Catching up with NASA rovers Curiosity and Opportunity and their search for water on Mars

Sep 27, 2012

Catching up with NASA rovers Curiosity and Opportunity and their search for water on Mars

Nick Tann 0 Comment NASA ChemCam, Curiosity, Gale Crater, HiRISE, laser, Mars, Mars Descent Imager, Mastcam, Microscopic Imager, Mount Sharp, NASA, Opportunity, rock, space, water

After news earlier this week of the Curiosity rover petting and naming its new pet rock, Jake Matijevic, NASA released images today indicating that long ago, water probably flowed on the Martian surface.

Other notable images recently sent back from Mars include one from Curiosity’s older, but smaller rover sibling, Opportunity, that photographed small spherical objects, nicknamed “blueberries,” with it’s Microscopic Imager providing important evidence about long-ago wet environmental conditions.

: September 27, 2012: A rock outcrop called Link pops out from a Martian surface in this NASA handout image taken by the 100-millimeter Mast Camera on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover September 2, 2012. Rounded gravel fragments, or clasts, up to a couple inches (few centimeters) in size are in a matrix of white material. The outcrop characteristics are consistent with a sedimentary conglomerate, or a rock that was formed by the deposition of water and is composed of many smaller rounded rocks cemented together. Scientists enhanced the color in this version to show the Martian scene as it would appear under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Handout/Reuters)

: September 27, 2012: A high-resolution view of an area that is known as Goulburn Scour, a set of rocks blasted by the engines of Curiosity’s descent stage on Mars is seen in this NASA handout image from NASA’s Curiosity Rover taken August 19, 2012. It shows a section from a mosaic of a pair of images obtained by Curiosity’s 100-millimeter Mast Camera, with three times higher resolution than previously released. Details of the layer of pebbles can be seen in the close-up. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Reuters)

: September 27, 2012: This set of NASA handout images compares the Link outcrop of rocks on Mars (L) with similar rocks seen on Earth (R). The image of Link taken September 2, 2012, was obtained by NASA’s Curiosity rover and shows rounded gravel fragments, or clasts, up to a couple inches (few centimeters), within the rock outcrop. The outcrop characteristics are consistent with a sedimentary conglomerate, or a rock that was formed by the deposition of water and is composed of many smaller rounded rocks cemented together. A typical Earth example of sedimentary conglomerate formed of gravel fragments in a stream is shown on the right. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS and PSI/Handout/Reuters)

: September 27, 2012: The path on Mars of NASA’s Curiosity rover toward Glenelg, an area where three terrains of scientific interest converge, is seen in this undated NASA handout image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Arrows mark geological features encountered so far that led to the discovery of what appears to be an ancient Martian streambed. The first site, dubbed Goulburn, is an area where the thrusters from the rover’s descent stage blasted away a layer of loose material, exposing bedrock underneath. Goulburn gave scientists a hint that water might have transported the pebbly sandstone material making up the outcrop. The second feature, a naturally exposed rock outcrop named Link, stood out to the science team for its embedded, rounded gravel pieces. The final feature, another naturally exposed rock outcrop named Hottah, offered the most compelling evidence yet of an ancient stream, as it contains abundant rounded pebbles. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/Handout/Reuters)

: September 27, 2012: Evidence of an ancient, flowing stream on Mars is seen in this NASA handout image mosaic taken with the Curosity rover’s 100-millimeter Mastcam telephoto lens September 14, 2012. The rock outcrop, which the science team has named “Hottah” after Hottah Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories, is exposed bedrock made up of smaller fragments cemented together, or what geologists call a sedimentary conglomerate. Hottah has pieces of gravel embedded in it, called clasts, up to a couple inches (few centimeters) in size and located within a matrix of sand-sized material. Some of the clasts are round in shape, leading the science team to conclude they were transported by a vigorous flow of water. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout/Reuters)

: September 23, 2012: This image combines photographs taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) at three different distances from the first Martian rock that NASA’s Curiosity rover touched with its arm, taken during the 47th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work on Mars. The team has named the target rock “Jake Matijevic.” MAHLI reveals that the target rock has a relatively smooth, gray surface with some glinty facets reflecting sunlight and reddish dust collecting in recesses in the rock. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Handout/Reuters)

: September 22, 2012: The robotic arm of the Mars rover Curiosity makes contact with the first rock touched by the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer instrument. The rover placed the instrument onto the rock to assess what chemical elements were present in the rock. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout/Reuters)

: September 21, 2012: This image was taken by Front Hazcam: Left A on board NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 45 of a rock. Curiosity sends back raw images for current and prior Sols based on commands sent by the mission team. The rover uses orbiters to relay back a lot of its data and maximizes each opportunity when they pass by overhead. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 19, 2012: The drive by Mars rover Curiosity during the mission’s 43rd Martian day, or sol, ended with this rock about 8 feet (2.5 meters) in front of the rover. The rock is about 10 inches (25 centimeters) tall and 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide. The rover team has assessed it as a suitable target for the first use of Curiosity’s contact instruments on a rock. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout/Reuters)

: September 19, 2012: This view of Mars Curiosity’s deck shows a plaque bearing several signatures of U.S. officials, including that of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in this image taken by the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the rover’s 44th Martian day, or sol, on Mars. The plaque is located on the front left side of the rover’s deck. The rectangular plaque is made of anodized aluminum and measures 3.94 inches (100 millimeters) tall by 3.23 inches (82 millimeters) wide. The camera is capable of focusing on any target at distances of about 0.8 inch (2.1 centimeters) to infinity, providing versatility for other uses, such as views of the rover itself from different angles. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Handout/Reuters)

: September 14, 2012: Small spherical objects are shown in this mosaic combining four images from the Microscopic Imager on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity September 6, 2012. The view covers an area about 2.4 inches (6 centimeters) across, at an outcrop called “Kirkwood” in the Cape York segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The individual spherules are up to one-eighth inch (3 millimeters) in diameter. Opportunity discovered spherules at its landing site more than eight-and-a-half years earlier. Those spherules were nicknamed “blueberries.” They provided important evidence about long-ago wet environmental conditions on Mars because researchers using Opportunity’s science instruments identified them as concretions rich in the mineral hematite deposited by water saturating the bedrock. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./ USGS/Modesto Junior College/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 13, 2012: The Curiosity rover observes the moon Phobos grazing the sun’s disk on Martian day, or sol, 37. The rover, dispatched to determine if the planet most like Earth in the solar system could have supported microbial life, has taken on a second job – moonlighting as an astronomer. Last week, Curiosity outfitted its high-resolution camera with protective filters and took pictures of the sun as Phobos, one of Mars’ two small moons, sailed by. It was a tricky shoot. Phobos and its sister moon Deimos are closer to Mars than our moon is to Earth, so they shoot across the sky relatively quickly. Phobos takes less than eight hours to circle Mars. Deimos takes about 30 hours to make the trip. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Handout/Reuters)

: September 9, 2012: The three left wheels of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity are shown here combined in two images that were taken by the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). In the distance is the lower slope of Mount Sharp. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/Handout/Reuters)

: September 9, 2012: This view of the lower front and underbelly areas of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity combines nine images taken by the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). Curiosity’s front Hazard-Avoidance cameras appear as a set of four blue eyes at the top center of the portrait. Fine-grain Martian dust can be seen adhering to the wheels, which are about 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide and 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter. The bottom of the rover is about 26 inches (66 centimeters) above the ground. On the horizon at the right is a portion of Mount Sharp, with dark dunes at its base. The camera is in the turret of tools at the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm. The Sol 34 imaging by MAHLI was part of a week-long set of activities for characterizing the movement of the arm in Mars conditions. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 9, 2012: This view shows the calibration target for the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity. The camera is in the turret of tools at the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm. Its calibration target is on the rover body near the base of the arm and includes color references, a metric bar graphic, a 1909 VDB Lincoln penny, and a stair-step pattern for depth calibration. The new MAHLI images show that the calibration target has a coating of Martian dust on it. This is unsurprising – the target was facing directly toward the plume of dust stirred up by the sky crane’s descent engines during the final phase of the August 6, 2012 landing. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 9, 2012: The calibration target on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on Mars, which has adjustable focus. The camera took two images with the same pointing: one with the calibration target in focus and one with the wheel and Martian ground in focus. The view here combines in-focus portions from these shots. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 9, 2012: The penny in this image is part of a camera calibration target on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on Mars. The penny is a nod to geologists’ tradition of placing a coin or other object of known scale as a size reference in close-up photographs of rocks, and it gives the public a familiar object for perceiving size easily when it will be viewed by MAHLI on Mars. The specific coin, provided by MAHLI’s principal investigator, Ken Edgett, is a 1909 “VDB” penny. That was the first year Lincoln pennies were minted and the centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. The VDB refers to the initials of the coin’s designer, Victor D. Brenner, which are on the reverse side. Brenner based the coin’s low-relief portrait of Lincoln on a photograph taken Feb. 9, 1864, by Anthony Berger in the Washington, D.C. studio of Mathew Brady. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 8, 2012: The reclosable dust cover on Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) was opened for the first time during the 33rd Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars, enabling MAHLI to take this image. The level of detail apparent in the image shows that haziness in earlier MAHLI images since landing was due to dust that had settled on the dust cover during the landing. The patch of ground shown is about 34 inches (86 centimeters) across. The size of the largest pebble, near the bottom of the image, is about 3 inches (8 centimeters). Notice that the ground immediately around that pebble has less dust visible (more gravel exposed) than in other parts of the image. The presence of the pebble may have affected the wind in a way that preferentially removes dust from the surface around it. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 7, 2012: Curiosity’s Mast Camera, the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on NASA’s Curiosity rover, is shown with the Martian landscape in the background on the 32nd Martian day, or sol, of operations on the surface. This image lets researchers know that the APXS instrument had not become caked with dust during Curiosity’s dusty landing. Scientists enhanced the color in this version to show the Martian scene as it would appear under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Handout/Reuters)

: September 7, 2012: The Curiosity rover uses a camera located on its arm to obtain this self portrait. The image of the top of Curiosity’s Remote Sensing Mast, showing the Mastcam and Chemcam cameras, was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). The image was acquired while MAHLI’s clear dust cover was closed on a day when MAHLI and other instruments and tools on the turret were being inspected using the rover’s Mastcams and Navcams. The MAHLI cover was in the closed position in order to inspect the dust cover to ensure that the cover, its hinge, and the volume it sweeps when it opens are clear of debris. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 6, 2012: This color view of the parachute and back shell that helped deliver NASA’s Curiosity rover to the surface of the Red Planet was taken by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The area where the back shell impacted the surface is darker because lighter-colored material on the surface was kicked up and displaced. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 6, 2012: Tracks from the first drives of NASA’s Curiosity rover are visible in this image captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The rover is seen where the tracks end. The image’s color has been enhanced to show better surface detail. The two marks seen near the site where the rover landed formed when reddish surface dust was blown away by the rover’s descent stage, revealing darker basaltic sands underneath. Similarly, the tracks appear darker where the rover’s wheels disturbed the top layer of dust. Observing the tracks over time will provide information on how the surface changes as dust is deposited and eroded. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 5, 2012: The left eye of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the camera on the rover’s arm, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), during the 30th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars. The image shows that MAHLI has a thin film or coating of Martian dust on it. The mechanism at the right in this image is Curiosity’s dust removal tool, a motorized wire brush. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Handout/Reuters)

: August 29, 2012: Tracks made by the wheels of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity taken by the Curiosity’s Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam) are shown after the rover’s longest drive on Mars. The drive of about 52 feet (16 meters) during the 22nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission (August 28, 2012), covered more ground than the two previous drives combined. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: August 29, 2012: The Mast Camera (MastCam) on NASA’s Curiosity rover highlights the interesting geology of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside Gale Crater, where the rover landed. Prior to the rover’s landing on Mars, observations from orbiting satellites indicated that the lower reaches of Mount Sharp, below the line of white dots, are composed of relatively flat-lying strata that bear hydrated minerals. Those orbiter observations did not reveal hydrated minerals in the higher, overlying strata. The MastCam data now reveals a strong discontinuity in the strata above and below the line of white dots, agreeing with the data from orbit. The train of white dots may represent an “unconformity,” or an area where the process of sedimentation stopped. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: August 28, 2012: The wheel tracks of the Mars Curiosity rover are seen in the dust on Mars. A close inspection of the tracks reveals a unique, repeating pattern: Morse code for JPL. This pattern, visible as straight bands across the zigzag track marks, can be used as a visual reference to help the rover drive accurately. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout/Reuters)

: August 28, 2012: Tracks made by the wheels of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity are shown by the Curiosity’s Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam) after the rover’s longest drive on Mars. The drive of about 52 feet (16 meters) during the 22nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission covered more ground than the two previous drives combined. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: August 28, 2012: A close-up of track marks is shown here from the first test drive of NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars. Instead of a warm, wet and possibly life-bearing planet as some scientists contend, early Mars may have been a hostile and volatile place with frequent volcanic outbursts, a study said on September 9. Earlier research had theorized that certain minerals detected on the surface of the Red Planet indicated the presence of clay formed when water weathered surface rock some 3.7 billion years ago. This would also have meant the planet was warmer and wetter then, boosting chances that it could have nurtured life forms. But new research by a team from France and the United States said the minerals, including iron and magnesium, may instead have been deposited by water-rich lava, a mixture of molten and part-molten rock beneath Earth’s surface. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/HO/AFP/Getty Images)

: August 23, 2012: Rock fins up to about 1 foot (30 centimeters) tall are visible in this panoramic camera image by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The view spans an area of terrain about 30 feet (9 meters) wide. Orbital investigation of the area has identified a possibility of clay minerals in this area of the Cape York segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The view combines exposures taken through Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). It is presented in approximate true color, the camera team’s best estimate of what the scene would look like if humans were there and able to see it with their own eyes. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ./Handout/Reuters)

: August 23, 2012: A series of test images are used to calibrate the 34-millimeter Mast Camera on NASA’s Curiosity rover looking south-southwest from the rover’s landing site. The gravelly area around Curiosity’s landing site is visible in the foreground. Some haze obscures the view, but the top ridge, depicted in this image, is 10 miles (16.2 kilometers) away. (NASA/Handout/Reuters)

: July 2, 2012: This 360-degree scene assembled from images taken by the navigation camera on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity were released on September 7, 2012 and shows terrain surrounding the position where the rover spent its 3,000th Martian day, or sol, working on Mars. The scene is presented as a polar projection with north at the top. The Sol 3000 site is near the northern tip of the Cape York segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. Bright toned material lines the perimeter of Cape York. Opportunity arrived at this location on Sol 2989 (June 20, 2012) with a drive bringing the mission’s total driving distance as of Sol 3000 to 21.432 miles (34,492 meters). (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout/Reuters)

MORE: Curiosity rover makes tracks on Mars in successful test drive

MORE: NASA lands Curiosity rover on Mars

The Darkroom offers Facebook and WordPress commenting in the hopes of fostering constructive conversation among our users. Please abide by our Terms of Service when commenting on the site.

Categories