Opportunity Rover Completes Marathon

NASA's wonder rover Opportunity has set yet another benchmark, one that should prove difficult to copy by any of its contemporaries.  Opportunity, it seems, has set a very high bar by completing   a marathon distance of better than 26 miles, and doing so in 11+ years to boot! (the rover is a bit on the, dare I say, curious side and managed to stop and explore many times)  

The rover (which has long since passed the "best used by" date) set the mark during a drive of 153 feet.

According to the NASA post:

• Opportunity became the long-distance champion of all off-Earth vehicles, Last year, when it topped the previous record set by the former Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 moon rover.
• Opportunity's original three-month prime mission in 2004 yielded evidence of environments with liquid water soaking the ground and flowing on planet’s surface. As the rover continued to operate far beyond expectations for its lifespan, scientists chose the rim of Endeavour Crater as a long-term destination. Since 2011, examinations of Endeavour's rim have provided information about ancient wet conditions less acidic, and more favorable for microbial life, than the environment that left clues found earlier in the mission

Continue reading the NASA article HERE 

NASA's Opportunity Rover - 10 Years Out & Still Making Landmard Martian Discoveries

NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars January 24, 2004  and has driven 24 miles from where it landed ten years and going on its ninety day original mission.  

Opportunity's controllers have the rover examining the rim of the Endeavor Crater, halfway around the planet from NASA's latest Mars rover, Curiosity.   In 2010, Opportunity detected evidence  of a clay mineral known as iron-rich smectite.   This was significant because the material was found in geological layers laid down before the formation of the Endeavor crater about 4 billion years ago.   Where the smectite was found in the geologic strata tells researchers that Mars was much warmer and wet much earlier in Mar's history. 

NASA reports that Opportunity's health hasn't changed much in the last year.  Researchers are confident that the hardy rover is capable of much more.  From the NASA article:

• "Over the past decade, Mars rovers have made the Red Planet our workplace, our neighborhood," said John Callas, manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project, which built and operates Opportunity. "The longevity and the distances driven are remarkable. But even more important are the discoveries that are made and the generation that has been inspired."

Read the complete NASA article HERE

Was Ancient Mars Truely Habitable?

Well according to an article that Kallamis sent me, NASA's rover Opportunity has uncovered evidence that points to a very emphatic yes!    Just imagine it!  For the past ten years this stalwart rover has been doing history making research and the little rover's latest find may be the biggest yet because it seems that Opportunity has uncovered evidence that in Mars' ancient past, life indeed may have found a foot-hold.

On the rim of Mars' Endeavour Crater, Opportunity discovered clay mineral deposits in ancient rock strata.  This suggests that neutral-pH water once flowed through the area.  Water that was potable even.    It was this  neutral-pH water that generated the clays.  Though it is difficult to know precisely  when exactly this water flowed - it was most likely during the first billion years of Martian history.  

Opportunity's latest discovery dovetails nicely with recent ones made on the other side of the planet by the Curiosity rover,  which found strong evidence that its landing site could have supported microbial life, as well, in the ancient past.

For more you can read the Huffington Post science article here

The picture above shows the pale clay strata upper center of the frame                                              

 

Opportunity - Eight Years Into a 90 Day Mission.....

Nasa rover Opportunity is once again gearing up for another mission.  At the start of its' fifth Martian winter, Opportunity has gained a three year driving destination, Endeavour Crater, at which it arrived to,  in August of 2011. Endeavour is 14 miles in diameter, much larger than the Eagle crater where it started it career.  After exploring Victoria Crater, Opportunity's controllers set the rover's sights on Endeavour.

Of course the 21 miles traveled and Martian dust have not left Opportunity unscathed.   According to the Science Digest article:

• Its solar panels have accumulated so much dust since Martian winds last cleaned them -- more than in previous winters -- the rover needs to stay on a sun-facing slope to have enough energy to keep active through the winter.

However unlike its' twin Spirit, which stopped communicating  in March 2010, Opportunity's six wheels are healthy enough to allow it to still maneuver.   

Read the complete Science Digest article here 

Opportunity Studying 14 Mile Wide Martian Crater

Rover Opportunity, in the seventh year of it's 90 day mission has arrived at the Martian crater Endeavour. The rover's first mission is to study 'compositional differences' of the rocks surrounding the crater. Differences that the rover has not come across in the seven years on Mars. Opportunity drove about 13 miles from it's last crater of exploration, Victoria to reach Endeavour. Victoria was only about a quarter of the size of Endeavour.

Another point of interest is that Opportunity has driven 20.8 miles since landing on Mars. It has been in operation 30 times longer than it was designed to.

Though some scientist have called the findings in error, Both both rovers made discoveries suggesting a wet environments on ancient Mars.

From the article:

• NASA will launch its next-generation Mars rover, Curiosity, between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18, 2011. It will land on Mars in August 2012.

read complete Science Daily article here

Rover's Robotic Arm ailing

A small motor in the robotic arm of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity that began stalling occasionally more than two years ago has become more troublesome recently. Rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., are diagnosing why the motor, one of five in the robotic arm, stalled on April 14 after much less motion than in the case of several earlier stalls. They are also examining whether the motor can be used and assessing the impact on Opportunity's work if the motor were no longer usable. The motor controls sideways motion at the shoulder joint of the rover robotic arm. Other motors provide up-and-down motion at the shoulder and maneuverability at the elbow and wrist. Controllers said even under the worst-case scenario for this motor, Opportunity still has the capability to doing some contact science with the arm. Opportunity and and sister rover Spirit landed on Mars in January 2004 to begin missions originally planned for three months. They have continued operating for more than four years, though each with some signs of aging.

Mars rover finds "puddles" on the planet's surface

A new analysis of pictures taken by the exploration rover Opportunity reveals what appear to be small ponds of liquid water on the surface of Mars. The report identifies specific spots that appear to have contained liquid water two years ago, when Opportunity was exploring a crater called Endurance. If confirmed, the existence of such ponds would significantly boost the odds that living organisms could survive on or near the surface of Mars. The imaging shows that the areas occupy the lowest parts of the terrain. They also appear transparent: some features, which Levin says may be submerged rocks or pebbles, can be seen below the plane of the smooth surface.

image by Ron Levin