check out this youtube entry

You just have to check out this you tube entry.

 From YouTube is the Vblog  Smarter Every Day  and entails the sophistication and high tech that went into the design of the drill head on the curiosity mars rover

youtube smarter every day entry

New OS on Curiosity Allows Controllers to Check for Possible Problems

 

NASA has installed a new operating system on the Mars Rover Curiosity.  This upgrade addresses glitches and allow expansion of old and add new capabilities.   One of the new abilities is to do detailed examination of different systems on the rover.  Of interest of late is how the Martian soil is affecting  Curiosity's wheels.  The rover's wheels are very robust, however knowing how fast they are wearing down will weigh on future courses.      

It should also be noted that this is not the first upgrade for the rover but its' third.  Testing the new upgrade and sending Curiosity on short drives to see how much a recent trip over an area containing sharp rocks may have impacted the wheels.  The rover will begin normal operation shortly there after but hereafter routes with smoother terrain will be explored if available in a hope of minimizing future wear and tear.  

Thanks to Xnewsman for the update

Check out the Space Reporter HERE

Curiosity Rover Finds Martian H2O

NASA's Curiosity Martian rover has found water in the Martian soil.  Not freely available perhaps

but LOTS of it, on average, two pints per cubic foot of soil, that works out to be about two percent.  Water it seems will not be a big concern on future manned Martian missions.   

Among other tests that were present in the recent test was sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and oxygen.  This level of detail in determining soil composition has also turned up some unsettling information.  

From the article:

• Laurie Leshin dean of science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute said: "analysis of the soil has also shown the presence of a type of chemical called a perchlorate, which is can be toxic to people. "It's only there at a 0.5% level in the soil but it impedes thyroid function," Leshin  said. "If humans are there and are coming into contact with fine-grained dust, we have to think about how we live with that hazard. 

More from the Guardian article HERE

Curiosity Flappin in the Wind?

Well its' parachute is at least. From the Discovery.com article:

• Shortly after Curiosities landing, NASA’s orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter managed to photograph not only the parachute, but also the backshell, heat shield, skycrane and counterweights.
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Now the team is using the HiRISE high resolution imaging system to take photos of the same area over a five month period.  What the series shows, that even though the Martian atmosphere is thin, 100 times thinner than Earth's, large surfaces such as the huge areo-braking parachute can still be reacted on if light enough.  

The biggest changes seem to take place from September 8th 2012 and November 30th  of the same year.  During this three month period the rover's discarded 'chute became much less reflective then became more so indicating that at least part of the structure was being moved and flapped by the Martian breeze.      

Full Discovery News article HERE                                                                                                  

Mars history is coming now.

Apparently the mars rover Curiosity has made a discovery for the history books. 

What is this great discovery you ask? Who the bloody hell knows. They aren’t saying anything yet. You all know that they do this stuff just to drive yours truly over the edge right?

Curiosity’s SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars instrument) that is capable of identifying organic compounds made the discovery. Organic compounds being the building blocks of life, this kind of makes you start wondering what they may have found. 

Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger told NPR, “This data is going to be one for the history books, it’s looking really good.” 

Well, now isn’t that just a great piece of information there for us. Grotzinger said that the news will come out during the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union during Dec. 3-7 in San Fransisco.

One of it’s missions was to see if mars ever did, or maybe does hold some form of microbial life during it’s lifespan.

Curiosity is also sampling the Martian atmosphere looking for traces of methane. Methane is produced by most life forms here on Earth. Though it found nothing on it’s first few sweeps, sniff’s, smells, inhalation, (freaking pick one, couldn’t figure out the right word there except maybe sensor sweep, damn star trek anyway), it is still sniffing. Considering how long ago it would have been by what we understand, I wonder if there would even be methane left now. And if only microbial life would still exist there, who are we to say it would exude methane at all, or ever would have.

Here is a link to space.com for the article.

http://www.space.com/18565-mars-rover-curiosity-discovery-mystery.html

And here is a link to space.com that shows new photos of mars and Curiosity.

http://www.space.com/18027-mars-rover-curiosity-amazing-photos-red-planet.html

So folks, there you have it, a whole history maiing event, and we know, NOT A BLOODY SMEGGING THING. 

So what do you think they found. Now lets keep out own personal dreams of ancient aliens, or evidence of advanced life at one time out of this. For the simple reason they would never tell us anyway. But what do you think? Something found that is actually alive, something that once was alive, or life just starting there maybe in a way different than we recognize, or maybe do recognize. Who knows, for now all we can do is speculate, and hope a lot. 

I personally am thinking maybe proof of alien life either now or in the past. I am also hoping for this for multiple reasons. One is the fact I live in religious lunacy around here, so life discovered anywhere, even if it is gone now, would serve me quite well. Right up until they burned me at the stake that is. Seriously, around here that could happen.

But what do you all think? 

Is the human race about to take it's first steps into a larger universe, (Ben said it in the original, so it's cool here), or is NASA playing a silly game and the history making event will be a new mineral or element, or have we found something that will finally get us going in the right direction finally. Which by the way, a new element of mineral would also be really cool. 

Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter Catches Curiosity In Mid-Air!

Wow, after the hugely exciting landing Monday morning of the Mars Rover Curiosity and the first three pictures from the lander, I didn't think that could be upstaged even for a second....Well, let me take those words back because according to an NBC.Com photo posted from NASA, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that wowed the crowd this morning with an incredible picture of the rover at the end of its parachute, six minutes into the seven minute landing maneuver, still under the 'chute!

It would seem that this was not all by chance however....again according to the article:

• The orbiter's imaging team had planned the shot for months, and the payoff came when MRO snapped the picture from a distance of 211 miles. (The photo shows) Curiosity was about 2 miles above the Martian surface, still protected inside its Mars Science Laboratory back shell and heat shield.

The timing was so critical that if the photo had been taken one second before or after this one was snapped, there would have been nothing in the frame! Even more surprising is that HiRise controllers had to upload commands to the spacecraft about 72 hours prior to the image being taken!

I can remember the Curiosity controllers describing where the orbiters were in relationship to the rover and that any pictures being taken or data being transferred would have to deal with crafts at high angles and very close to the horizon. In any case, the MRO stands tall even in the big shadow cast by the arrival of Curiosity.

For those that are interested -  the resolution for the photo is a bit over 13 inches per pixel.  (Not bad, I will take that!)