HiRISE Camera Views the Mars Rover 'Spirit' at 'Home Plate' Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken a new color image of the feature dubbed "Home Plate" in Gusev Crater on Mars.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 176 [+].
Wow! Newest Mars probe photographs rover Opportunity from Mars orbit Posted: 2 years ago by Fanatic
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has just begun its science mission, and one of the first targets is Victoria Crater, where the rover Opportunity has just arrived after nearly 1000 sols on Mars.
The photos, using the largest interplanetary telescope ever lofted, are truly amazing.
See comments for links to original imagery.
Comments: 4 Score: [-] 10 [+].
Once-Habitable Lake Found on Mars Posted: 10 months ago by AutumnLotus
A lake that might once have been habitable may have filled a crater for a long time on early Mars, new spacecraft images reveal. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the images that suggest the debris-strewn Holden Crater once held a calm body of water that could have harbored life.
Comments: 3 Score: [-] 293 [+].
Mars rover to descend into gaping crater *VIDEO* Posted: 2 years ago by DrNothing
The crater is about 60 metres deep, allowing a rover to "dig" deeper into the ground – and into Mars's past – than ever before. "We're going to see more of the history of Mars here than we've seen anywhere else," Squyres says.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 26 [+].
Mars rover finds evidence of ancient volcanic explosion Posted: 2 years ago by AutumnLotus
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has discovered evidence of an ancient volcanic explosion at "Home Plate," a plateau of layered bedrock approximately 2 meters (6 feet) high within the "Inner Basin" of Columbia Hills, at the rover's landing site in Gusev Crater.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 64 [+].
CRISM views Phobos and Deimos Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
These two images taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) show Mars' two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, as seen from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's low orbit around Mars. Both images were taken while the spacecraft was over Mars' night side, with the spacecraft turned off its normal nadir-viewing geometry to glimpse the moons.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 171 [+].
Mars Rover Beginning To Hate Mars Posted: 2 years ago by Fanatic
"Another soil sample of the exact same composition as the last one..." "Still no water..." It's out of its mind with boredom. Another wonderful satirical story from The Onion.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 45 [+].
So, How Did the Mars Rover Get Up There Again? Posted: 1 year ago by ogri2003
Maas Digital created this dramatic, scientifically accurate computer animation to illustrate NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission. A truly awesome feat of modern engineering! This whole process is mind boggling!
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 98 [+].
Mars Global Surveyor: RIP Posted: 2 years ago by Fanatic
The most productive and longest-lived mission to Mars has likely ended, NASA says. For nearly ten years, the orbiter mapped the surface of Mars, and it played a big role in selecting the landing sites for the successful Mars Rover missions. A problem with a solar panel joint led to its demise.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 6 [+].
Mars rover Opportunity starts trek into 230 foot deep crater Posted: 1 year ago by Moe
And in good news about us humans today...
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 101 [+].
360 Degree Panorama of Mars' Surface Posted: 2 years ago by ogri2003
Images were taken from the summit of "Husband Hill" which is a plateau about 100 meters (300 feet) above the Gusev crater. The location has been named the Everest panorama. These images from the Mars Rover Mission were made from Oct. 1 to Oct. 3, 2005.
Comments: 4 Score: [-] 127 [+].
Mars Global Surveyor still MIA Posted: 2 years ago by Fanatic
Days before its tenth anniversary in Mars orbit, the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft ran into problems. They got a weak signal three days later, and nothing since. Plans are to take a photograph of it with another Mars Orbiter today or tomorrow.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 6 [+].
Blogging Mars enthusiasts create and publish Victoria Pan in Aviation Week Posted: 2 years ago by Fanatic
A detailed, colorized pan of the interior of Victoria crater was created by merging the navigation camera's B&W photos, and published in this week's Aviation Week. This demonstrates the benefits of the JPL rover team's decision to make the raw data from the rovers available to the public in near real time. Click through to see the panorama! (By the way, the far rim of the crater is half a mile away!)
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 13 [+].
Mars Features Resemble Hydrothermal Springs Posted: 9 months ago by AutumnLotus
There's a growing buzz in the astrobiology community that ancient hydrothermal springs may have been spotted on Mars. Thanks to the eagle-eyed work of Carlton Allen and Dorothy Oehler of NASA's Johnson Space Center, "spring-like" mounds have been found in Vernal Crater in Arabia Terra on the red planet.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 301 [+].
Happy 1000th Birthday, Spirit! Posted: 2 years ago by Fanatic
The Spirit rover is celebrating its 1000th day on Mars--the original mission was planned for only 90 days--and the JPL mission team has released a 360-degree view of Spirit's wintering grounds, made from nearly 1500 individual images with no compression. It is the highest-resolution photograph of the surface ever taken.
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 24 [+].
Software Help Mars Rovers Find Winter Havens Posted: 1 year ago by Mershaullk
New software is helping NASA find safe places for the Spirit rover to ride out future Martian winters - - and also plan where Spirit and its companion rover, Opportunity, will explore in the future.
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 186 [+].
Mars rover "Opportunity" nears Victoria Crater Posted: 2 years ago by Fanatic
In the next week or so, Opportunity will reach the edge of Victoria Crater after about 950 sols on Mars. Expect "the coolest picture of the surface of Mars you’ve ever seen,” says lead scientist Steve Squyres.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 10 [+].
Flying Over the Columbia Hills of Mars Posted: 8 months ago by sandossu
What it would be like to fly over Mars? Combining terrain data from the orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft with information about the robotic Spirit rover currently rolling across Mars has resulted in a digital movie that shows what a flight over the Columbia Hills might look like.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 150 [+].
New Signs That Ancient Mars Was Wet Posted: 2 months ago by AutumnLotus
Mars may have been wet for a billion years longer than previously thought, new water-related opal evidence from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests. The findings have implications for the possibility that Mars once supported life.
Comments: 3 Score: [-] 360 [+].
'Active glacier found' on Mars Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
A probable active glacier has been identified for the first time on Mars. The icy feature has been spotted in images from the European Space Agency's (Esa) Mars Express spacecraft. Ancient glaciers, many millions of years old, have been seen before on the Red Planet, but this one may only be several thousand years old.
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 200 [+].
NASA captures dynamic Martian avalanche Posted: 10 months ago by dollyllama
The High Resolution Imaging Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photograph Feb. 19. The image, released today, shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 402 [+].