Mars Rover Mission Extended 18 Months

[onedomino]

If they survive another 18 months, then they will have explored the Martian surface for a total of 32 months. The original design life was said to be 3 months.

Durable Mars Rovers Sent Into Third Overtime Period
April 05, 2005

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-055

NASA has approved up to 18 more months of operations for Spirit and Opportunity, the twin Mars rovers that have already surprised engineers and scientists by continuing active exploration for more than 14 months.

"The rovers have proven their value with major discoveries about ancient watery environments on Mars that might have harbored life," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "We are extending their mission through September 2006 to take advantage of having such capable resources still healthy and in an excellent position to continue their adventures."

The rovers have already completed 11 months of extensions on top of their successful three-month prime missions. "We now have to make long-term plans for the vehicles because they may be around for quite a while," said Jim Erickson, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Erickson cautioned though, "Either mission could end tomorrow with a random part failure. With the rovers already performing well beyond their original design lifetimes, having a part wear out and disable a rover is a distinct possibility at any time. But right now, both rovers are in amazingly good shape. We're going to work them hard to get as much benefit from them as we can, for as long as they are capable of producing worthwhile science results."

"Spirit and Opportunity are approaching targets that a year ago seemed well out of reach," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "Their successes strengthen NASA's commitment to a vision with the ambitious targets of returning samples from Mars and sending human explorers to Mars."

Opportunity is within a few football fields' length of a region called "Etched Terrain," where scientists hope to find rocks exposed by gentle wind erosion rather than by disruptive cratering impacts, and rocks from a different time in Mars' history than any examined so far. "This is a journey into the unknown, to something completely new," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers' science instruments.

To reach the Etched Terrain, rover planners have been pushing the rover fast. Opportunity has overtaken Spirit in total distance driven. It has rolled more than 4.9 kilometers (3 miles) -- eight times the original goal. On March 20, Opportunity also set a new martian record of 220 meters (722 feet) in a single day's drive. Drive-distance estimates can vary by a few percent. The long drives take advantage of crossing a plain so smooth it's "like an East Coast beach," said JPL's Jeff Favretto, mission manager on the Opportunity shift in recent weeks. Also, Opportunity's solar panels, though now dustier than Spirit's, still generate enough power to allow driving for more than three hours on some days.

Spirit is in much rougher terrain than Opportunity, climbing a rocky slope toward the top of "Husband Hill." However, with a boost in power from wind cleaning its solar panels on March 9 and with its formerly balky right-front wheel now working normally, Spirit made some longer one-day drives last week than it had for months. "We've doubled our power," said JPL's Emily Eelkema, mission manager. "It has given us extra hours of operations every day, so we can drive longer and we've used more time for observations."

The jump in power output has taken some urgency out of Spirit's southward climb. With Mars now beginning southern-hemisphere spring, the Sun is farther south in the sky each day. If not for panel-cleaning, Spirit might be facing the prospect of becoming critically short of power if still on the north-facing slope by early June.

"We still want to get to the summit of Husband Hill and then head down into the 'Inner Basin' on the other side," Squyres said. "But now we have more flexibility in how we carry out the plan. Before, it was climb or die." Cresting the hill is now not as crucial for solar energy, but it still offers allures of potential exposures of rock layers not yet examined, plus a vista of surrounding terrain. In orbital images, the Inner Basin farther south appears to have terracing that hints of layered rock.

Both rovers do have some signs of wear and exposure. Spirit's rock abrasion tool shows indications that its grinding teeth might be worn away after exposing the interiors of five times more rock targets than its design goal of three rocks. Researchers probably won't know the extent of wear until Spirit's next rock-grinding attempt, which may be weeks away. Also, troubleshooting continues for determining whether Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer is still usable despite tests indicating a problem last month. All other instruments on both rovers are still working normally.

 

[waltky]

Kinda looks like Masada, mebbe the Jews came from Mars...

NASA images show Martian 'walled city' ruins
Oct 06, 2016 - Images clicked by Mars Curiosity Rover are being interpreted and increasingly thought to show evidence of an ancient civilisation that once lived and thrived in Mars.

There seems to be increasing evidence of an ancient Martian civilisation, whose ruins are visible on images snapped by earthlings, claim UFO seekers. They base their theories on photographs taken by NASA's Curiosity Rover, convinced that intelligent life might once have existed on the Red Planet. Martine Grainey, an avid seeker, was the first to examine and post images of a Martian "wall" on her Facebook page.

An alien conspiracy theorist wrote in a blog post titled 'Alien City Ruins on Mars? In Official NASA Images': "In fact, nearly every single image beamed back by NASA's rovers on Mars seems to show at least one particular 'object' which appears to be artificially carved or created. While most of these objects are the result of pareidolia, other findings cannot be dismissed so easily."

The 'ruin' in close-up​

Pareidolia takes place "when the brain tricks the eyes into seeing familiar objects such as faces or animals in textures, patterns or clouds." But again, could such a long parade of images for so many theorists be due to pareidolia? "What if tens of millions of years ago, when Mars was a planet like Earth is today, an alien civilization flourished there, developed and created massive monuments, structures, temples and cities, just like we have done throughout Earth's long history?" asks a conspiracy theorist website.

The claims were validated by UFO hunter Scott C Waring, of the UFO Daily Sightings Website. He explains that you can find buildings with windows there. Being an avid believer that a thriving civilisation once existed there, but has been camouflaged by NASA, he wrote: "NASA had to release the photo to the public to say 'we didn't hide it, we released it to the public. This way they won't get caught for hiding evidence later. But we know that trick, and we are onto them."

UFO sighting: NASA images show Martian 'walled city' ruins

See also:

NASA releases new telescopes for exoplanet mission
Oct 07, 2016 - A brief discussion on NASA's new approach to discover new habitable planets.

The search for undiscovered exoplanet continues, as NASA is going to launch new space telescopes. It is expected that this space telescopes are much efficient and it can give better results. According to NASA, it is known that the search will continue for at least two years outside the solar system. And the ground telescopes will verify the result of the initial search. It is expected that thousands of undiscovered exoplanets will be identified in this project, and space and ground telescopes will verify the result if there is any kind of existence of life or water are on that planet.

NASA exoplanet misson​

So far, NASA had just a few exoplanets as a target. But the introduction of new space telescopes and TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) will change it completely. And it is expected that it will give the opportunity to much discovery as well. The working principle of the TESS will be significantly different, and it will detect the planets by a small decrease in the brightness of the star. So, this principle will help to analyze and verify different planets and the possibility of life on those planets as well.

The old Kepler Space Telescope has discovered about 1284 new planets outside our solar system, and all of them are verified. Among the discovered planets, there are about 550 planets have rocky shaped like earth and 9 of those planets are considered to be an ideal zone for the life. So, the discovery made by Kepler satellite, which is on the orbit from 2009 has helped a lot in the discoveries in the unidentified exoplanets. And it can be expected that its successor JWST can help a lot with its discoveries of new exoplanets. The design of JWST is a little bit smaller than other telescopes but with its infrared capabilities, it can locate any potential planets where life can exist.

NASA launches new telescopes to find more exoplanets

 

[Old Rocks]

If they survive another 18 months, then they will have explored the Martian surface for a total of 32 months. The original design life was said to be 3 months.

Durable Mars Rovers Sent Into Third Overtime Period
April 05, 2005

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-055

NASA has approved up to 18 more months of operations for Spirit and Opportunity, the twin Mars rovers that have already surprised engineers and scientists by continuing active exploration for more than 14 months.

"The rovers have proven their value with major discoveries about ancient watery environments on Mars that might have harbored life," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "We are extending their mission through September 2006 to take advantage of having such capable resources still healthy and in an excellent position to continue their adventures."

The rovers have already completed 11 months of extensions on top of their successful three-month prime missions. "We now have to make long-term plans for the vehicles because they may be around for quite a while," said Jim Erickson, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Erickson cautioned though, "Either mission could end tomorrow with a random part failure. With the rovers already performing well beyond their original design lifetimes, having a part wear out and disable a rover is a distinct possibility at any time. But right now, both rovers are in amazingly good shape. We're going to work them hard to get as much benefit from them as we can, for as long as they are capable of producing worthwhile science results."

"Spirit and Opportunity are approaching targets that a year ago seemed well out of reach," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "Their successes strengthen NASA's commitment to a vision with the ambitious targets of returning samples from Mars and sending human explorers to Mars."

Opportunity is within a few football fields' length of a region called "Etched Terrain," where scientists hope to find rocks exposed by gentle wind erosion rather than by disruptive cratering impacts, and rocks from a different time in Mars' history than any examined so far. "This is a journey into the unknown, to something completely new," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers' science instruments.

To reach the Etched Terrain, rover planners have been pushing the rover fast. Opportunity has overtaken Spirit in total distance driven. It has rolled more than 4.9 kilometers (3 miles) -- eight times the original goal. On March 20, Opportunity also set a new martian record of 220 meters (722 feet) in a single day's drive. Drive-distance estimates can vary by a few percent. The long drives take advantage of crossing a plain so smooth it's "like an East Coast beach," said JPL's Jeff Favretto, mission manager on the Opportunity shift in recent weeks. Also, Opportunity's solar panels, though now dustier than Spirit's, still generate enough power to allow driving for more than three hours on some days.

Spirit is in much rougher terrain than Opportunity, climbing a rocky slope toward the top of "Husband Hill." However, with a boost in power from wind cleaning its solar panels on March 9 and with its formerly balky right-front wheel now working normally, Spirit made some longer one-day drives last week than it had for months. "We've doubled our power," said JPL's Emily Eelkema, mission manager. "It has given us extra hours of operations every day, so we can drive longer and we've used more time for observations."

The jump in power output has taken some urgency out of Spirit's southward climb. With Mars now beginning southern-hemisphere spring, the Sun is farther south in the sky each day. If not for panel-cleaning, Spirit might be facing the prospect of becoming critically short of power if still on the north-facing slope by early June.

"We still want to get to the summit of Husband Hill and then head down into the 'Inner Basin' on the other side," Squyres said. "But now we have more flexibility in how we carry out the plan. Before, it was climb or die." Cresting the hill is now not as crucial for solar energy, but it still offers allures of potential exposures of rock layers not yet examined, plus a vista of surrounding terrain. In orbital images, the Inner Basin farther south appears to have terracing that hints of layered rock.

Both rovers do have some signs of wear and exposure. Spirit's rock abrasion tool shows indications that its grinding teeth might be worn away after exposing the interiors of five times more rock targets than its design goal of three rocks. Researchers probably won't know the extent of wear until Spirit's next rock-grinding attempt, which may be weeks away. Also, troubleshooting continues for determining whether Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer is still usable despite tests indicating a problem last month. All other instruments on both rovers are still working normally.

Ah yes, but according to our "Conservatives" , scientists are just dumb assholes who are liberals and don't know anything.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Kinda looks like Masada, mebbe the Jews came from Mars...

NASA images show Martian 'walled city' ruins
Oct 06, 2016 - Images clicked by Mars Curiosity Rover are being interpreted and increasingly thought to show evidence of an ancient civilisation that once lived and thrived in Mars.

There seems to be increasing evidence of an ancient Martian civilisation, whose ruins are visible on images snapped by earthlings, claim UFO seekers. They base their theories on photographs taken by NASA's Curiosity Rover, convinced that intelligent life might once have existed on the Red Planet. Martine Grainey, an avid seeker, was the first to examine and post images of a Martian "wall" on her Facebook page.

An alien conspiracy theorist wrote in a blog post titled 'Alien City Ruins on Mars? In Official NASA Images': "In fact, nearly every single image beamed back by NASA's rovers on Mars seems to show at least one particular 'object' which appears to be artificially carved or created. While most of these objects are the result of pareidolia, other findings cannot be dismissed so easily."

The 'ruin' in close-up​

Pareidolia takes place "when the brain tricks the eyes into seeing familiar objects such as faces or animals in textures, patterns or clouds." But again, could such a long parade of images for so many theorists be due to pareidolia? "What if tens of millions of years ago, when Mars was a planet like Earth is today, an alien civilization flourished there, developed and created massive monuments, structures, temples and cities, just like we have done throughout Earth's long history?" asks a conspiracy theorist website.

The claims were validated by UFO hunter Scott C Waring, of the UFO Daily Sightings Website. He explains that you can find buildings with windows there. Being an avid believer that a thriving civilisation once existed there, but has been camouflaged by NASA, he wrote: "NASA had to release the photo to the public to say 'we didn't hide it, we released it to the public. This way they won't get caught for hiding evidence later. But we know that trick, and we are onto them."

UFO sighting: NASA images show Martian 'walled city' ruins

See also:

NASA releases new telescopes for exoplanet mission
Oct 07, 2016 - A brief discussion on NASA's new approach to discover new habitable planets.

The search for undiscovered exoplanet continues, as NASA is going to launch new space telescopes. It is expected that this space telescopes are much efficient and it can give better results. According to NASA, it is known that the search will continue for at least two years outside the solar system. And the ground telescopes will verify the result of the initial search. It is expected that thousands of undiscovered exoplanets will be identified in this project, and space and ground telescopes will verify the result if there is any kind of existence of life or water are on that planet.

NASA exoplanet misson​

So far, NASA had just a few exoplanets as a target. But the introduction of new space telescopes and TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) will change it completely. And it is expected that it will give the opportunity to much discovery as well. The working principle of the TESS will be significantly different, and it will detect the planets by a small decrease in the brightness of the star. So, this principle will help to analyze and verify different planets and the possibility of life on those planets as well.

The old Kepler Space Telescope has discovered about 1284 new planets outside our solar system, and all of them are verified. Among the discovered planets, there are about 550 planets have rocky shaped like earth and 9 of those planets are considered to be an ideal zone for the life. So, the discovery made by Kepler satellite, which is on the orbit from 2009 has helped a lot in the discoveries in the unidentified exoplanets. And it can be expected that its successor JWST can help a lot with its discoveries of new exoplanets. The design of JWST is a little bit smaller than other telescopes but with its infrared capabilities, it can locate any potential planets where life can exist.

NASA launches new telescopes to find more exoplanets

It's just proof the rovers were plopped in the middle of the desert in the middle east to get a bunch of fatcats rich at Cape Canaveral

 

[SixFoot]

Kinda looks like Masada, mebbe the Jews came from Mars...

NASA images show Martian 'walled city' ruins
Oct 06, 2016 - Images clicked by Mars Curiosity Rover are being interpreted and increasingly thought to show evidence of an ancient civilisation that once lived and thrived in Mars.

There seems to be increasing evidence of an ancient Martian civilisation, whose ruins are visible on images snapped by earthlings, claim UFO seekers. They base their theories on photographs taken by NASA's Curiosity Rover, convinced that intelligent life might once have existed on the Red Planet. Martine Grainey, an avid seeker, was the first to examine and post images of a Martian "wall" on her Facebook page.

An alien conspiracy theorist wrote in a blog post titled 'Alien City Ruins on Mars? In Official NASA Images': "In fact, nearly every single image beamed back by NASA's rovers on Mars seems to show at least one particular 'object' which appears to be artificially carved or created. While most of these objects are the result of pareidolia, other findings cannot be dismissed so easily."

The 'ruin' in close-up​

Pareidolia takes place "when the brain tricks the eyes into seeing familiar objects such as faces or animals in textures, patterns or clouds." But again, could such a long parade of images for so many theorists be due to pareidolia? "What if tens of millions of years ago, when Mars was a planet like Earth is today, an alien civilization flourished there, developed and created massive monuments, structures, temples and cities, just like we have done throughout Earth's long history?" asks a conspiracy theorist website.

The claims were validated by UFO hunter Scott C Waring, of the UFO Daily Sightings Website. He explains that you can find buildings with windows there. Being an avid believer that a thriving civilisation once existed there, but has been camouflaged by NASA, he wrote: "NASA had to release the photo to the public to say 'we didn't hide it, we released it to the public. This way they won't get caught for hiding evidence later. But we know that trick, and we are onto them."

UFO sighting: NASA images show Martian 'walled city' ruins

See also:

NASA releases new telescopes for exoplanet mission
Oct 07, 2016 - A brief discussion on NASA's new approach to discover new habitable planets.

The search for undiscovered exoplanet continues, as NASA is going to launch new space telescopes. It is expected that this space telescopes are much efficient and it can give better results. According to NASA, it is known that the search will continue for at least two years outside the solar system. And the ground telescopes will verify the result of the initial search. It is expected that thousands of undiscovered exoplanets will be identified in this project, and space and ground telescopes will verify the result if there is any kind of existence of life or water are on that planet.

NASA exoplanet misson​

So far, NASA had just a few exoplanets as a target. But the introduction of new space telescopes and TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) will change it completely. And it is expected that it will give the opportunity to much discovery as well. The working principle of the TESS will be significantly different, and it will detect the planets by a small decrease in the brightness of the star. So, this principle will help to analyze and verify different planets and the possibility of life on those planets as well.

The old Kepler Space Telescope has discovered about 1284 new planets outside our solar system, and all of them are verified. Among the discovered planets, there are about 550 planets have rocky shaped like earth and 9 of those planets are considered to be an ideal zone for the life. So, the discovery made by Kepler satellite, which is on the orbit from 2009 has helped a lot in the discoveries in the unidentified exoplanets. And it can be expected that its successor JWST can help a lot with its discoveries of new exoplanets. The design of JWST is a little bit smaller than other telescopes but with its infrared capabilities, it can locate any potential planets where life can exist.

NASA launches new telescopes to find more exoplanets

If we were a space-faring species, and found a solar system abundant in natural resources, colonized only by cavemen on a single planet, perhaps we'd set up camps on and around the area too. Of course, eventually we'd have to move on, and perhaps plunge the world into darkness so they can be left to evolve on their own.

 

[sealybobo]

If they survive another 18 months, then they will have explored the Martian surface for a total of 32 months. The original design life was said to be 3 months.

Durable Mars Rovers Sent Into Third Overtime Period
April 05, 2005

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-055

NASA has approved up to 18 more months of operations for Spirit and Opportunity, the twin Mars rovers that have already surprised engineers and scientists by continuing active exploration for more than 14 months.

"The rovers have proven their value with major discoveries about ancient watery environments on Mars that might have harbored life," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "We are extending their mission through September 2006 to take advantage of having such capable resources still healthy and in an excellent position to continue their adventures."

The rovers have already completed 11 months of extensions on top of their successful three-month prime missions. "We now have to make long-term plans for the vehicles because they may be around for quite a while," said Jim Erickson, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Erickson cautioned though, "Either mission could end tomorrow with a random part failure. With the rovers already performing well beyond their original design lifetimes, having a part wear out and disable a rover is a distinct possibility at any time. But right now, both rovers are in amazingly good shape. We're going to work them hard to get as much benefit from them as we can, for as long as they are capable of producing worthwhile science results."

"Spirit and Opportunity are approaching targets that a year ago seemed well out of reach," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "Their successes strengthen NASA's commitment to a vision with the ambitious targets of returning samples from Mars and sending human explorers to Mars."

Opportunity is within a few football fields' length of a region called "Etched Terrain," where scientists hope to find rocks exposed by gentle wind erosion rather than by disruptive cratering impacts, and rocks from a different time in Mars' history than any examined so far. "This is a journey into the unknown, to something completely new," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers' science instruments.

To reach the Etched Terrain, rover planners have been pushing the rover fast. Opportunity has overtaken Spirit in total distance driven. It has rolled more than 4.9 kilometers (3 miles) -- eight times the original goal. On March 20, Opportunity also set a new martian record of 220 meters (722 feet) in a single day's drive. Drive-distance estimates can vary by a few percent. The long drives take advantage of crossing a plain so smooth it's "like an East Coast beach," said JPL's Jeff Favretto, mission manager on the Opportunity shift in recent weeks. Also, Opportunity's solar panels, though now dustier than Spirit's, still generate enough power to allow driving for more than three hours on some days.

Spirit is in much rougher terrain than Opportunity, climbing a rocky slope toward the top of "Husband Hill." However, with a boost in power from wind cleaning its solar panels on March 9 and with its formerly balky right-front wheel now working normally, Spirit made some longer one-day drives last week than it had for months. "We've doubled our power," said JPL's Emily Eelkema, mission manager. "It has given us extra hours of operations every day, so we can drive longer and we've used more time for observations."

The jump in power output has taken some urgency out of Spirit's southward climb. With Mars now beginning southern-hemisphere spring, the Sun is farther south in the sky each day. If not for panel-cleaning, Spirit might be facing the prospect of becoming critically short of power if still on the north-facing slope by early June.

"We still want to get to the summit of Husband Hill and then head down into the 'Inner Basin' on the other side," Squyres said. "But now we have more flexibility in how we carry out the plan. Before, it was climb or die." Cresting the hill is now not as crucial for solar energy, but it still offers allures of potential exposures of rock layers not yet examined, plus a vista of surrounding terrain. In orbital images, the Inner Basin farther south appears to have terracing that hints of layered rock.

Both rovers do have some signs of wear and exposure. Spirit's rock abrasion tool shows indications that its grinding teeth might be worn away after exposing the interiors of five times more rock targets than its design goal of three rocks. Researchers probably won't know the extent of wear until Spirit's next rock-grinding attempt, which may be weeks away. Also, troubleshooting continues for determining whether Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer is still usable despite tests indicating a problem last month. All other instruments on both rovers are still working normally.

ESA Lander Prepares For Historic Mars Landing | Huffington Post

11 years later

A Mars lander is due to leave its mothership on Sunday and head toward the red planet’s surface to test technologies for Europe’s planned first Mars rover, which will search for signs of past and present life.

After a seven-month journey from Earth as part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, the Schiaparelli lander is expected to separate from spacecraft Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) at 10:42 a.m. EDT and start a three-day descent to the surface.

Schiaparelli represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on Mars, after a failed mission by the British landing craft Beagle 2 in 2003.

The primary goal of ExoMars is to find out whether life has ever existed on Mars. The current spacecraft carries an atmospheric probe to study trace gases such as methane, around the planet.

Scientists believe that methane, a chemical that on Earth is strongly tied to life, could stem from micro-organisms that either became extinct millions of years ago and left gas frozen below the planet’s surface, or that some methane-producing organisms still survive.

The second part of the ExoMars mission, delayed to 2020 from 2018, will deliver a European rover to the surface of Mars. It will be the first with the ability to both move across the planet’s surface and drill into the ground to collect and analyze samples.