Tag Archives: soil

Opportunity: La Joya and disturbed soil

Sol 5087, May 16, 2018. Opportunity is parked at La Salinera, an exposed outcrop on the edge of Persevereance Valley. Scientists are using the Pancam to take multi-colored images of targets nearby, producing false-color composite images that reveal differences in … Continue reading

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Creepy stuff: possible solifluction on Mars

Planetary Geomorphology Image of the Month, November 30, 2017: Andreas Johnsson (University of Gothenburg, Sweden). Small-scale lobes on Mars (Fig. 1) are tens to hundreds of meters wide and consist of an arcuate frontal riser that is a meter to … Continue reading

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Four edible crops grown on simulated Mars soil

Scientists of Wageningen University & Research centre [in The Netherlands] are working on growing crops on Mars and moon soil simulants. Just like the real Martian and moon soil these contain heavy metals in almost the same quantities. Four of … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: ‘Windblown soil”

Sols 605-607, April 19-21, 2014: update on Curiosity from U.S. Geological Survey scientist Ken Herkenhoff: “I was scheduled as MAHLI/MARDI uplink lead last Friday, so I stayed an extra day in Pasadena after the MSL team meeting and.…” [More at … Continue reading

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Phoenix lander soil: dry for a long, long time

NASA’s Phoenix  spacecraft landed on the high northern plains of Mars. Among its instruments were optical and atomic-force microscopes. A team of scientists led by Tom Pike (Imperial College, London) used these to measure the size and number of particles … Continue reading

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