#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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The space adventures are abound with Space Scouts:

Mars Curiosity Rover Discovers Earth-like Crust

Forget Egypt, let"s see the Pyramids on Mars. - http://clapway.com/2015/06/22/did-aliens-build-a-pyramid-on-mars-124/

 

Did Aliens Build a Pyramid on Mars? NASA photos show what some believe is a pyramid on Mars.

AN UNUSUAL STRUCTURE

YouTube channel Paranormal Crucible uploaded a video on Saturday, June 20 analyzing a photo that seemingly shows an unusual structure on the Martian surface.

The photo in question was taken by the Mastcam aboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Thursday, May 7, 2015. The photo depicts a hill and its rocky terrain. One of the rocks in the distance looks somewhat different than the others in the photo, and it bears a striking resemblance to a constructed pyramid.

The description accompanying the video states, “Due to the size of the object about the scale of a small car I would theorize that the artifact is either the capstone of a much larger pyramid possibly buried deep beneath the surface or perhaps a marker stone.”

PROOF OF ALIENS?

This object highlighted by the video is interesting. But is this pyramid on Mars proof of a current or former alien civilization on Mars?

The video’s uploader seems to think so.

In the video, using a text-to-speech program, the uploader comments, “Whatever this mysterious object may actually be is open to debate.” But then the uploader opines, “But I would suggest, due to its near-perfect design and shape, that this anomaly is the result of intelligent design, and certainly not a trick of light and shadow.”

People have been spotting unusual looking features on Mars for a long time. One great example is astronomer Percival Lowell who, in the late 1800s, observed channels on the planet’s surface, and interpreted these channels to be artificial canals manufactured by intelligent Martians.

People have spotted anomalies in Mars photographs since NASA began photographing the planet’s surface. A well-known example is an odd surface feature photographed by NASA’s Viking 1 on July 25, 1976 in the Cydonia region of the planet, which later became known as the “Face on Mars.” As its name implies, this large object (approximately one mile across) resembles a human face.

Many scientists dismiss claims of faces, artificial structures, animals, etc. on Mars, simply attributing these oddities to pareidolia —a psychological phenomenon where the brain conjures up recognizable objects, like when people see clouds shaped like animals, or Jesus on a tortilla.

But others believe that, based on the mounting number of odd objects photographed in high resolution by Curiosity, like the recent pyramid on Mars, that the possibility of a Martian civilization, past or present, can’t be ignored.

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Did Aliens Build a Pyramid on Mars?

NASA’s Flying Saucer Splashes Down Safely After Parachute Failure - http://clapway.com/2015/06/10/nasas-ldsd-splashes-down-safely-after-parachute-failure-879/

NASA’s flying saucer-shaped spacecraft, the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), splashed down and was successfully recovered after completing a recent test. The test consisted of launching the LDSD aboard a balloon, then using its rockets to propel it even higher. The vehicle reached a maximum height of 180,000 feet, and saw supersonic speeds during its flight. The flying saucer didn’t perform exactly as expected, though- its parachute was torn to shreds after fully inflating. Fortunately, though, the LDSD’s other speed-arresting device, its donut-like Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator, deployed and functioned without incident.

 

NASA flying saucer to take astronauts to Mars.

 

The Low Density Supersonic Decelerator was designed solely with a manned mission to Mars in mind. The spacecraft will need to carry a human crew as well as heavy equipment. The Martian atmosphere is far from dense, so the LDSD needs to have a high-drag shape and speed arrestors that can slow the heavy craft in such an environment. For that reason, it employs a new type of ringsail parachute that has twice the surface area of the parachute employed during the landing stage of the Curiosity rover mission. In a previous test, the parachute began to tear even while the chute was deploying, so some scientists and engineers working on the LDSD think that this failure is slightly less severe than the one from the previous test.

The next step is clear for the team behind the LDSD.

 

NASA’s flying saucer will need a parachute worthy of both Mars’ low-drag, low-density atmosphere, and Earth’s high-drag, high-density atmosphere. This means that the parachute must have a large surface area and be strong enough to withstand the high wind forces present at supersonic speeds. Clearly, it’s back to the drawing board to figure out a way to make the parachute stronger.

 

What’s after that?

 

The NASA flying saucer will need another two fully successful flights before it can gain approval for use in the Mars program. This was the second test, and there’s one more launch planned next year, as well as more likely coming after that. When human lives rely on the technology in a vehicle such as the LDSD, it is important to ensure that everything works like clockwork.

 

 

NASA’s Flying Saucer Splashes Down Safely After Parachute Failure

Impact Glass Found on Mars Could Hold Signs of Ancient Life - http://clapway.com/2015/06/09/impact-glass-found-on-mars-could-hold-signs-of-ancient-life-876/

Impact glass, the glass formed from the heat produced when a meteorite or comet crashes into a planet, could hold within it evidence of past Martian life. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has recently detected some of this glass in Martian craters. A team of Brown University scientists has written a report about Martian impact glass data in the online journal Geology.

 

Impact glass on Earth has also preserved ancient signs of life.

 

The reason that scientists believe impact craters on Mars may hold traces of past life is that the same thing happened on Earth. Impact glass from craters formed by collisions with meteorites and comets on our own planet has preserved life before. In 2014, a study found organic molecules as well as plant matter contained in glass made during an impact that took place millions of years ago in Argentina.

Finding Martian impact glass was a tricky process.

In order to find the large impact glass deposits in certain craters on Mars, scientists had to measure the spectral band of light reflected off the surface of the planet. The tough part in this is that the glass’s signal is a weak one which tends to get drowned out by bits of rock signal. Yet, one of the Brown researchers, Kevin Cannon, figured out a way to isolate that spectral signal and measure it so as to be able to precisely identify it. Cannon, working in a lab, mixed powders of similar composition to Martian rocks and baked them in an oven to make glass. After that, he measured that glass’s spectral signal. That signal would then be compared to the one detected by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Some of these impact features may be targets of future manned Mars missions.

When the human mission to Mars will happen sometime in the 2030s, possible targets include some of these glass-containing impact craters. One of them is called Hargraves, and it’s near a 400 mile-long trough called Nili Fossae. Nili Fossae has been singled out as a possible landing site for the rover NASA will have on the red planet in the year 2020.

 

Impact Glass Found on Mars Could Hold Signs of Ancient Life

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?