#Martians and #Earthlings might share more than we"ve always thought! - http://clapway.com/2015/07/15/mars-curiosity-rover-discovers-earth-like-crust-223/

The latest data from the Mars Curiosity Rover suggests that Mars had a continental crust similar to the one Earth has. Researchers analyzed data collected with the rover’s ChemCam instrument (short for Chemistry and Camera) and determined that the composition of the rocks on Mars was reminiscent of Earth’s crust.

Mars More Like Earth Than Ever

The new evidence from the Mars Curiosity Rover supports the notion that many scientists have held lately, that Mars was once much more like Earth than previously thought. Because of what researchers had previously known of the Martian surface–namely, that it was covered in dark igneous rocks, similar to the ones that make up the underwater crust of the Earth.

Mars was thought of as being a basaltic planet. Due to this latest discovery from the data gathered by the Mars Curiosity Rover, however, this notion is changing.

The ChemCam on Mars Curiosity Rover

Having recently arrived at Gale Crater, the rover began employing its ChemCam instrument to analyze the rocks in the area. This device works simultaneously as a camera and a laser to study the rocks on Mars through the Mars Curiosity Rover. The ChemCam uses its laser component to vaporize materials that it needs to analyze, and then the camera component analyzes the chemical composition of the newly vaporized material. The Mars Curiosity Rover’s ChemCam also contains a spectrograph, which it uses to analyze details of the various minerals that it comes into contact with before and after the laser does its job.

A Lighter Martian Crust

The lead scientist of the ChemCam instrument, Roger Wiens from the Los Alamos National Library, reported that what they saw was unexpected on Mars. Usually they would expect to find dark rocks, but in this instance they saw large, bright crystals on the rocks analyzed by the Mars Curiosity Rover’s ChemCam instrument. Researchers who observed the pictures and chemical data from the rover determined that the rocks were abundant with feldspar and maybe even quartz, which is very similar to the Earth’s continental crust.

According to Violane Sautter, the first author of the paper which was published in Nature Geoscience, these components of Martian crust resemble a rock type found on Earth known to geologists as Tonalite-Trondhjemite-Granodiorite, or TTG, rocks that were predominant in the Earth’s crust from 2.5 billion years ago in the Archean Era. This latest discovery from the Mars Curiosity Rover brings us closer to our nearest neighboring planet than ever.

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Mars Curiosity Rover Discovers Earth-like Crust

Opportunity Rover"s Mars Marathon Complete! - http://clapway.com/2015/07/08/opportunitys-mars-marathon-complete987/

Although one wouldn’t imagine a group of scientists specialized in interplanetary probe adventures to be of the jogging sort, NASA’s Opportunity, a probe with wheels exploring Mars for the past eleven years, has just completed a 26.2-mile marathon. This may seem slow to us bipeds, but the Opportunity rover snapped enough pictures for NASA to compose an eight-minute video, which brings us a lovely synopsis of the rover’s run.

THE MARS MARATHON WAS RECORDED

The Opportunity rover began its marathon in January of 2004, finishing this past April. It was by no means a walk in the park, however, as one can surmise from the constant crackling soundtrack, generated by the rover’s accelerometer as vibrations were tracked. Both Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, were expected to run for only 90 days, but, per de rigueur of NASA ingenuity, they both continued to extend their exploratory missions, dauntlessly weathering the worst of Mars’ dust storms, frigid temperatures and other environmental hazards.

CASUALTIES OF MARS

Spirit died in 2009, but Opportunity kept trekking for an additional six years, carrying on the baton of scientific exploration. Opportunity is actually still running, though, exceeding Earthlings’ expectations by 45 times its original life-expectancy.

OPPORTUNITY rover’S GREAT FINDINGS

In its eleven-year tour, the Opportunity rover discovered many indications of the former presence of water on Mars, and even hinted at the possibility that Mars may still be sustaining life. Spirit’s journey ended rather anticlimactically as it fell into a sand trap, but Opportunity carried on despite a bad case of gimpy shoulder and damaged wheel. Tack on top of these physical issues its memory problems: the Opportunity rover no longer uses flash memory, which refused to self-repair despite several earlier attempts. What this has meant is that Opportunity has to relay its data and findings to NASA on Earth every single day or risk losing its data to the dusty horizon. Think Groundhog Day with amnesia.

Opportunity rover project manager John Callas explained that “[f]lash memory is a convenience but not a necessity for the rover…It’s like a refrigerator that way. Without it, you couldn’t save any leftovers. Any food you prepare that day you would have to either eat or throw out. Without using flash memory, Opportunity needs to send home the high-priority data the same day it collects it, and lose any lower-priority data that can’t fit into the transmission.”

So, despite recent space blunders like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket mishap, it should be noted that, even when some things go very wrong, when it comes to space exploration, if things go a little right, they go extraordinarily well. Three cheers for Opportunity!

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Opportunity Rover"s Mars Marathon Complete!

Scientists Create a Quantum Dot Spectrometer That Fits in Your Smartphone - http://clapway.com/2015/07/02/scientists-create-a-quantum-dot-spectrometer-that-fits-in-your-smartphone542/

Smartphones are incredible pieces of technology. They’re complex computers that give us the entire span of the internet at our fingertips. But, they are cold machines that lack the ability to interact with the world surrounding us every day. That is, until now. Using quantum-dot spectrometer technology, our phones will be able to analyze spectral light and colors to analyze the world around us.

What is a quantum dot spectrometer?

A spectrometer is a tool used to measure light in order to make determinations about chemical properties, or to show the intensity of light by determining wavelengths. A quantum dot is nanocrystal consisting of semi-conductors. Conductive properties of the incredibly small quantum dots, in conjunction with a spectrometer capable of measuring using refractions of light to make determinations, allow access to complex analysis on device that could fit inside of your smartphone. Applications of spectrometers are numerous in the fields of science and medicine. For example, on page 39 in the July, 2015 issue of “Nature,” author Norm C. Anheier describes one of the many uses for spectrometers: “Planetary scientists are using spectrometers on board rovers on the surface of Mars to analyze the composition of soil and rocks, looking for clues to the planet’s past environment and whether conditions may have been favorable for microbial life. Optical spectrometers routinely support activities that underpin our daily lives, such as biomedical research, drug discovery, renewable energy, forensic science, environmental monitoring and chemical detection.”

Benefits of having a quantum dot spectrometer in your pocket

Previously, spectrometers were giant, costly machines, which could only be used by scientists working in advanced labs with expensive equipment. The quantum dot spectrometer will allow scientists the ease of being able to take the technology with them into the field wherever they end up. A paleontologist will be able to analyze the chemical composition of a triceratops without entirely exhuming the skeleton, doctors without borders can travel to the most remote parts of the world and take medical analysis with little to no equipment, and forensic detectives can analyze evidence at a crime scene to make determinations before even setting foot in a laboratory. Norm C Anheier describes the state of spectrometers as they were before this invention, “The optical spectrometers used in these applications tend to be complex and costly because of their numerous high-precision optical and mechanical components and the stringent requirements for the alignment of these parts.” Quantum dot spectrometers will change the way we use our phones, and change the way we view the world around us every day.

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Scientists Create a Quantum Dot Spectrometer That Fits in Your Smartphone

This is not the first time a mohawk has been associated with Mars. - http://clapway.com/2015/06/21/scientists-discover-that-mars-has-a-mohawk-345/

Many already consider Mars to be the Earth’s coolest neighbor. But the red planet just got a whole lot cooler because scientists discovered that Mars has a mohawk.

THE PUNK ROCK PLANET

Data from NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft reveals that Mars might have a bit of a punk rock attitude.

The key objective of the MAVEN mission, which was launched in November, 2013, is to investigate how Mars lost most of its atmosphere. MAVEN scientists discussed early results from data collected by MAVEN at a workshop held at the Space Sciences Laboratory in Berkeley, CA June 19-21.

According to researchers, space radiation converts atoms in the upper atmosphere of Mars to electrically charged ions. And these charged ions are stripped away from the upper atmosphere by the electric and magnetic forces in solar winds, which would explain the thinning of the Martian atmosphere over time.

Scientists have been studying plumes of atmospheric particles at the planet’s poles. And, based on theoretical models, they believe the forces in solar winds might push ions towards one pole or the other. “When tracing particle trajectories in the models, the plume looks a bit like a mohawk,” says MAVEN scientist David Brain.

COPYING THE MOHAWK GUY?

This is not the first time a mohawk has been associated with Mars.

In 2012, JPL flight engineer Bobak Ferdowsi took some of the spotlight away from the successful landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars. During NASA TV’s live broadcast of the historic event, Ferdowsi was positioned prominently in front of the camera. And he was sporting a mohawk. The media loved it, and his hairstyle made almost as many headlines as the rover’s landing. The flood of media attention resulted in his becoming known as “The Mohawk Guy.”

Ferdowsi even posted on Twitter in response to the news that he and Mars share the same hairstyle.

I suppose it was only a matter of time between me & Marvin the Martian that we see a real Mars mohawk. https://t.co/ZOrynx2nlp

— Bobak Ferdowsi (@tweetsoutloud) June 20, 2015

MAVEN’S FUTURE

MAVEN continues studying the atmosphere of Mars in order to better understand the planet’s history and potential habitability. Its mission was scheduled to run through November, 2015. But its success has resulted in the extension of the mission through September 2016.

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Scientists Discover That Mars Has a Mohawk

Are We Responsible for Methane on Mars? - http://clapway.com/2015/05/26/are-we-responsible-for-methane-on-mars-123/

Methane on Mars has been a hot topic for scientists for half a century. It is currently unknown if the planet is emitting it, or if it’s perhaps even a result of our presence there. If it is present on Mars naturally, it could indicate that Mars is much more geologically, or perhaps even biologically, active than previously thought. Methane was, at first, not detected by the Curiosity rover. However, a few months after the first methane scan, the gas was detected and actually seemed to be increasing in concentration over a period of two months. Some people believe that the detection of methane was a result of a measurement glitch, or that methane plumes on the planet could be seasonal. Others, like Kevin Zahnle, a scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center, believe the methane spike was actually a result of our exploration of the red planet.

 

Methane on Mars could come from Curiosity rover.

The Curiosity rover that took the methane readings has a chamber that contains methane at a concentration a thousand times as high as what was detected. When the rover’s spectrometer detected methane upon its landing, the Curiosity team realized that some terrestrial air had leaked into the spectrometer when it was on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Most of that methane was pumped out after, with only a small amount kept for calibration purposes.

Yet, Curiosity team insists the methane couldn’t have come from the rover.

The team insists that the methane from within the rover could not have been responsible for the methane that was later found, since there was no evidence of any leakage. Additionally, they tell us that the amount of methane present in the Curiosity rover’s chamber was inconsequential, and would have done very little to contribute towards a methane spike. Yet, Zahle believes that terrestrial air could have breached other parts of the rover, and may thus still be to blame.

There are also other possible sources of the methane on Mars.

Although unlikely, it is a possibility that the methane gas may have been a direct result of a meteorite falling near the rover. The meteorite may have contained the gas, since carbonaceous meteorites contain a small amount of organic material. To further muddy the waters, carbonaceous meteorites don’t even leave craters, since they break up in the atmosphere and rain down bits of organic shrapnel. Curiosity will take more measurements around the holiday season, since that’s the season during which the last bit of methane was detected in 2013.

Are We Responsible for Methane on Mars?

NASA Mars Rover Climbs to Find New Rock Features - http://clapway.com/2015/05/25/nasa-mars-rover-climbs-to-find-new-rock-features123/

The NASA Mars Rover Curiosity is continuing its Mars adventure as the Mars rover climbs up a hillside to make a new geological discovery. The Curiosity Mars Rover made a trek of 72 feet up a steep 21-degree slope to take a peek at some pale colored rocks on Mars’ Mount Sharp, as well as some dark colored rocks they had yet to see at close proximity.

 

Hillsides Prove Difficult to Traverse

The Mars rover climbs up hillsides with some difficulty in its travel in the past, as it sometimes finds the slopes very slippery. The scientists have noticed that the Mars rover climbs were more difficult in the area of the planet with ripples in the sand. With this in mind, they took the rover around the rippled area around the crater they want to explore and thought it would be on firmer ground. However, the travel was still slippery and so it turned out not to be the best area for its continued adventure.

 

Mars Rover Climbs Sometimes Need Alternate Route

This has happened in several of the Mars rover climbs in the past, so sometimes the rover has to stop in mid-adventure to find a safer route. When this happens, the scientists have to use data from previous observations the rover has recorded and those from satellite images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in Mars orbit to figure out a different route to take in their studies of the Mars terrain. Therefore, they have determined several alternate routes of travel to use if the Mars rover climbs prove too difficult or dangerous for the rover to handle, say its drivers at the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is in Pasadena, California.

There are many other areas on Mars that the researchers hope to observe and study in the future, so the Mars rover climbs will get more scientific as it travels around the Red Planet.

 

Mars Rover Climbs Determined by its Software

Mars rover climbs are determined by its onboard software, which calculates possible amounts of slippage by comparing the tally of its wheel rotation to the real driving distance, which is figured out by calculating the data the rover gets as it makes its travel.

As the Mars rover continues the adventure of studying the Red Planet, the Mars rover climbs could get more slippery and harder for it to travel. Scientists will continue to need to make proper calculations to keep the rover safe and on all six wheels so it can keep making discoveries about Mars and sharing them with the world.

NASA Mars Rover Climbs to Find New Rock Features