JPL Releases High Definition Imagery of Curiosity Touching Down on Mars

This is a full-resolution version of the NASA Curiosity rover descent to Mars, taken by the MARDI descent imager. As of August 20, all but a dozen 1600x1200 frames have been uploaded from the rover, and those missing were interpolated using thumbnail data. To arrive at the result, a heavy noise reduction, color balance, and sharpening for best visibility were done.

NASA Releases Curiosity Descent Video

NASA has released video shot from Curiosity as it descended through the Martian atmosphere right up until the moment of landing on Mars.



It's a low-resolution video, and it is expected to be followed up with a high resolution video shortly.

Curiosity Lands Safely On Mars After 7 Minutes of Terror

Streaming video by Ustream

The NASA Mars mission Curiosity has landed safely on Mars.

This is perhaps the photo of the mission - it shows the Curiosity lander as it cuts through the Martian atmosphere with its huge parachute unfurled. It was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from about 300 miles away.

Curiosity is a mobile platform enabling exploration over a wide area. The mission is expected to last more than a year.

Curiosity is the biggest and most capable robotic laboratory ever sent to another celestial body: Its 10 scientific instruments are designed to study the chemistry of Mars' rocks, soil and atmosphere and determine whether the Red Planet had the right stuff to be habitable in ancient times.

The rover's prime target is a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain inside the crater, known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp. The mountain's layers of rock could preserve billions of years' worth of geological history, shedding light on the planet's transition from its warmer, wetter past to its current cold, dry climate.

Some scientists think Curiosity could even detect the signs of present-day life, although NASA doesn't go that far.

UPDATE:

NASA Officially Ends Spirit Mars Mission

The mission that landed the rovers Spirit and Opportunity on the Martian surface was only supposed to last 90 days. Yet, both rovers were sending back useful information for more than 6 years although Spirit has been out of contact with controlled since March of last year. NASA has finally ended efforts to contact the probe, ending a mission that has witnessed more than 127,000 images sent back, along with geological details on rock samples taken along the rover's path.

Of course, Spirit lived a long and fruitful life on the Red Planet, something like 25 times longer than it was supposed to. Designed for a three month mission that began in 2004, Spirit logged more than six years on the job. During that time it beamed back 127,000 raw images of the Martian surface, including 16 color, 360-degree panoramas. It also drilled into 15 rock targets and scoured 92 more, gathering invaluable data on the planet’s geology.

Spirit also had a traveler’s soul, crossing the Columbia Hills and putting 4.8 miles on the odometer while crossing the Gusev Crater alone--part of it while driving backwards when one of its wheels ceased functioning in 2006. Martian winter after harsh Martian winter, Spirit returned to the job.

Cause of death: NASA engineers will likely never know for sure, but while Spirit survived the Martian winter three times previously, the most recent was particularly harsh, offering very little solar energy with which to run its survival heaters. As such, any number of critical systems could have been damaged by the cold. Engineers held out hope that the spring thaw might reawaken Spirit, but with no word yet NASA must reorient its Mars communications resources to support the upcoming launch of NASA’s next-gen rover, Curiosity (aka the Mars Science Laboratory), later this year.

Spirit ended up operating more than 25 longer than originally planned. Opportunity continues operating well beyond its original parameters and had driven many times beyond what was originally anticipated.

The durability of these tough little rovers has paved the way for a new generation of Mars exploration vehicles that will hopefully answer more questions about the Martian environment.

Of course, for those who are still of the belief that there are little green men on Mars, this is the alternative explanation for what happened to Spirit:


or:


or:



You know that NASA has done well when the success of these rovers is such that we can recycle their likenesses for humorous videos.

Liquid Dreams: UPDATE - Water Indeed Found On Mars

One of the keys to future manned space exploration is the possibility that we would not have to lug along tons of water and other necessary commodities because they add weight and limit where and how spacecraft can be designed.

Now, we learn that there might be liquid materials flowing on one of Saturn's moons, Titan, including hydrocarbons:

NASA said large dark areas on Titan's surface had been spotted during numerous close flybys of the moon. However until now it had not been possible to determine whether they were liquid or solids.

But scientists were able to conclude the areas were liquid after studying data from a Cassini instrument able to distinguish chemically different materials based on the way they absorb and reflect infrared light.

The visual and mapping instrument spotted a lake, Ontario Lacus, in Titan's south polar region during a flyby in December, NASA said. The lake is roughly 7,800 square miles, slightly bigger North America's Lake Ontario.

"Detection of liquid ethane confirms a long-held idea that lakes and seas filled with methane and ethane exist on Titan," said Larry Soderblom, a scientist with the US Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona.

"The fact we could detect the ethane spectral signatures of the lake even when it was so dimly illuminated, and at a slanted viewing path through Titan's atmosphere, raises expectations for exciting future lake discoveries by our instrument."

That's a pretty explosive discover in and of itself.

However, there are ruminations that even bigger news might be had later today. It is possible that NASA might announce that they had discovered water on Mars.

UPDATE:
NASA has indeed confirmed that water was found on Mars. Pretty impressive stuff, and they also announced extending the mission.

Phoenix Reporting In From Mars

The latest US unmanned probe to Mars has successfully landed and is now broadcasting the first imagery. They include photos of the craft and of its immediate surroundings.

Unlike the Spirit and Opportunity missions, which included mobile rovers that could explore the surrounding areas, the Phoenix is a stationary platform from which experiments will be conducted. It was originally conceived as part of the "faster, better, cheaper" approach to unmanned missions, but when several other Mars probes were lost, the Phoenix mission was scrubbed and rethought. Nearly 50% of missions to Mars have ended in failure.

The Phoenix Landing

The US has sent an unmanned probe to Mars, the Phoenix, which is supposed to be landing on Mars later this evening. MSNBC provides a live feed of discussion and coverage of the landing.

This landing will differ from prior landings since the lander is targeting the Martian North Polar region.

Here's a breakdown of scheduled events prior to, and after, landing.

UPDATE:
The Phoenix has landed, and the scientists are determining the craft's status. The next major task is to unfurl the solar arrays.

Global Warming On Mars Evidence That Sun Behind Earth's Warming

For those who want to believe that man is behind the warming that has been recorded for the past 100 years or so, consider that there are other planets in the solar system, like Mars, that have polar ice caps. Now consider that Mars is experiencing the same kind of global warming trend that the Earth is experiencing. The parallels are spooky, especially since there are no people on Mars and little green men are a figment of science fiction writers. That narrows down the potential causes for such warming to a select few culprits.

The cause of Mars' planetary global warming is likely the same that causes the Earth's global warming: The Sun.

Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human-induced—cause, according to one scientist's controversial theory.

Earth is currently experiencing rapid warming, which the vast majority of climate scientists says is due to humans pumping huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. (Get an overview: "Global Warming Fast Facts".)

Mars, too, appears to be enjoying more mild and balmy temperatures.

In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.

Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of the St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.

"The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," he said.

Abdussamatov believes that changes in the sun's heat output can account for almost all the climate changes we see on both planets.

The androgenic global warming hysterics from the likes of Al Gore and others completely misses the point. They think that they have this global warming thing figured out, and yet they ignore or downplay the biggest player in global warming of all - the Sun. Tiny changes in solar output can have huge consequences for the climates of the planets, not just the earth. There are solar cycles, which are still being understood, but with a closer examination of Mars' climate, we're seeing that temperature rises on Earth mirror those seen on Mars. That shows that there's an external cause for the temperature rise not related to mankind's burning of fossil fuels or the emissions of so-called greenhouse gases.

This doesn't mean that we shouldn't do more to reduce pollution emissions or otherwise improve air quality. Switching to low sulfur fuels and shifting away from carbon based fuels would improve air quality considerably, but it would not have the effect the global warming zealots think. Indeed, the effect would be likely be zero.

Critics think that the Martian climate changes can be explained by changes in the Martian orbit, which varies over time. The problem is that critics seemingly downplay the wobbles experienced by the Earth as though they too couldn't cause climate change.

The fact that there are so many variables involved in climate change shows just how little the global warming zealots actually know about global warming - and that it is a cause for them, not about the science. They'll literally latch on to a hypothesis as though it is concrete fact and ignore and ridicule those who show that there are other factors involved that undermine or disprove the hypothesis.