Rovers on Mars

Looks like the red planet is only surface facade.

I still want to know more.

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have seen all this happening...although I suspect you are feeling the same delight, Edgar.

The **** we've seen! Amazin'!

Lets wait Edgar. Im sure the hand lens and the chemlab will spit some stuff out in a few days.

Ill go make a cuppa Lapsang and wait.

Here's the latest report:

They know more than theyre saying. They found CO2 and, if they can do an isotopic analysis, they can fairly well pin down whether the carbon was or was not life based.
They dont want to get too far ahead with their weird chains of custody on another planet.

Thats a lotta "they's"

I keep reading some are worried we will populate the planet with Earth bacteria. I don't see how such could survive if native bacteria cannot.

How can they tell that from an isotopic analysis? What is different about "life based" CO2?

The carbon ratios in life based CO2 would favor C12 at a higher ratio over C13.
From some of the earliest fossil carbon sites of PreCambrian Earth weve speculated that life had arrived by, say 3.8 By ago entirely by the Ratios of C12 to C13.

Can we ecpect that life is all the same throughout the Universe? No but its a place to start. Thats why I think they know more than theyre saying right now because the speculation is all kind of geeky and would only be of real importance to a small group of scientists. Sometimes the explanation of something like that can get all screwed up in the presss's delivery.

If they do determine ratios of that type, would it imply some type of bacterial life (at minimum)?

Also, similarly to the Methane observations on Mars (which some think are a strong indication of life), would it simply "Imply" life, or would it be considered more conclusive than that?

On earth it would be fairly conclusive that the carbon source having a higher C12/C13 ratio for either gas(as retained in some compound or salt would have been living.

They probably know more than they are willing to share now because of the uncertainty of their findings. Since this is new "ground" for them, let's give them a little space.

Curiosity may be sitting idle during the solar conjunction (more on that below), but there’s fresh Mars-focused news. Researchers have suggested the rover could use a friend — a scuttling lizard robot.

Engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology reportedly came up with a robot whose appendages were inspired by lizards (as opposed to, say, the Hoth walkers from “The Empire Strikes Back,” which were obviously inspired by elephants). The legs of the bot are designed to scamper over — not wade through — sand.

Don’t laugh. You’ll recall the fate of the Spirit rover on Mars– stuck in sand. Spirit, which landed on Mars in 2004, became ensnared in soft sand in 2009. NASA tried to wiggle it free for months, but in 2010 the rover was declared officially entombed.

The rotating legs of the new robot work a bit like backward scoops, as Geekosystem reports. The design would allow the robot to easily move over the surface of sandy alien planets. The test robot is 5 inches long and weighs a third of a pound. But as NBC News’ John Roach opines, this line of research could eventually lead to “giant robotic lizards on missions to Mars.”

Curiosity does not have six legs. She has six wheels, and they were designed with sand and rocks in mind. As NASA says, the “design allows the rover to go over obstacles (such as rocks) or through holes that are more than a wheel diameter (50 centimeters or about 20 inches) in size. Each wheel also has cleats, providing grip for climbing in soft sand and scrambling over rocks.”

None of Curiosity’s six wheels, however, is now in action. The rover is sleeping out the solar conjunction — that’s when the sun is between Earth and Mars, presenting possible communications problems between Curiosity and her handlers. A small team at NASA will continue to keep an eye out on the rover each day (or Martian “sol,” as scientists say ).

“A small engineering team will be active every sol during conjunction,” deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada told the Los Angeles Times, “just in case there’s anything to deal with.”

But members of the team who have been busy since the August landing of Curiosity on Mars are taking the time for vacations or to catch up on paperwork.

“This is certainly the longest period with no planned rover activities,” Vasavada said. “The science team is completely free of operations roles.” He said many on the team, himself included, would be working on “our first set of scientific papers” for the mission. There will also be some planning sessions for the eventual drive of the rover to Mt. Sharp.

“I have mixed feelings,” he added. The science team is anxious to continue its work and with slowdowns from recent computer glitches he said it would be “painful to be inactive for another few weeks.”

“But on the other hand,” Vasavada said, “operating this rover is like a hamster wheel that never stops. Being free of that daily stress for a little while will be a guilty pleasure.”

– Amy Hubbard |

Cool, EB . . . fascinatin' stuff . . .

Hmmm. I like that, "guilty pleasure."

Latest news.

The original rovers did not have the sophistication to experience these glitches.

PASADENA, Calif. - During a moratorium on commanding this month while Mars passed nearly behind the sun - a phase called solar conjunction -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity entered a type of standby mode.

Mission controllers learned of the changed status on April 27 when they first heard from Opportunity after the period of minimized communication during the solar conjunction. They prepared fresh commands today (April 29) for sending to the rover to resume operations.

Initial indications suggest the rover sensed something amiss while doing a routine camera check of the clarity of the atmosphere on April 22.

"Our current suspicion is that Opportunity rebooted its flight software, possibly while the cameras on the mast were imaging the sun," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We found the rover in a standby state called automode, in which it maintains power balance and communication schedules, but waits for instructions from the ground. We crafted our solar conjunction plan to be resilient to this kind of rover reset, if it were to occur."

Opportunity has been working on Mars for more than nine years. NASA's other Mars rover, Curiosity, which landed last year, is also nearing the end of its solar conjunction moratorium on commanding. Curiosity has reported coming through the conjunction in full health. Controllers plan to send Curiosity's first set of post-conjunction commands on May 1.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages both rover projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about Opportunity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov .

Eyes on the Prize: Opportunity is more than halfway to Solander Point. The nearly decade-old rover will winter and work on its slopes.

Thanks for the info, Edgar. I'll be staying tuned!