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The rover to the red planet is ready for environmental training
A copy of the ExoMars rover that will land on Mars 2021 will begin to be subjected to a whole series of “stress” to verify its suitability to reach Mars and be operational.It will start with a series of jolts that simulate the vibrations that it will undergo during the launch phase from the ground. This will be followed by a series of tests that will be carried out in an airtight chamber where the Martian atmosphere will be simulated as well as the typical temperature range of the Martian environment with temperatures up to -120 ° C.After these tests, the rover will try to move on different types of surfaces, from fine sand to the most rugged boulders…. This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.
Opportunity Sol 5097, May 27, 2018
Between 08:17:23 UTC and 08:19:59 UTC Opportunity’s Pancam takes three images with narrow band filters in the three basic colors, from which it was possible to derive this true color image of the Martian soil furrowed by its own tracks.The original images (especially in green and blue) have a high level of “noise” and so I applied a noise filter to all three colors to eliminate spurious dots (“despeckle” filter).Do you recognize this shot?This area has already been shot, albeit from a slightly different angle…. Let’s see which of you can find the other photo…. RGB HD processed image: https://image.ibb.co/coVvtJ/Oppy_Sol5097_1.jpg Original BN images: Red (735nm with 20nm bandwidth)08:17:23 UTC15:45:34 LTST https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/1/p/5097/1P580675747EFFD2FCP2389L2M1.HTML Green (535nm with 20nm bandwidth)08:19:45 UTC15:47:52 LTST https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/1/p/5097/1P580675889EFFD2FCP2389L5M1.HTML Blue (432nm with 32nm Bandwidth)08:19:59 UTC15:48:06 LTST https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/1/p/5097/1P580675903EFFD2FCP2389L7M1.HTML This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.
Scientists shrink a chemical lab to search for evidence of life on Mars
An international team of scientists has created a small chemical laboratory to be mounted on the rover of ESA – Roscosmos ExoMars 2020. This laboratory called MOMA (acronym for Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer) will analyze the samples collected at a depth of about two meters from the drilling instrument.Among the various analysis techniques, the most interesting will detect the chirality (see https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiralit%C3%A0_(chemistry) ), as requested for decades by Dr Gilbert Levin (see http://www.gillevin.com/Mars/L&PI_ABS_Final.pdf ).In fact, chirality is the property of complex molecules to orient themselves specularly, thus developing in two opposite directions. This property allows to distinguish organic molecules of simple chemical origin from those of biological origin, due to the fact that the organic molecules of biological origin are all oriented in the same way!Let’s hope that ExoMars 2020 will be able to land on Mars, without ending up like its “unlucky little brother” Schiaparelli. This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.
Curiosity: the hole of Duluth
Your browser does not support HTML video. On May 20 Curiosity has successfully drilled a rock after about two years due to a malfunction in the drilling tool.The first color photo taken the day after drilling (see https://www.facebook.com/PianetaMarte.MdM/photos/a.1625578140858706.1073741828.1612043482212172/1709795545770298/ ) raised some doubts about the possible “wet” appearance of the material extracted during drilling.Although the material extracted from a rock is unlikely to be wet, the fact that it was left “outdoors” for an entire night may have exposed it to the formation of liquid water condensation (see https://phys.org/news/2015-04-mars-liquid-curiosity-rover-brine.html ).Since no one will be able to deny or confirm the thing, given the lack of specific analysis, I decided to mount in sequence the various images available today taken by Chemcam to show the changes over four days.Inside the hole itself, you can see the arrival of small black holes arranged in horizontal rows due to the laser for spectroscopic analysis. You can also see that the use of the laser causes small bursts, probably responsible for the fall of part of the excavated material more unstable.However, it should be noted that most of the extracted material remained stable and compact!!!Did it really get wet? HD animated GIF: https://image.ibb.co/ccdVLo/Chemcam_Sol2057_2059_2061_Date.gif Individual original images: Sol 2057, 20/05/2018 17:27:43 UTC https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=CR0_580107412PRC_F0701752CCAM05056L2&s=2057 Sol 2059, 22/05/2018 16:42:57 UTC https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=CR0_580277524PRC_F0701752CCAM03059L1&s=2059 Sol 2061, 24/05/2018 17:05:35 UTC https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=CR0_580451681PRC_F0701752CCAM01061L1&s=2061 Sol 2061, 24/05/2018 17:17:33 UTC https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=CR0_580452399PRC_F0701752CCAM01061L1&s=2061 This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.
An ancient meteorite tells us the story of Martian topography
From the study of an ancient Martian meteorite fallen in the Sahara desert to the reconstruction of a piece of Martian history older than 4.4 billion years ago…The aim is to trace back to when the great difference between the lowlands that characterize the northern hemisphere and the plateaus typical of the southern hemisphere was formed, determining an average difference between the two hemispheres between one and three kilometers of altitude… This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.
Successful drilling: Curiosity is collecting rocks on Mars
Finally came the official confirmation of the success of the new drilling technique tested by Curiosity!This time the drilling has come up to about 5 cm, twice the previous attempt.Well, with Curiosity again able to drill the rocks, we just have to wait for the results of new analysis … This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.
Curiosity Sol 2058, May 21, 2018.
At 17:16:40 UTC, 13:53:28 LTST, Mastcam Right captured the result of its latest drilling attempt. The instrument had been idle for about two years due to technical failure. In February of this year, a drill was attempted using an alternative technique to overcome the malfunction, but the attempt did not produce a hole deep enough to collect enough material for analysis.But on May 20 it was attempted to add more force by giving a percussive motion through the robotic arm on which is mounted the drill of Curiosity, thus obtaining a much deeper drilling.Despite the numerous photos taken (see also https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=2057&camera=CHEMCAM_ and https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=2059&camera=CHEMCAM_ ), NASA has not yet officially communicated if the result was positive and useful for the collection of sufficient material for analysis.The image presented here has been subjected to careful white balance and a slight increase in contrast to make the color vision more similar to what the human eye would see. HD processed image: https://image.ibb.co/cNjPAo/Curiosity_Sol2058.jpg Original image (raw): https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=2058MR0109120010903656E02_DXXX&s=2058 This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.
Opportunity Sol 5092, May 22, 2018
Between 05:00:09 UTC and 05:03:47 UTC Opportunity’s Pancam takes three images with narrow band filters in the three basic colors, from which it was possible to derive this true color image of the Martian soil.The original images (especially in green and blue) have a high level of “noise” and I have therefore applied a noise filter to all three colors to eliminate the spurious dots (“despeckle” filter).Still plenty of greenish streaks of great interest! RGB HD image processed: https://image.ibb.co/hWwnvo/Oppy_Sol5092_2.jpg Original BN images: Red (735nm with 20nm bandwidth)05:00:09 UTC15:46:00 LTST https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/1/p/5092/1P580231940ESFD2FCP2382L2M1.HTML Green (535nm with 20nm bandwidth)05:02:10 UTC15:47:58 LTST https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/1/p/5092/1P580232061ESFD2FCP2382L5M1.HTML Blue (432nm with 32nm Bandwidth)05:03:47 UTC15:49:32 LTST https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/1/p/5092/1P580232158ESFD2FCP2382L7M1.HTML This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.
Opportunity Sol 5092, May 22, 2018
Between 04:50:01 UTC and 04:53:19 UTC Opportunity’s Pancam takes three images with narrow band filters in the three basic colors, from which it was possible to derive this true color image of this beautiful rock formation on the Martian soilThe original images (especially in green and blue) have a high level of “noise” and so I applied a noise filter to all three colors to eliminate the spurious dots (“despeckle” filter).I will never get tired of pointing out how the color variety of certain rocks often depends on “something” present mostly on the surface of the rocks themselves. In particular certain greenish streaks should receive more attention from astrobiologists! RGB HD image processed: https://image.ibb.co/fZHSbT/Oppy_Sol5092.jpg Original BN images: Red (735nm with 20nm bandwidth)04:50:01 UTC15:36:08 LTST https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/1/p/5092/1P580231332ESFD2FCP2382L2M1.HTML Green (535nm with 20nm bandwidth)04:51:42 UTC15:37:46 LTST https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/1/p/5092/1P580231433ESFD2FCP2382L5M1.HTML Blue (432nm with 32nm bandwidth)04:53:19 UTC15:39:21 LTST https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/1/p/5092/1P580231530ESFD2FCP2382L7M1.HTML This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.
Curiosity Sol 2056, May 19, 2018.
Between 14:23:06 UTC and 14:23:27 UTC the Mastcam Left of Curiosity takes three images with narrow band filters in the three basic colors, from which it was possible to derive this true color image of the rock on which the last drilling experiment has just been carried out (here not yet performed).Compared to the image taken by the same camera but without filters the color rendering is radically different (see shot at 14:22:59 https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=2056ML0108970150800892E01_DXXX&s=2056 ).’ target=’_blank’>). This difference is due to the absence of the infrared cut filter, which on the one hand favors the shooting even in the infrared itself, on the other totally unbalances the color rendering as shown in this article: http://dslrmodifications.com/rebelmod8.html This is why I submit the normal images of Curiosity to an accurate white balance. RGB HD unprocessed image: https://image.ibb.co/dBnNt8/Curiosity_Sol2056_RGB.jpg Original color image without filters: Original BN images: Red 14:23:27 UTC https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=2056ML0108970190800896D01_DXXX&s=2056 Icon version: https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=2056ML0108970190800896I01_DXXX&s=2056 Green 14:23:06 UTC https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=2056ML0108970160800893D01_DXXX&s=2056 Icon version: https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=2056ML0108970160800893I01_DXXX&s=2056 Blue 14:23:13 UTC https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=2056ML0108970170800894D01_DXXX&s=2056 Icon version: https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=2056ML0108970170800894I01_DXXX&s=2056 This post has been automatically translated. See the original post here.