NASA’s expensive Mars exploration Curiosity rover is finally doing what it was created to do: rove. Following a successful wheel test, the probe moved forward. Photo Gallery: Curiosity Rover Makes First Tracks on Mars article tells that Curiosity beamed back some incredible images of its tracks, which tell scientists that the soil is firm, great for mobility, and won’t cause the rover to sink much. Curiosity also pulled out its big scientific guns, firing a laser beam at several rocks in the vicinity.
Yes, the Mars rover cost $2bn – but it’s far from a waste of money. Landing Curiosity on Mars was Way Harder and Way Less Expensive than the Olympics. Curiosity rover is about the size of a small SUV and weighs almost 900 kg. It uses scoops, cameras, drills, a powerful rock-vaporizing infrared laser, and 75 kilograms of scientific instruments to perform its investigation. Curiosity is very much based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology. Wind River’s VxWorks real-time operating system serves as the software platform for all functionality. Seeing the successful commencement of the Curiosity mission – powered by COTS – is certainly a cause for celebration amongst engineers.
Plan Make Your Own LEGO Curiosity Rover for fun? Stephen Pakbaz designed a custom Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory Rover set, complete with PDF build instructions and parts lists. LEGO Cusoo pages have another model of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, named Curiosity designed by a Mechanical Engineer who worked on the actual Curiosity. A LEGO Digital Designer model and step-by-step .pdf instructions of the Curiosity rover are now freely available.
Rovio sticks some Martian action into Angry Birds Space and has released the following funny advertisement video that features Curiosity rover and Angry Birds.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA Orion’s challenging journey to the Red Planet: Power and Thermal mission planning
http://www.edn.com/design/power-management/4440204/NASA-Orion-s-challenging-journey-to-the-Red-Planet–Power-and-Thermal-mission-planning?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20151218&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20151218&elq=352c0cbb57664392b0337bf6b93a085e&elqCampaignId=26252&elqaid=29993&elqat=1&elqTrackId=e60dce0f061347eea97b7321e9e5bd45
Meet Nujoud Merancy, a senior lead engineer at Booz Allen, where she currently serves as the Mission Planning & Analysis Lead for NASA’s Orion. She brings to NASA’s mission more than six years of experience in Orion vehicle integration, systems integration, and performance analysis.
Nujoud Merancy’s group is Mission planning; that is, how Orion gets to where it is supposed to go knowing Orion’s capabilities, her team goes over the thermal and power profiles that they have, are the solar arrays sized correctly so that if they do a specific “burn” do they have to turn equipment off to balance the power. They do all the power and thermal management; the Con ops—putting all the pieces together—the timeline. She interacts with the Flight Ops Division which will actually control things and her team needs to be sure that their expectations are being met. They supply all the integration pieces to put this together.
So when you take all of the electronics on board and turn them on, what has to be on, what is the redundancy management scheme, do they operate everything on? They have 4 computers—do they keep 4 on all the time or can they power down 2 of them when there is not much going on to conserve power or charge batteries faster—that’s systems management. Same thing with thermal, they need to be sure that the attitudes they are choosing provide the proper heat rejection from the radiators, as well as balance the solar demands for getting power on the solar arrays. It’s the trade-off between everything regarding how they are going to fly the vehicle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA Is Creating a Virtual Reality Mission To Mars
http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/12/21/2235210/nasa-is-creating-a-virtual-reality-mission-to-mars
The Mars 2030 Experience’ is part of NASA’s ongoing efforts to build public support in a real manned mission to the Red Planet. Partnering with FUSION to produce the experience, NASA wants the mission to simulate life as one of the first astronauts on Mars. Incorporating research directly from NASA and MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics PhD candidate Sydney Do, the VR experience
Tomi Engdahl says:
Astrobotic technology: NASA’s doorway to Mars exploration
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4441286/Astrobotic-technology–NASA-s-doorway-to-Mars-exploration?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160128&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160128&elq=161907a687234e9885955bae863f7fb7&elqCampaignId=26711&elqaid=30554&elqat=1&elqTrackId=d39e8db9a6bc43bab44d69ca4795f75f
NASA’s goal to land a manned expedition on Mars via the Orion program is still about 20 years away. The astronauts who will land on Mars are probably right now in grammar school.
Once they get to Mars, after a nine month journey from Earth through the high radiation Van Allen Belt, some of the immense challenges will be the poisonous atmosphere to Earthlings, and the high radiation levels on the Red Planet would ultimately cause cancer, brain damage and finally end their lives in a painful, violent death due to radiation poisoning.
A possible solution for prolonged human stays on Mars could be the shelter provided by the billions of years old underground lava tubes, some 100 meters in depth, originally created by hot, molten lava. Orbital photographic and remote sensing surveys of the Moon and Mars show evidence of these lava tube formations. There will most likely be no chance for any conventional radio communication down there so robotic rovers would not work.
Astrobotic
NASA awarded a $125,000 contract to Carnegie Mellon University and its spinoff Astrobotic Technology to develop an autonomous drone that will be able to effectively move through the lava tubes easily and record huge amounts of video and other data like temperature, atmosphere, depth and more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Astrobotic technology: NASA’s doorway to Mars exploration
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4441286/Astrobotic-technology–NASA-s-doorway-to-Mars-exploration?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160201&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160201&elq=48199414c3614221b155e0b546e6d14f&elqCampaignId=26773&elqaid=30614&elqat=1&elqTrackId=be3a26cf59a24571ba9b87efcf7a62aa
NASA’s goal to land a manned expedition on Mars via the Orion program is still about 20 years away. The astronauts who will land on Mars are probably right now in grammar school.
Once they get to Mars, after a nine month journey from Earth through the high radiation Van Allen Belt, some of the immense challenges will be the poisonous atmosphere to Earthlings, and the high radiation levels on the Red Planet would ultimately cause cancer, brain damage and finally end their lives in a painful, violent death due to radiation poisoning.
A possible solution for prolonged human stays on Mars could be the shelter provided by the billions of years old underground lava tubes, some 100 meters in depth, originally created by hot, molten lava. Orbital photographic and remote sensing surveys of the Moon and Mars show evidence of these lava tube formations. There will most likely be no chance for any conventional radio communication down there so robotic rovers would not work.
NASA awarded a $125,000 contract to Carnegie Mellon University and its spinoff Astrobotic Technology to develop an autonomous drone that will be able to effectively move through the lava tubes easily and record huge amounts of video and other data like temperature, atmosphere, depth and more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Curiosity Rover Enters Precautionary Safe Mode
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/curiosity-rover-enters-precautionary-safe-mode
The team operating NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is taking steps to return the rover to full activity following a precautionary stand-down over the Fourth of July weekend.
Curiosity is now communicating with ground controllers and is stable. The rover put itself into safe mode on July 2, ceasing most activities other than keeping itself healthy and following a prescribed sequence for resuming communications.
Engineers are working to determine the cause of safe-mode entry. Preliminary information indicates an unexpected mismatch between camera software and data-processing software in the main computer. The near-term steps toward resuming full activities begin with requesting more diagnostic information from Curiosity.
Curiosity has entered safe mode three times previously, all during 2013.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA Publishes a Thousand Photos of Mars
https://science.slashdot.org/story/16/08/10/016204/nasa-publishes-a-thousand-photos-of-mars
NASA has released a huge number of high-resolution photos of Mars captured from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRise camera, which has been capturing images of the planet since 2005. The latest dump consists of over a thousand images that can familiarize you with the red planet’s many craters, impact sites, dunes, mountains, ice caps and other features. You can view every single photo captured on HiRise’s official website.
Popular Science mentions that every 26 months or so, Mars and the sun are on the opposite sides of the Earth, allowing MRO to transmit a massive amount of photos from the planet’s surface.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA publishes a thousand photos of Mars
They were taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRise camera.
https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/09/nasa-hirise-photos-mars/
NASA releasing high-res photos of the Martian surface is nothing unusual: the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRise camera has been capturing the planet on cam since 2005. This latest image dump, however, is particularly huge: it consists of over a thousand images that can familiarize you with the red planet’s many craters, impact sites, dunes, mountains, ice caps and other features. Alfred McEwen, director of the Planetary Image Research Laboratory, told Popular Science that the satellite was able to take tons of pictures and send them back quickly thanks to a couple of factors.
See, every 26 months, Mars and the sun are on the opposites sides of the Earth, giving MRO a strong, unobstructed connection to its ground team for a few weeks. That allows the satellite to beam a hefty amount of data back home.
http://www.uahirise.org/katalogos.php?page=1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Curiosity rover likes big buttes but it cannot lie around
Mars’ layered rocks look just like the American southwest, says Yanquiphile NASA
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/12/curiosity_murray_buttes/
Mars looks just like the American southwest, says NASA after landing images of some big buttes on Mars.
The Curiosity rover has spent the last few weeks in a region of Mars called “Murray Buttes” that apparently reveals “The layered geologic past of Mars”.
Mars Rover Views Spectacular Layered Rock Formations
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1932
“Curiosity’s science team has been just thrilled to go on this road trip through a bit of the American desert Southwest on Mars,” said Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
On Mount Sharp, Curiosity is investigating how and when the habitable ancient conditions known from the mission’s earlier findings evolved into conditions drier and less favorable for life.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LAKE OF frozen WATER THE SIZE OF NEW MEXICO FOUND ON MARS – NASA
Boffins spot wealth of H2-oh-yeah just waiting to be tapped
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/22/nasa_finds_ice_under_martian_surface/
Settling on Mars may not be as difficult as first feared. NASA scientists have discovered a huge deposit of water ice just under the surface of the Red Planet.
The ice has been found in the Utopia Planitia region of the planet, a large depression in the northern hemisphere formed by a massive impact early in the planet’s history. The ice patch, which is about the size of New Mexico, contains enough water to fill Lake Superior, according to measurements taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
“The ice deposits in Utopia Planitia aren’t just an exploration resource, they’re also one of the most accessible climate change records on Mars,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The First Bug On Mars
http://hackaday.com/2016/12/25/the-first-bug-on-mars/
The launch in late 1996 of the Mars Pathfinder mission with its Sojourner rover then was exciting news indeed. Before Spirit, the exceptionally long-lived Opportunity, and the relatively huge Curiosity rover (get a sense of scale from our recent tour of JPL), the little Sojourner operated on the surface of the planet for 85 days, and proved the technology for the rovers that followed.
In these days of constant online information we’d see every nuance of the operation as it happened, but those of us watching with interest in 1997 missed one of the mission’s dramas. Pathfinder’s lander suffered what is being written up today as the first bug on Mars. When the lander collected Martian weather data, its computer would crash.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Trump Adds To NASA Budget, Approves Crewed Mission To Mars
https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/03/21/2017220/trump-adds-to-nasa-budget-approves-crewed-mission-to-mars?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
President Donald Trump signed a law on Tuesday authorizing funding for a crewed NASA mission to Mars. The new bill (S.442) adds a crewed mission to the red planet as a key NASA objective and authorizes the space agency to direct test human space flight programs that will enable more crewed exploration in deep space. The space agency has $19.5 billion in funding for the 2018 fiscal year, which starts this October.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA reveals Curiosity 2020′s 23-camera payload
Probe to carry cams named SHERLOC and WATSON, plus chute-cam and selfie-snappers
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/01/curiosity_2020_mars_rover_to_boast_23_cameras/
NASA’s revealed its Curiosity 2020 mission will pack 23 cameras.
That’s a half-dozen more the current Curiosity’s 17 cameras, and way ahead of the Pathfinder mission’s measly five (two on the lander and three on the Sojourner rover).
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory announcement explains what all these cameras are for.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6987
Tomi Engdahl says:
Curiosity: Life on Mars
https://www.mentor.com/products/mechanical/techpubs/download?id=102413&contactid=1&PC=L&c=2018_01_10_mad_eedge_q4_issue_r2
The Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) is part of the payload of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, better known as the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in August 2012. REMS is composed…
Tomi Engdahl says:
Opportunity Rover Approaches 5,000 Martian Days (4,910 More Than Planned)
http://www.iflscience.com/space/opportunity-rover-approaches-5000-martian-days-4910-more-than-planned/
NASA’s robotic geologist Opportunity is truly the little robot that could. With the original mission designed to last for just three months, on Saturday, February 17, it will celebrate its 5,000th Martian day of activity on the Red Planet.
Opportunity is solar-powered so NASA was not expecting the mission to survive the winter.
The golf cart-sized rover has, in fact, survived eight winters on Mars, contributing to important discoveries on the composition of rocks and soil on the surface of the Red Planet. It has also taken about 225,000 images, which are all available to view for free online.
The rover has now driven over 45 kilometers (28 miles) from where it landed all the way to its current objective, the Endurance Crater.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Next NASA Mars Rover Reaches Manufacturing Milestone
http://www.electronicdesign.com/automotive/next-nasa-mars-rover-reaches-manufacturing-milestone?NL=ED-004&Issue=ED-004_20180522_ED-004_249&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=17472&utm_medium=email&elq2=4c5895cf6ba34a2d9962d36d6d9ceb4d
NASA’s Mars 2020 mission has begun the assembly phase of its development, and is on track for a July 2020 launch to Mars that includes a unique “Marscopter.”
The first planned assembly, test, and launch operations (ATLO) activities of the Mars 2020 mission out of NASA will involve electrical integration of flight hardware into the descent stage. The Mars 2020 rover, as well as its cruise stage, aeroshell and descent stage—a rocket-powered “sky crane” that will lower the rover to the planet’s surface—will undergo final assembly at the Spacecraft Assembly Facility High Bay 1 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Over the next year-and-a-half, engineers and technicians will add subsystems such as avionics, power, telecommunications, mechanisms, thermal systems, and navigation systems onto the spacecraft. The propulsion systems were installed earlier this year on the cruise and descent-stage main structures.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA Remotely Hacks Curiosity’s Rock Drill
https://hackaday.com/2018/05/25/nasa-remotely-hacks-curiositys-rock-drill/
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIYers rejoice: Hitting stuff to make it work even works in space
Curiosity Rover’s drill is mostly working again after ‘percussive maintenance’
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/06/05/curiosity_rover_drill_working_again_after_percussive_maintenance/
That last step, NASA has announced, was successful, and the rover is now conducting its first onboard sample analysis for more than a year.
The drilled powder will first be analysed by Curiosity’s mineralogy laboratory, which measures the relative abundance of different minerals in the sample. NASA’s post explained the sample will then be passed to the chemistry laboratory.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA Finds Ancient Organic Material, Mysterious Methane on Mars
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-finds-ancient-organic-material-mysterious-methane-on-mars
NASA’s Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that suggests the planet could have supported ancient life, as well as new evidence in the Martian atmosphere that relates to the search for current life on the Red Planet. While not necessarily evidence of life itself, these findings are a good sign for future missions exploring the planet’s surface and subsurface.
The new findings – “tough” organic molecules in three-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks near the surface, as well as seasonal variations in the levels of methane in the atmosphere – appear in the June 8 edition of the journal Science.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sawppy the Rover
Motorized model of Mars rovers Curiosity, Mars 2020
https://hackaday.io/project/158208-sawppy-the-rover
This model’s layout and proportion mimics that of Mars rovers Curiosity and Mars 2020. It faithfully reproduces the suspension kinematics of real rovers and is intended to be a hardware platform for future software projects in autonomous operation. Go forth and boldly explore the back yard, Sawppy!
Sawppy Rover was inspired by SGVHAK Rover, a six-wheeled robot inspired by the NASA JPL rovers sent to explore Mars. The major differences between Sawppy and SGVHAK Rover were motivated by a desire to reduce cost and complexity. To accomplish this goal, Sawppy differs in two major design objectives:
Motorization: Instead of using gearmotors with encoders managed by RoboClaw motor controllers, moving the wheels will be done with servo motors.
Construction Method: Instead of using the Actobotics construction system, Sawppy will be built from Misumi HFS3 aluminum extrusions connected by 3D-printed plastic parts
Tomi Engdahl says:
How NASA Built Its Mars Rovers
https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/robotic-exploration/planetary-rovers-are-we-alone
Wow, indeed. Since that night in 2004, Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity, which landed three weeks later, have embarked on an extraordinary journey of discovery. Designing, constructing, launching, and landing those rovers on Mars has become NASA’s most thrilling and successful planetary mission ever.
Why bother to study rocks and dirt from a cold, desolate, remote world? Because the geology of Mars embodies a history that should help unravel our own,
Tomi Engdahl says:
Build Your Own Earthbound “Mars” Rover
https://blog.hackster.io/build-your-own-earthbound-mars-rover-b195c860b859
Tomi Engdahl says:
Next NASA Mars Rover Reaches Key Manufacturing Milestone
The assembly phase of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission is underway and includes a unique “Marscopter.”
https://www.powerelectronics.com/automotive/next-nasa-mars-rover-reaches-key-manufacturing-milestone?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20180713_ED-003_8&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=18611&utm_medium=email&elq2=d6ff76dc061a495883e7b60a2333fc34
The first planned assembly, test, and launch operations (ATLO) activities of the Mars 2020 mission will involve electrical integration of flight hardware into the descent stage. The Mars 2020 rover, as well as its cruise stage, aeroshell, and descent stage—a rocket-powered “sky crane” that will lower the rover to the planet’s surface—will undergo final assembly at the Spacecraft Assembly Facility High Bay 1 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.
“No better place in the world to assemble NASA’s next Mars rover than JPL’s High Bay 1,” said Mars 2020 Project Manager John McNamee at JPL. “On the floor you’ll see the components of our spacecraft taking shape—put together by people who are the best in the world at what they do. And on the wall behind them you will see all the logos of the historic missions of exploration that have also been assembled in High Bay 1 in the past.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Six Wheels (En)rolling: Mars Rovers Going To School
https://hackaday.com/2018/08/03/now-enrolling-mars-rovers-going-to-school/
Few things build excitement like going to space. It captures the imagination of young and old alike. Teachers love to leverage the latest space news to raise interest in their students, and space agencies are happy to provide resources to help. The latest in a long line of educator resources released by NASA is an Open Source Rover designed at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
JPL is the birthplace of Mars rovers Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity. They’ve been researching robotic explorers for decades, so it’s no surprise they have many rovers running around
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA’s Opportunity Mars Rover Is Still Missing
https://www.iflscience.com/space/the-opportunity-mars-rover-is-still-asleep-nasa-engineers-are-coping-with-a-wakeupthemed-song-playlist/
For the past 66 days, scientists at NASA’s Mars Exploration Program have been anxiously waiting for the Opportunity rover to turn back on. Now that the epic, planet-wide dust storm that first knocked out the solar-powered vehicle on June 10 is finally dying down, the mission staff hope the darkened atmosphere will soon clear enough for the veteran Red Planet investigator to juice up its batteries and phone home.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2018/08/28/martian-dust-storm-may-spell-doom-for-rover/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How NASA Will Use Robots to Create Rocket Fuel From Martian Soil
https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/robotic-exploration/how-nasa-will-use-robots-to-create-rocket-fuel-from-martian-soil
The year is 2038. After 18 months living and working on the surface of Mars, a crew of six explorers boards a deep-space transport rocket and leaves for Earth. No humans are staying behind, but work goes on without them: Autonomous robots will keep running a mining and chemical-synthesis plant they’d started years before this first crewed mission ever set foot on the planet. The plant produces water, oxygen, and rocket fuel using local resources, and it will methodically build up all the necessary supplies for the next Mars mission, set to arrive in another two years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.360cities.net/image/mars-panorama-curiosity-solar-day-1197
Tomi Engdahl says:
So Long, Opportunity And Thanks For All The Science
https://www.iflscience.com/space/so-long-opportunity-and-thanks-for-all-the-science/
Later today NASA will likely announce that the Opportunity rover has ceased operations. The rover had not been heard from since June 10, 2018, when the global dust storm that enveloped Mars sent it into hibernation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA’s
Opportunity
Rover Dies
on Mars
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/13/science/opportunity-rover-mars-map.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA’s Mars Rover Opportunity Is Officially Declared Dead
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/13/654737444/nasas-mars-rover-opportunity-is-officially-declared-dead?fbclid=IwAR3XeDcI76Sx7i1543ttXvRhMcGrNL_eegKRWGR3WoFCpFBvg6D5MfBUv9M&t=1550132337841
Tomi Engdahl says:
Millainen liitin käy Marsiin?
http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9101&via=n&datum=2019-02-19_15:38:59&mottagare=30929
InSightin seismometrin luotettavuutta on osaltaan takaamassa C&K:n MDMA-sarjan Micro-D-liittimet.
Liittimien kanssa voidaan käyttää AWG24-, AWG26- ja AWG28-kokoisia eristettyjä johtimia sekä eristämättömiä AWG25-lankajohtimia.
Liittimet ovat vakiokomponentteja eivätkä ne tarvitse mitään valmisteluja Mars-luotainta varten. Koska C&K:n liittimet on pääasiassa tarkoitettu avaruussovelluksiin, kaikki sen liittimet on suunniteltu kestämään äärimmäisissä oloissa ja ne on testattu ja sertifioitu asianmukaisesti.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mysterious magnetic pulses discovered on Mars
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/09/mars-insight-feels-mysterious-magnetic-pulsations-at-midnight/?fbclid=IwAR0EKXe4B4jzfZW1x-N0xyOdZCU0K8dz16vWZ3eLT4vT7JMnFYrdx9MK9kg
The nighttime events are among initial results from the InSight lander, which also found hints that the red planet may host a global reservoir of liquid water deep below the surface.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/space/nasa-chief-scientist-were-close-to-finding-life-on-mars-but-were-not-ready/
Tomi Engdahl says:
4 Missions Will Search the Martian Atmosphere and Soil for Signs of Life
https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/robotic-exploration/4-missions-will-search-the-martian-atmosphere-and-soil-for-signs-of-life
Tomi Engdahl says:
Glitch Puts NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Out of Commission
https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-curiosity-mars-rover-glitch
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has experienced a technical glitch, forcing it to stop in its tracks.
Curiosity is programmed not to move anything until it’s confident the movement can be executed without potential danger. Now, according to Sumner, something seems to have gone wrong with that system — effectively shutting the rover down.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Mars 2020 rover has a new name: Perseverance
https://tcrn.ch/2xh9e5v
The next NASA rover to go to Mars has shed its code name and assumed a new one, sourced from the ingenuous youth of our nation. Keeping with the tradition of using virtues as names, the Mars 2020 rover will henceforth be known as “Perseverance.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA FIXES MARS LANDER BY TELLING IT TO HIT ITSELF WITH A SHOVEL
https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-mars-lander-hit-itself-shovel
NASA’s InSight lander, which is currently on the surface of Mars, has faced some unexpected problems during its mission to explore and study the planet.
After a few failed attempts to get it out, NASA had to get a bit creative. Ultimately, it freed the probe up by giving it a solid thwack with InSight’s shovel.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/02/13/mars-2020-rover-curiositys-hi-tech-twin-is-strapped-for-science-includes-a-flying-drone/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Interplanetary Whack-A-Mole: NASA’s High-Stakes Rescue Plan For InSight Lander’s Science Mission
https://hackaday.com/2020/03/12/interplanetary-whack-a-mole-nasas-high-stakes-rescue-plan-for-insight-landers-science-mission/
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA’s next Mars rover will jet off towards the Red Planet this July, but it won’t be alone.
China And The UAE To Launch Their Martian Missions This Summer, Too
https://www.iflscience.com/space/china-and-the-uae-to-launch-their-martian-missions-this-summer-too/
NASA’s next Mars rover Perseverance will jet off towards the Red Planet this July, but it won’t be alone. China is gearing up for its first Martian mission this summer too, with the launch of Tianwen-1, which will include an orbiter, lander, and rover. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is also launching a Mars mission, an orbiter constructed in collaboration with three US universities.
You might think the skies are getting a little busy, but the apparent crowding is no coincidence. This summer, this year, is the ideal time to travel to Mars from Earth. Due to the relative position of Earth and Mars at the moment of launch and arrival, between July and September this year offers the shortest route, and so will require the least among of energy, to reach the Red Planet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
You can help a Mars Rover’s AI learn to tell rocks from dirt
https://tcrn.ch/3cWg5Ac
Mars Rover Curiosity has been on the Red Planet for going on eight years, but its journey is nowhere near finished — and it’s still getting upgrades. You can help it out by spending a few minutes labeling raw data to feed to its terrain-scanning AI.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mars 2020 – Perseverance to the Red Planet
The Mars Perseverance rover, set to launch next month, will address high-priority science goals for Mars exploration including searching for signs of past microbial life. In this special section on the Mars 2020 mission, learn about Perseverance’s goals, how it will get to and land on Mars, and key differences between it and the Curiosity rover.
https://secure.viewer.zmags.com/publication/5a40c228?page=22#/5a40c228/22
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/robotic-exploration/nasas-next-mars-rover-will-carry-a-tiny-helicopter
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/10930-marsin-kosteutta-ja-painetta-mitataan-suomalaisantureilla
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s everything you need to know about when, where and how to follow it live online and on social media.
When And Where To Watch Live Thursday As NASA Launches Its $2.4 Billion ‘Perseverance’ Rover To Mars
http://on.forbes.com/6189Gj5gL
NASA is about to launch for Mars— and you can watch it all live.
Just hours after the peak of this week’s meteor shower, the space agency’s flagship “Mars 2020 Perseverance rover” mission will lift-off from Florida early on Thursday, July 30, 2020.
NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is scheduled to launch from rom Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday, July 30, 2020 at 11:50 UTC/07:50 EDT/04:50 PDT /12:50 BST/13:50 CEST on board an Atlas V rocket.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Mars 2020 spacecraft has been launched on an Atlas V rocket.
Nasa Mars rover: Perseverance robot launches to detect life on Red Planet
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53584405
Tomi Engdahl says:
It is carrying a helicopter! https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/space/perseverance-and-ingenuity-are-on-the-way-to-mars/
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA’s Perseverance, the most sophisticated rover the space agency has ever built, is on its way to Mars, and it’s carrying a little robot helicopter attached to its belly.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/video-friday-nasa-mars-perseverance-rover
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/05/exomy-is-a-miniature-european-mars-rover-with-a-friendly-face/