Rovers on Mars

It amazes me that they didn't take this into consideration. It's not like windshield wipers are high-tech, they could have provided for this. The "dust" storms on Mars aren't even dust, they're fines (micron size or smaller particles). They ought to have known that with even a mild static charge, they'd clump up on the machine and stay there. It's not as though we didn't know they have these storms. Damned nerds.

I think they sometimes need a regular Joe with some common sense to consider those rather simple ideas rather than the advance degrees they need in math and science. Isn't that the same problem they had on some rocket they developed with international scientists? http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/

I don’t think, even in their wildest dreams, that they expected these rovers to still be working after a decade. So the probability of needing to clean the panels was probably so low that it was considered inconsequential compared to keeping the rover simple and light weight.

A Japanese spacecraft has successfully touched down on an asteroid some 280 million kilometres from the Earth, on a mission to collect material that could provide clues about the origin of life and the solar system.

Data from the probe, Hayabusa2, showed changes in speed and direction, indicating it had landed on the distant Ryugu asteroid and was blasting back to its orbiting position, officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said on Thursday.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/japan-probe-hayabusa2-touches-ryugu-asteroid-190222012545637.html?fbclid=IwAR2rHQIhX7U9dwcI7tO9JeTos2mlJ5uuqpJxLmhgJ01wVq1Vy5ib5X5Glp0&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=5c6f88e900bd4700011a43cb&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

I thought scientists already made assumptions about the origins of life. From minerals, to acids, to proteins.

Well, they are always on the lookout for new information.

I agree; with the advance in science, we get to learn more about our environment. It's an exciting time to be living; the fact that we can travel half way around the world in one day is quite amazing! Tomorrow, it'll be the moon.

The Japanese moon rover is getting built by Toyota.

It will last a long time, but be extremely difficult to get in and out of.

This.

Exactly this.

Israel's Moon Lander Arrives in Lunar Orbit Tomorrow

https://www.space.com/israel-lunar-lander-beresheet-moon-arrival-preview.html

theyre gonna park it in orbit until after Shabbas.

I somehow don't recall knowing it was launched.

The "Event Horizon Telescope" is a project to use interferometry to combine multiple radio telescopes around the world into a single super-telescope, and attempt to use that super-telescope to get an image of the black hole at the core of our galaxy.

They are planning a major announcement on April 10, with simultaneous press conferences in Belgium, Chile, Shanghai, Japan, Taiwan, and the US:
http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann19018/

Presumably they would only make such a big fuss if they had something interesting to show us.

photo from Mars

Would that be "shabbat?"

A team of scientists at Harvard University, the University of Edinburgh, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found that a material called aerogel can trap enough heat from sunlight to create regions of liquid water and Earth-like temperatures on Mars. This technology, they say, could be adapted to build human habitats in the not-so-distant future.

In a new study, the researchers show that placing a thin layer of a translucent aerogel—just a few centimeters thick—atop Mars' surface could heat the ground by up to 50 degrees Celsius, or 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or more. This would be enough to thaw water previously frozen underground, providing the crucial ingredient to support life.

https://phys.org/news/2019-08-earthlings-mars-possibility-lifetime-scientists.html?fbclid=IwAR3NmNFKuIqa84Nz3gIHl_9f_xZ882CCJc2lc6Viuu_PP-0b5jxbLd8gsyc

"We're seeing an evolution in the ancient lake environment recorded in these rocks. It wasn't just a static lake. It's helping us move from a simplistic view of Mars going from wet to dry. Instead of a linear process, the history of water was more complicated."

Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/66989/nasa-find-mars-rock-prove-martian-flowing-water/index.html

Yep, we’re seeing all the stuff needed, at least in the past, to breed a bunch of Martian life. Still noth'n.

edgar, I'm no geologist or scientist, but I question the conclusions made about those rocks. Layering is not strictly limited to water, IMHO. WHAT IS THE ORDER OF THE LAYERS OF ROCKS?
There is actually no specific answer to this as rocks change over time. What we do know is that the bottom layer of rocks in the oldest, and the layers of rock get younger as they pile on top of each other.

WHAT IS THE ROCK CYCLE?
Rocks are always changing in what is called the rock cycle. It takes millions of years for rocks to change.

Take a look at this example of the rock cycle and how rocks can change from igneous to sedimentary and to metamorphic over time.

Melted rock or magma comes to the earth’s surface by the force of a volcano. It cools down and there you have igneous rock.Next the weather, a river or other events will slowly break up this rock into small pieces of sediment.When sediment builds up over time and hardens over years, now you have a sedimentary rock.Slowly this sedimentary rock gets covered with other rocks and end up deep in the Earth’s crust.When the pressure and heat get high enough, the sedimentary rock will change into a metamorphic rock and the cycle starts all over again.
That’s really interesting stuff!

One thing to remember is that not all rocks follow this cycle. They can go in any order at all.