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NASA images show Martian dust storms engulfing the entire planet
Martian dust storms can make nasty sand devils look cute, and every six to eight years, they can grow large enough to engulf the whole planet. Global-scale storms happen when several smaller ones kick up enough dust to envelope the planet's surface. But since they only occur every once in a while, scientists still don't know much about them, including why they form and how exactly they evolve. They'll soon have a treasure trove of data to work with, though, now that NASA'S Martian probes have trained their eyes on a massive storm that's currently covering the planet with cloud and haze.
NASA's InSight lander is on its way to Mars
The first NASA mission that will look into the Martian interior is now on its way to the red planet. NASA's Mars InSight lander has launched on top of a ULA Atlas V rocket and is a historic launch in several ways. In addition to being the agency's first spacecraft to study the Martian subsurface, it's NASA's first lander since the Phoenix arrived on the planet in 2008. The Curiosity followed the Phoenix four years later, but as we all know, the car-sized spacecraft that loves taking selfies is a rover.
Broken wheels won't stop Curiosity from exploring Mars
NASA's Curiosity Rover has been roaming around Mars for more than five years. In that time, it's sent back a ton of data about the red planet. Thanks to the robot, we know that the veins dotted around its craters were likely created by evaporating lakes. It also spotted more water evidence in possible mud cracks. And, its findings led scientists to theorize that ancient Mars had a lot more oxygen that they initially thought. But, all that riding around hasn't been easy on the car-sized machine. In the past, it's suffered a software scare here and there. This time round, its wheels are the problem.
Mars is much drier than expected
As if we needed another reminder that Mars isn't exactly friendly to life, researchers from Scotland's University of Stirling have revealed that the planet is more arid than Earth's driest deserts. That might not exactly sound surprising, but it's yet another wet (dry?) blanket on the usefulness of surface-level Mars water. The researchers also measured a chemical weathering rate on Mars for the first time, a process that relies heavily on moisture in the atmosphere. It can take between 10 to 10,000 times as long on Mars for meteorites to form equivalent levels of rust as on Earth, according to the research paper.
ICYMI: The ESA's mission to Mars launches next week
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: The European Space Agency and Russia are joining up to launch their ExoMars project next week, which will look for traces of extraterrestrial life on the red planet. Meanwhile, a newer kind of wind energy harvester is being installed in Paris, where leaves on a fake tree can capture energy in breezy conditions.
ICYMI: Brightest X-ray laser, 3D printing cartilage and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-741239{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-741239, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-741239{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-741239").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Stanford's National Accelerator Laboratory is upgrading a laser beam to make it the brightest X-ray laser in the world, enabling all sorts of as-yet unseen science. Popular Chinese phone maker Xiaomi makes a ceramic-backed phone that appears to be near indestructible. And medical researchers are using patient-derived, stem-cell cartilage to repair joints by 3D-drawing them when doing surgery, rather than harvest existing cartilage from elsewhere on the body. We'd also like to share this video of the cutest little BB-8 cosplay artist. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
ICYMI: The Martian colony plan, simulated rat brain and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-424179{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-424179, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-424179{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-424179").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: We are rounding up Space Week with NASA's detailed plan to get earthlings to settle on Mars. Meanwhile other scientists teamed up to unravel how a rat's brain works, to then simulate it with a computer. Early testing shows how calcium affects the brain in a way that can only help with studies on neurological disorders. And Disney is jumping into more augmented reality with a coloring book app that brings creatures to life while they're worked on.
Visualized: Curiosity rover's self-portrait
No, Disney isn't working on Wall-E the live action movie. Pictured above is a self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover resting in the Gale crater of Mars. Showcasing some extreme detail, this high-res photo was captured by the Red Planet roller's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), with its native image clocking in at 5,463 x 7,595 pixels. The picture's Martian backdrop consists of a trail of freshly made tire tracks with a glimpse of Curiosity's future destination Mount Sharp hanging out in the distance. If you gaze deeply into the unmanned craft's soulless robotic eye, you'll catch a reflection of Mars staring right back at you. To get a closer look at our favorite Martian in all of its uncompressed glory, you can snag the 125MB image file from the second source link below. [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems]
NASA's Curiosity rover checks in on Foursquare, gives Mars its first mayor
Yes, seriously. NASA announced on Wednesday that its Curiosity rover had "checked in" on Mars via Foursquare. Marking the first check in from another world, the robotic rover will utilize the location-minded social network to share updates and pictures while visiting the Red Planet. While Curiosity will continue to explore the possibilities of Mars being able to sustain life, it would appear that the fourth planet from the sun just got a brand new mayor. Something tells us the universe's rarest badge is about to be bestowed.
Rovio takes Angry Birds Space for a spin with NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover, teases Red Planet for fall (video)
It was almost as inevitable as gravity, really. Rovio has teamed up with NASA to offer a special, Curiosity-themed episode inside Angry Birds Space. The trek has the avians scouring 20 levels of the Martian landscape with a few bonuses thrown in for good measure. Just like your favorite childhood breakfast cereal, there's even a token healthy ingredient -- in this case, a chance for gamers to learn about Curiosity's exploration whenever they're not busy smashing pigs. Android and iOS users can dip into the new chapter right after they update, but that's not even the full extent of Rovio's plans. If the environs of Gale Crater are too limiting, you'll be glad to hear that the game developer is teasing a full-scale Red Planet variant for the fall.
NASA InSight tapped for Mars drilling mission in 2016
The surface of Mars? Psh... been there. With the Curiosity stage well under way, our exploration of the Red Planet is about to take a dive beneath the dust. Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport -- InSight, for short -- was just confirmed as a new NASA mission, with the space agency set to launch in March of 2016. Based on the Phoenix lander, the craft is tasked with giving us a peek beneath the planet's surface, armed with tools that include a geodetic instrument from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which will be used to calculate Mars' rotation axis, a seismic wave sensor and a subsurface heat probe, to measure the planet's internal temperature. The program has a $425 million budget -- a bit shy of the $2.5 billion allocated for Curiosity -- not including the costly launch vehicle. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that InSight will help pave the way for future human missions to Mars, and represents just one of the related projects to come. Hit up the source link below for a closer look at JPL's latest endeavor.
Simulated NASA mission to ask 'Are there snacks on Maaaaaaarrrrrs?'
When we've been forced to travel to an alien world, the one thing that makes us more likely to turn feral and murder our crew-mates than anything else is a lack of variety at mealtimes. Fortunately, Cornell University has teamed up with the University of Hawaii to build a simulated Mars mission to determine which foods people don't mind constantly consuming, given that there are no In-N-Out Burger franchises on the red planet. The mock base will be constructed in the midst of a Hawaiian lava flow, with the crews dressed in "spacesuits" and eating a mix of NASA-issue rations and shelf-stable foods like flour, sugar and freeze-dried meat. Applications for the four-month program remain open until the end of the month, so if you fancy all the free (bland) food you can manage, head on down to sign up!
NASA abandons Mars rover Spirit, chooses to remember the good times
More than a year after it first lost contact with its Mars rover Spirit, NASA has finally decided to throw in the towel. Yesterday, the agency confirmed that it will end all planned communications with the robot on May 25th, effectively ending the craft's seven-year mission. NASA was hoping that the approaching Martian spring would allow the Spirit to recharge its solar panels and re-establish radio contact, but it now appears that the craft sustained irreparable damage last winter, when it was forced to endure brutally cold temperatures. NASA executive David Lavery, however, says the rover team will remember the Spirit more for its achievements than its slow demise: "I think we'll all sit around and have a sip of Guinness and reminisce about when Spirit was a wee small little rover and look back at the accomplishments and successes rover had over its entire lifetime." So the Spirit's spirit will live on, but what about NASA's mission to Mars? Well, the Opportunity is still in good health and, later this year, will be joined by the next-generation, nuclear-powered rover Curiosity, which will investigate whether or not Mars ever supported life forms. Meanwhile, NASA's network of orbiting spacecraft will continue to passively listen for signals from the Spirit, just in case it miraculously comes back to life. Full PR after the break.
Ill-fated Mars Global Surveyor has human error to blame
While we've no idea how much the Mars Global Surveyor actually cost to construct, launch, and manage whilst hovering around in space, it's entirely likely that a single human error wiped out even more than was initially lost by the Alaska Department of Revenue earlier this year. Sad to say, galaxy geeks everywhere now have a scapegoat to direct their wrath at, as a review board of the mishap found that "a single command (root@mars-surveyor: rm -rf /) that oriented the spacecraft's main communications antenna was sent to the wrong address," subsequently leading to a cataclysmic series of events that finally dismantled its communication system. Interestingly, the command caused the befuddled craft to think that one of its solar panels was "stuck," which eventually led to an autonomous decision to enter "safe mode," followed by a complete shutdown of the unit's onboard batteries. Intelligently, the LA Times report neglected to mention any specific culprit, and hey, living with the guilt of destroying the machine that showed us so much of the Red Planet is probably punishment enough.[Via Slashdot]
Arizona student envisions giant space mirrors for terraforming Mars
Anyone who's ever read science fiction knows that in addition to space elevators and transporters, there's another futuristic technology that we'd all dig: terraforming. Being able to transform the moon, Mars, or any other barren celestial body into a new Earth would make human interplanetary colonization a bit more feasible. However, instead of terraforming an entire planet, which at current estimates could take centuries, it appears that altering one single square kilometer first might be a bit simpler. Earlier this year, Rigel Woida, an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, received a grant from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts to study "reflective balloons," which in theory could raise the surface temperature of Mars on that patch to 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius), compared with the typical high of -76 degrees Fahrenheit (-60 degrees Celsius). Woida recently gave a presentation at the NAIC meeting in October and will give another at a second meeting this March, where he will hopefully show NASA how great his concept his, and how the astronauts who study Mars in his little patch of paradise will be able to like, totally, get the best tan ever.
Britain's "Bridget" rover hopes to explore Mars
Even though we were pretty sure that the whole "life on Mars" issue had already been settled, scientists are still hell-bent on sending robots to scope out the Red Planet to look for tiny Martians, with the British unveiling a new rover today that promises to school hometown favorites Spirit and Opportunity at that very task. "Bridget," as the six-wheeled bot is known, can supposedly cover in just six months the same 6.2-mile stretch that's taken the American rovers over two years, thanks to a guidance system that allows for greater autonomy and requires less terrestrial control. Designed to compete for a spot on the European Space Agency's planned 2011 ExoMars mission, Bridget sports a two-meter drill, a so-called "life marker chip," and a micro seismometer, among other toots, to help enable the Agency's long-term goal of safely sending humans to our neighbor planet. And because half the battle is just getting there, engineers equipped the new bot with sensors that will let on-board airbags and parachutes guide it to a safer, more controlled landing -- ensuring that Bridget doesn't go MIA like the Beagle 2 rover in 2003, .
