally circular, not oyster shell-shaped. Why is it an isolated crater? On viewing the entire region, only one crater appears to be present for several kilometres. Does this mean the landscape is fairly young? If so, what geological processes are shaping the surface?

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) continues to return some of the most striking views from its Martian orbit. The camera can resolve objects less than a meter in diameter, picking out everything from sand dunes, eroding mesas, rolling rocks, avalanches (in action) to tiny secondary craters. These are some of the most detailed views we’ve ever had of the Red Planet’s surface. HiRISE can even keep an eye on our robotic explorers, like spotting Phoenix shortly after it landed and the tread marks of the rover Opportunity.

The polar ice cap, layered deposits and lonely crater in the centre (HiRISE/NASA)
The polar ice cap, layered deposits and lonely crater in the centre (HiRISE/NASA)

Although this image of a rather odd-looking crater in the North Polar Region of Mars may seem a little mundane when compared with the list of HiRISE accolades, it is no less important. It is the sole impact crater for miles, hugging the edge of the polar ice cap, carved into layered deposits of rock, soil and lumps of ice. Using the crater count as a guide (i.e. the lower the count, the younger the surface is) HiRISE scientists believe the layered deposits may only be a few million years old. This may sound like a long time, but for a planet thought to be geologically inactive, the resurfacing rate seems pretty rapid. In this case, it is also believed the ice deposits in the crater are only 10,000 years old.

Geological activity destroys evidence of craters, although this region will have been hit by a similar number of meteorite impacts as crater-covered regions, rapid processes appear to be constantly reshaping the landscape. It is thought that the ice flow rate would be quite low, but on observing the strange shape of the central crater, it seems it is being warped by the motion of the surrounding deposits. The bright white ice deposits inside the crater are being protected from ablation as it is being shaded from the Sun by the crater walls. This is a common feature in polar craters.

So much for Mars being a “dead” planet, then. As seen with the dynamic avalanche processes and rolling boulders, Mars is far from being geologically inactive…

Source: HiRISE

Phoenix Lander May Have Been Blasted by Dust Devil

Phoenix's Telltale. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/U of AZ

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A series of images put together to form a movie of the Mars Phoenix lander’s telltale instrument show the telltale waving wildly in the Martian wind. According to Phoenix scientists, movement in one image seemed to be “out-of-phase” with other images, possibly indicating a dust devil whirled nearby or even over the lander. Preliminary analysis of the images taken right before and after the passing of this possible dust devil indicates winds from the west at 7 meters per second. The image taken during the possible dust devil shows 11 meters per second wind from the south.

These images were taken by the lander’s Surface Stereo Imager (SSI) on the 136th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Oct. 12, 2008). Documenting the telltale’s movement helps mission scientists and engineers determine what the wind is like on Mars. The telltale was built by the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and is part of the lander’s Meteorological Station (MET), developed by the Canadian Space Agency.
TEGA instrument.  Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/U of AZ
Also, Phoenix’s robotic arm successfully delivered soil into oven six of the lander’s thermal and evolved-gas analyzer (TEGA) on Monday, Oct. 13, or Martian day (sol) 137 of the mission.

Six of eight ovens have been used to date.

TEGA’s tiny ovens heat the soil to as high as 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius). The lab’s or mass spectrometer analyzes the gases derived from heating the soil. Mission scientists will continue to research and analyze the soil samples in the coming months, long after Phoenix stops operating on the surface.

Phoenix is gradually getting less power as the sun drops below the horizon.

“My entire team is working very hard to make use of the power we have before it disappears,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, Tucson, the lead scientist for TEGA. “Every time we fill an oven, we potentially learn more about Mars’ geochemistry.”

Source: Phoenix News Site

Martian Dust Storm Hampers Phoenix Lander’s Activities

Dust storm on Mars. Credit: MARCI Science Team

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The science team for the Phoenix Lander was forced to curtail many of their activities over the weekend because of a regional dust storm that temporarily lowered the lander’s solar power. But Phoenix weathered the storm well, and the team is back investigating the Red Planet’s northern plains. The 37,000 square-kilometer storm (nearly 23,000 miles) moved west to east, and weakened considerably by the time it reached the lander on Saturday, Oct. 11. The science team was expecting the worst, so this tamer storm put the spacecraft in a better than expected situation, said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, the lead scientist for Phoenix’s Robotic Arm.

The lander is now back to busily collecting samples and weather data, analyzing the soil samples, and conducting other activities before fall and winter stop Phoenix cold.

“Energy is becoming an issue, so we have to carefully budget our activities,” Arvidson said.

The Phoenix team tracked the dust storm last week through images provided by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Mars Color Imager. The imager’s team estimated that after the dust storm passed through Phoenix’s landing site on Saturday, the dust would gradually decrease this week.

This dust storm is a harbinger of more wintry and volatile weather to come. As Martian late summer turns into fall, the Phoenix team anticipates more dust storms, frost in trenches, and water-ice clouds. They look forward to collecting data and documenting this “most interesting season,” Arvidson said.

Source: Phoenix News Site

Mars Satellite’s First Weather Report

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its Mars Climate Sounder instrument. Credit: JPL

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The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been circling Mars for over two years now, and has provided unprecedented views of the Red Planet with its HiRISE Camera. But did you also know that MRO is a weather-monitoring satellite, too? The Mars Climate Sounder instrument is examining the Martian atmosphere and has issued its first Mars weather report. “It has taken 20 years and three missions but we finally have an instrument in orbit that gives us a detailed view of the entire atmosphere of Mars and it is already giving us fresh insights into the Martian climate,” said Professor Fred Taylor of Oxford University. Within a paper issued by the Mars ‘weather team’ comes surprising news: during the freezing Martian winter the atmosphere above the planet’s South Pole is considerably warmer than predicted.

The team discovered that even in the depths of the Martian winter, when the planet’s South Pole is frozen and in total darkness, at an altitude of 30-80km the atmosphere is being heated to 180 Kelvin – that’s 10-20 Kelvin warmer than expected.

“Winter at the Martian South Pole is severe even by the standards of our Antarctic,” said Professor Taylor. “The Pole is shrouded in total darkness for many months and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere freezes, creating blizzards and causing a thick layer of carbon dioxide ice to form across the surface. Yet what we’ve found is that 30 kilometers above the surface conditions are very different.”

The team, which also included Oxford physicists Dr Pat Irwin and Dr Simon Calcutt, believe that a vigorous circulation of the atmosphere – from the Martian equator to the Pole – is compressing the gas and causing the heating effect.

“It’s the same effect that warms the cylinder of a bicycle pump, or the pistons of a car engine, when you compress the gas inside,” said Taylor. “What we think we are observing is that the ‘engine’ of the Martian climate – this atmospheric circulation – is running as much as 50 per cent faster than our models predicted, resulting in this warming of the South Pole.”

These are just the first results from what the scientists hope will be many more years of study. In the long-term they hope to shed light on climate change on Mars, what controls it and what lessons can be drawn for climate change on Earth.

Studying the Martian climate helps us understand how a planet that was originally similar to Earth turned out so very different.

The team’s paper, ‘Intense polar temperature inversion in the middle atmosphere on Mars’, was published in Nature Geoscience on Oct. 12, 2008.

Source: Oxford University

Frozen Mars North Pole Ice Patterns Observed by HiRISE

Translucent ice and sand dunes in North Polar Region (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

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As the Phoenix Mars lander will agree, it’s cold near Mars’ North Pole. Phoenix is currently seeing the winter frost encroach on its location, bright patches of ice appearing on the rocks surrounding it. Another sure sign of winter at this high latitude is the loss of light; soon day will turn to night, forcing Phoenix to enter a Sun-deprived coma. But as one Mars mission draws to a close, other missions continue their diligent watch over the planet 24/7. One such mission is NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (or HiRISE for short) to pick out the tiny surface features on the Red Planet from around 320 km (200 miles) above.

As winter sets in on the Martian northern hemisphere, HiRISE continues to capture some stunning images of the translucent icy surface…

Mars dune detail showing the southwesterly dominant wind direction (NASA/JPL/HiRISE)
Mars dune detail showing the southwesterly dominant wind direction (NASA/JPL/HiRISE)
These images were acquired at the end of August by HiRISE, and it is evident there was plenty of ice on the surface of this northern region. The MRO was making a pass over a geographical latitude of 77° when these pictures were taken, capturing the complex cracking of translucent surface ice, contrasting with the dark sand of a vast number of barchan dunes, a feature we often observe on Earth as well as on Mars. Phoenix landed at 68° latitude, a little further south than these HiRISE images, but it can be seen there is a lot more ice for that time of the year only 10° further north of Phoenix’s location (after all, no surface frost was observed by the lander in August).

It is thought that the bright areas of ice in the image above comes from surface frost deposited the previous year, but the polar temperatures remained so cold throughout the Martian summer that the frost didn’t sublimate into the thin atmosphere. So, the surface ice remained throughout the year, gradually undergoing physical changes, creating a polygonal texture when viewed from orbit. The texture was probably down to temperature variations, stressing and cracking the ice.

» See the full resolution region imaged by HiRISE (very long 512×12649px .jpg image)…

Looking at the detail of the sand dunes, it becomes apparent that the dunes are still active despite the icy surroundings. The streaks of loose sand appear to indicate a dominant southwesterly wind direction.

Source: HiRISE

Mars Science Laboratory: Still Alive, For Now

The Mars Science Laboratory. Credit: JPL

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The Mars Science Laboratory, the next generation of Mars rovers slated to head to Mars in 2009, is still alive, for the time being. The car-sized rover designed to look for life on Mars is over budget and behind schedule due to technical problems, and NASA officials met today to discuss their options. Potentially, Congress could pull the plug on the mission if cost overruns go too high. NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and Science Associate Administrator Ed Weiler were briefed, and met with mission managers in attempt to work out a potential solution. In a press briefing today, Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters said the rover’s progress will be assessed again in January, but the mission will need more money. “This is a really important scientific mission,” McCuistion said. “This is truly the push into the next decade for the Mars program and for the discovery for the potential for life on other planets…I fully believe that Congress will support us as we go forward on this because they recognize the importance of the mission as well.”

The panel of NASA officials at the briefing wouldn’t say where the money will come from or exactly how much will be needed to keep the rover on schedule and provide the engineers the resources they need to overcome the technical problems. But NASA will seek additional money from Congress and/or realign funds from other missions.

“If we’re going to launch in 2009 or 2011 additional budget resources are going to be necessary. The sources of that we cannot release until we get approval from the Office of Management and Budget and Congress,” said McCuistion.

Costs for MSL have already gone from the initial $1.5 billion to $1.9 billion. Launch is scheduled sometime between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15, 2009, but could be delayed until 2011 if the problems take more time to be resolved. Earth and Mars come closest to each other approximately every 26 months, providing favorable launch windows.

Problems with parachutes, actuators and other materials have delayed construction of the rover, and currently the contractors are working multiple shifts to make up for lost time. Mission managers hope tests of the rover can begin in November or December.

MSL will be three times as heavy and twice the width of the Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) that landed in 2004, and will be able to travel twice as far. It will carry ten advanced scientific instruments and cameras. It will make the first precise landing and a predetermined site, using a guided entry system and a soft-landing system called the Sky Crane.

Source: NASA News Audio

ExoFly: Future Space Exploration Super Hero?

Artist rendition of th ExoFly on Mars. Courtesy Ray Villard

This is perhaps the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Ray Villard, the news director for the Hubble Space Telescope, also writes a blog for Discovery called Cosmic Ray (love that name!) He recently wrote about a dragonfly-like robotic device being developed by the Technical University Delft, Wageningen University in the Netherlands. It’s call the ExoFly, and Ray described it as a “dragonfly-on-steroids … a nimble flapping aerobot.” It could be the next generation of robotic planetary explorers. It’s a small, lightweight autonomous machine capable of flying, hovering, landing and taking off like an insect. Ray says this type of vehicle would “open up a new exploration niches that it not easily reachable by rovers or airborne vehicles on far flung worlds.” Actually, it might work best in conjunction with a future big rover, flying ahead to search for interesting or dangerous terrain, and the rover would provide a “landing pad” for the ExoFly’s home base. While the ExoFly may be small, its name sounds like a potential super hero, and its capabilities could be in the exploration super hero category, as well.

Take a look at the incredible video of the ExoFly below:

The ExoFly would be great for exploring Mars, and Titan, too. Small onboard cameras would provide a unique overhead but close-up view of the terrain in geological terms that would be different from, and could compliment, a rover.

The prototype ExoFly weighs less than an ounce, has a wingspan of only a foot, and can fly for 12 minutes on batteries.

A Mars ExoFly would need a longer wingspan and carry a miniaturized high-resolution digital video camera, sensors, navigation system and instruments.

Check out all of Ray Villard’s ideas for this future flying robot at Cosmic Ray.

Image and video credit: T.E. Zegers

Source: Cosmic Ray (with a head nod to Disco Dave Mosher for his Twitter Tweet)

Energizer-Bunny Odyssey Spacecraft Will Keep Going

Artists depiction of Odyssey at Mars. Credit: NASA

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Seems like everyone at Mars is getting an extended mission these days – every spacecraft, that is. The Mars Odyssey orbiting spacecraft, the longest-serving of six spacecraft now studying Mars, has gotten another two-year extension of its mission. And mission extensions are great opportunities to try something new, so Odyssey is altering its orbit to get a different and better look at Mars with its Thermal Emission Imaging System which maps minerals on Mars in infrared. During this third mission extension, which goes through September 2010, Odyssey will also be able to point its camera with more flexibility than ever before. Odyssey is another Energizer Bunny-like spacecraft: it has been going and going since it reached Mars in 2001.

The orbit adjustment will allow Odyssey’s Thermal Emission Imaging System to look down at sites when it’s mid-afternoon, rather than late afternoon, as it has been doing so far. The multipurpose camera will take advantage of the infrared radiation emitted by the warmer rocks to provide clues to the rocks’ identities.

“This will allow us to do much more sensitive detection and mapping of minerals,” said Odyssey Project Scientist Jeffrey Plaut of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena , Calif.

The mission’s orbit design before now used a compromise between what works best for the Thermal Emission Imaging System and what works best for another instrument, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer.

To change its orbit, the operations team at JPL and Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver fired Odyssey’sthrusters for nearly 6 minutes on Sept. 30, the final day of the mission’s second two-year extension.

This image from Odyssey shows a surface changed by floods. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
This image from Odyssey shows a surface changed by floods. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

“This was our biggest maneuver since 2002, and it went well,” said JPL’s Gaylon McSmith, Odyssey mission manager. “The spacecraft is in good health. The propellant supply is adequate for operating through at least 2015.”

Odyssey’s orbit a sun-synchronous polar orbit at Mars. The local solar time has been about 5 p.m. at whatever spot on Mars Odyssey flew over as it made its dozen daily passes from between the north pole region to the south pole region for the past five years. (Likewise, the local time has been about 5 a.m. under the track of the spacecraft during the south-to-north leg of each orbit.)

From last week’s thruster maneuver, that synchronization will gradually change over the next year or so. Its effect is that the time of day on the ground when Odyssey is overhead is now getting earlier by about 20 seconds per day. A follow-up maneuver, probably in late 2009 when the overpass time is between 2:30 and 3:00 p.m., will end the progression toward earlier times.

This will also allow the camera away to be pointed in different directions, instead of just the straight-down pointing that has been used throughout the mission. Doing this will allow the team to fill in some gaps in earlier mapping and also create some stereo, three-dimensional imaging.

The downside of this is one instrument will likely stop being used. The gamma ray detector, one of three instruments in Odyssey’s Gamma Ray Spectrometer suite, needs a later-hour orbit to avoid overheating of a critical component. But the neutron spectrometer and high-energy neutron detector are expected to keep operating.

The Gamma Ray Spectrometer provided dramatic discoveries of water-ice near the surface throughout much of high-latitude Mars, the impetus for NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander mission. The gamma ray detector has also mapped global distribution of many elements, such as iron, silicon and potassium, a high science priority for the first and second extensions of the Odyssey mission. A panel of planetary scientists assembled by NASA recommended this year that Odyssey make the orbit adjustment to get the best science return from the mission in coming years.

Odyssey will continue providing crucial support for Mars surface missions as well as conducting its own investigations. It has relayed to Earth nearly all data returned from NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity . It shares with NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter the relay role for Phoenix. It has made targeted observations for evaluating candidate landing sites.

Source: Odyssey home page

Mission’s End Approaching for Phoenix Lander

Frost now appears on Mars every sol. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/U of AZ

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The days are getting shorter for the Phoenix Mars Lander, and as fall approaches on Mars’ northern plains, the scientists and engineers for the mission are quickly trying get as much done before power levels on the lander drop too low for any more scientific activities. In the image here, blue-ish white frost appears on Mars surface every day now as the temperatures continue to drop. This image was taken on the 131st Martian day or sol of the mission, October 7 here on Earth. Clearly visible are the interlocking polygon shapes that form in permafrost from seasonal freezes and thaws. These polygon patterns were seen in orbital pictures taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, as well as other spacecraft, and are part of the evidence that Mars’ north polar region harbors large quantities of frozen water.

The Phoenix Lander has dug more trenches in Mars soil in both the low troughs and high peaks of the polygons, and is scooping the soil into onboard science laboratories for analysis. About two weeks ago, Phoenix moved a rock nicknamed “Headless,” about 0.4 meters (16 inches) with its robotic arm. Then soil from under the rock was scraped up by the scoop at the end of the arm and and delivered to the lander’s optical and atomic-force microscopes.

Scientists are conducting preliminary analysis of this soil, nicknamed “Galloping Hessian.” The soil piqued their interest because it may contain a high concentration of salts, said Diana Blaney, a scientist on the Phoenix mission with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

As water evaporates in arctic and arid environments on Earth, it leaves behind salt, which can be found under or around rocks, Blaney said. “That’s why we wanted to look under ‘Headless,’ to see if there’s a higher concentration of salts there.”

The La Mancha trench.  Credit:  NASA/JPL/Caltech/U of AZ
The La Mancha trench. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/U of AZ

Phoenix scientists also want to analyze a hard, icy layer beneath the Martian soil surface. The robotic arm has dug into a trench called “La Mancha,” in part to see how deep the Martian ice table is. The Phoenix team also plans to dig a trench laterally across some of the existing trenches in hopes of revealing a cross section, or profile, of the soil’s icy layer.

“We’d like to see how the ice table varies around the workspace with the different topography and varying surface characteristics such as different rocks and soils,” said Phoenix co-investigator Mike Mellon of the University of Colorado, Boulder. “We hope to learn more about how the ice depth is controlled by physical processes, and by looking at how the ice depth varies, we can pin down how it got there.”

Mars soil on the MECA instrument.  Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/U of AZ
Mars soil on the MECA instrument. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/U of AZ

Over the weekend, on the 128th Martian day, or sol, Phoenix engineers successfully directed the robotic arm to dig in a trench called “Snow White” in the eastern portion of the lander’s digging area. The robotic arm then delivered the material to an oven screen on Phoenix’s Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer.

The Phoenix team will try to shake the oven screen so the soil can break into smaller lumps and fall through for analysis.

The Phoenix lander, originally planned for a three-month mission on Mars, is now in its fifth month. As fall approaches, the lander’s weather instruments detect diffuse clouds above northern Mars, and temperatures are getting colder as the daylight hours wane.

Consequently, Phoenix faces an increasing drop in solar energy as the sun falls below the Martian horizon. Mission engineers and scientists expect this power decline to curtail activities in the coming weeks. As darkness deepens, Phoenix will primarily become a weather station and will likely cease all activity by the end of the year.

Source: Phoenix news site

Will the Mars Science Laboratory Be Cut?

Mars Science Laboratory. Credit: NASA/JPL

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The Mars Science Laboratory, a souped-up Mars rover scheduled to launch next year might be delayed, scaled down or canceled due to technical problems and cost overruns. The nuclear powered rover designed to search for microbial life on the Red Planet, has already cost $1.5 billion and if it reaches a 30-percent cost overrun, it could be cancelled by Congress. Aviation Week reports that officials from the agency’s Mars Exploration Program (MEP) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will brief NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and Science Associate Administrator Ed Weiler this Friday and attempt to work out a potential solution. Delaying the rover’s mission until 2011 would be costly, but Weiler has said that JPL is so stretched trying to make the 2009 launch window that the result could be “a nuclear crater on Mars.”

Nearly the size of a small car, the proposed MSL will be three times as heavy and twice the width of the Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) that landed in 2004, and will be able to travel twice as far. It will carry ten advanced scientific instruments and cameras. It will make the first precise landing and a predetermined site, using a guided entry system and a soft-landing system called the Sky Crane. But assembly and testing of critical components and instruments are behind schedule because of technical problems.

Entry, descent and landing for MSL.  Credit:  JPL
Entry, descent and landing for MSL. Credit: JPL

Since there’s not much extra cash anywhere in NASA and JPL’s pot, any cost overruns from technical issues or delays would have to be taken from other missions. To keep MSL, NASA could be forced to cancel the $485 million 2013 atmospheric Scout mission MAVEN that was recently announced, or a future rover mission tentatively set for 2016.

A slip to the 2011 launch window will add another $300 million-$400 million to the price tag, but it could be better than trying to launch in 2009 with a rover and team that is potentially unready to fly.

Doug McCuistion, the MEP manager said his program is stretched to its limits, with no funding for technology development and “next to nothing” for education and public outreach.

NASA has been sending a mission to Mars approximately every two years to determine if the planet ever was capable of supporting life.

Sources: Aviation Week, MSNBC