-
Recent Posts
Archives
Links
general
mission instruments
- CRISM: Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars
- CTX: Context Camera
- HiRISE: High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment
- MARSIS: Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding
- SHARAD: Shallow Radar
- THEMIS: Thermal Emission Imaging System
missions
- All Mars missions list
- Curiosity rover
- ExoMars
- Hope (al-Amal) orbiter
- InSight
- Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN)
- Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)
- Mars Express (MEX)
- Mars Odyssey
- Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) / Mangalyaan
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
- Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
- Perseverance Rover
- Tianwen-1 orbiter/rover
news
Monthly Archives: July 2018
HiRISE: Layers in Noctis Labyrinthus
Layers in Noctis Labyrinthus. One might suppose that a place named “labyrinth of the night” would have layers of some kind, otherwise it would anticlimactic. Beautiful Mars series. [More at links]
Posted in Reports
Tagged Beautiful Mars, High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, HiRISE, layers, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MRO, NASA, Noctis Labyrinthus, sedimentary deposits, University of Arizona
Comments Off
Mars ‘storm chasers’ seek dusty secrets
Storm chasing takes luck and patience on Earth — and even more so on Mars. For scientists watching the Red Planet from data gathered by NASA’s orbiters, the past month has been a windfall. “Global” dust storms, where a runaway … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, clouds, dust, dust storms, global dust storms, haze, Malin Space Science Systems, MARCI, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, Mars Color Imager, Mars Exploration Rover, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, MER, MRO, MSSS, NASA, Opportunity, storms, temperature, University of Colorado, weather, wind
Comments Off
Mars Express: As the dust storm rolled in
The high resolution stereo camera on board ESA’s Mars Express captured this impressive upwelling front of dust clouds – visible in the right half of the frame – near the north polar ice cap of Mars in April this year. … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged DLR, dust storms, ESA, European Space Agency, FU Berlin, global dust storms, High Resolution Stereo Camera, HRSC, Mars Exploration Rover, Mars Express, MER, MEX, NASA, Opportunity, weather
Comments Off
Curiosity update: New method of wheel imaging
Sol 2115, July 18, 2018, update by MSL scientist Ken Herkenhoff: The priorities for Sol 2115 are to image the rover’s wheels and acquire the images needed to plan a drive back to the Sol 1999 location, where we might … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged Aeolis Mons, Curiosity, Curiosity wheels, Gale Crater, Mars Science Laboratory, Mount Sharp, MSL, Murray Formation, NASA, rover wheels, Vera Rubin Ridge, wheel wear
Comments Off
MAVEN: Webinar July 25 on restoring the martian atmosphere
Many people have suggested that future Mars colonists may want to thicken the Martian atmosphere and make it breathable for long-term habitation of the Red Planet. Join MAVEN Co-Investigator Dr. Robert Lillis of the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory to … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, MAVEN, NASA, University of Colorado
Comments Off
THEMIS: Doublet crater in Utopia Planitia
THEMIS Image of the Day, July 19, 2018. Today’s VIS image shows a double impact – two meteors hitting simultaneously. The two meteors would have started as a single object, at some point prior to impact the object separated into … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged Arizona State University, ASU, double craters, Mars Odyssey, NASA, THEMIS, THEMIS Image of the Day, Thermal Emission Imaging System, Utopia Planitia
Comments Off
Radar shows Mars atmosphere behaves as a single system
New research using a decade of data from ESA’s Mars Express has found clear signs of the complex martian atmosphere acting as a single, interconnected system, with processes occurring at low and mid levels significantly affecting those seen higher up. … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, ESA, European Space Agency, Mars Advanced Radar for Sub-Surface and Ionospheric Sounding, Mars Express, MARSIS, MEX
Comments Off
Curiosity: At the (very) Hard Rock Cafe
Sol 2114, July 18, 2018. The first of two Remote Micro-Imager photos taken about 20 minutes apart shows how far Curiosity’s drill got when it tried to dig into the hematite-rich rock at the Voyageurs site: Not far. Then the … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged Aeolis Mons, Curiosity, Gale Crater, Mars Science Laboratory, Mount Sharp, MSL, Murray Formation, NASA, Vera Rubin Ridge, Voyageurs
Comments Off
Light-toned Gale Crater rocks made by hot-spot volcanism?
In August 2012, the Mars Science Laboratory’s rover Curiosity landed at the base of Gale crater, a 5-kilometer-high mountain that formed when a meteor hit Mars billions of years ago. Using its 2-meter-long arm to drill into the planet’s surface, … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged Aeolis Mons, Backstay, Black Beauty, Champagne, Curiosity, Esperanza, Fastball, Gale Crater, Home Plate, June Emerson, Mars Science Laboratory, Mount Sharp, MSL, NASA, NWA 7034
Comments Off
MARCI weather report, July 9-15, 2018
Dusty conditions across Mars as the planet-encircling dust event dragged on for another week. Local-scale dust lifting was spotted over Solis-Sinai and along the developing north polar hood. Each afternoon, water-ice gravity wave (a.k.a. lee wave) clouds trailed from the … Continue reading
Posted in Reports
Tagged atmosphere, clouds, dust, dust storms, global dust storms, haze, Malin Space Science Systems, MARCI, Mars Color Imager, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MRO, MSSS, NASA, storms, weather, wind
Comments Off