...NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers, launched toward Mars on June 10 and July 7, 2003, in search of answers about the history of water on Mars. They landed on Mars January 3 and January 24 PST, 2004 (January 4 and January 25 UTC, 2004). The Mars Exploration Rover mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. Primary among the mission's scientific goals is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The spacecraft are targeted to sites on opposite sides of Mars that appear to have been affected by liquid water in the past. The landing sites are at Gusev Crater, a possible former lake in...
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...Mars Exploration Rover and Kepler Space Telescope May Prove Existence of Extraterrestrial Life On September 28, NASA’s mars exploration rover, Opportunity, made a ground-breaking discovery, finding evidence of water on Mars. The rover found small spheres of the minerals hematite and jarosite. On earth, hematite generally forms from water, and jarosite in the presence of water. Opportunity also captured images of layers on rocks, generally formed by water erosion. Evidence of water on the Red Planet had been previously discovered by a former University of Arizona student Lujendra Ojha in 2010. When examining high resolution images of the Mars sent the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, steaks could be seen on the surface of the planet. The streaks, called Recurring Slope Lineae, were more prominent during summer months on mars, then faded during the winter season. During examination of the images sent from the orbiter, they found evidence of hydrated salts, which contain water molecules within them. Water is a vital part of the existence of life, so with the discovery or water on Mars, scientists are optimistic that there is a possibility of life on the planet. Alfred McEwen, a...
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...Mouwdy 0831545 ESS 102 AE The Curiosity Mars Rover has become a Twitter celebrity these past couple years. In the upcoming science-fiction paper, we will be taking a look inside the mind of curiosity to see what his day-to-day life is like on Mars. Specifically, it will discuss Curiosity’s inception, construction, fictitious rise to sentience, journey to Mars, as well as give a glimpse into its first couple years on the Red Planet. The aim of this paper is to explore the technological advancements specific to robotic missions to space that were required in order to make the Curiosity mission possible. In today’s world, one tends to take robotic space travel for granted. However, it has not always been as easy as it is now. In fact, it is still a very complicated process that takes thousands of people and...
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...The 900 kilogram mars rover Curiosity took damage to its aluminum wheels back some during a mission in 2013. The rocks on mars are sharp and dangerous, showing that they can even break apart the wheels. These rocks plus the harsh winds and dust storms, the Curiosity would be in deep in trouble. However, using smaller robots, different technology and new tactics we can see why and how these wheels broke, and how we can fix them. It could be because of the wheel pattern and design, a fatal design flaw or just as simple as the thickness of that aluminum tire. Every wheel on the rover has one dedicated motor for itself and can turn a full 360 degrees with six wheels in total. The two wheels on the front of the rover can turn in this very way....
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...completion. The project will be tracked using precise quality measures, and the contractor will have to submit detailed monthly status reports. The RFP for Mulder simply includes a statement of the type of work to be done, an expected budget limit, and the desired completion date. QUESTIONS 1. What do you think will happen? 2. How do you think the crisis facing Yrisket will affect the Mulder project? The Agentfox project? ENDNOTES 1. It could be argued that Phase D in the electioncampaign project will be extended if the candidate is elected, whereupon the “operation” phase represents the elected official’s full political term—but that would be stretching the analogy! For the Mars rover, however, reducing and interpreting the data that the rover signaled back would likely continue for months or years after the rover has stopped functioning; if analysis and interpretation of data were included in the original system concept for the project, then it would constitute Phase D for the system. 2. Traditionally, the practice of systems engineering has been applied to large-scale, hardware Based on proposals received in response to the RFPs, the managers responsible for Mulder and Agentfoxeachselectacontractor. Unknowntoeither manager is that they select the same contractor, Yrisket Systems. Yrisket is selected for the Mulder project because...
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...Comparing three Mars rovers Mars is not easy to reach or explore. Nearly two-thirds of all missions have failed. However, in recent years, the United States has had more success landing rovers. Of recent missions, two rovers essentially crash-landed in a cocoon of airbags and one soft-landed. The first lander, Sojourner, part of the Mars Pathfinder mission, was about the size of a milk crate and weighed 33 pounds. It landed using airbags on July 4, 1997, and stayed active 10 times longer than scheduled (NASA, Chronology of Mars Exploration 1). The next missions were the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which were launched a few weeks apart and landed on opposite sides of the planet in the summer of 2003, also using airbag technology. They both were the size of golf carts and outlasted their scheduled missions many times over. Curiosity landed in August 2012 and is the largest and most ambitious rover. The size and mass of a Mini Cooper, it survived a complex soft landing. Curiosity also supports the most complex science, containing drills, lasers, and a small analytical laboratory (Gibson 289). Curiosity can communicate with Earth in three ways. First, Curiosity can engage in direct communication from the rover to Earth’s Deep Space Network. Second, Curiosity can use a fast relay via the orbiting Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Finally, Curiosity can utilize a slow relay to communicate via the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The scientific missions have focused on whether Mars once harbored...
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...Tim Jones Rita Kiry Composition 6/23/2015 Race to Mars The race to Mars has many competitors and is a long way from being a reality, but there are many technological advancements being made to get to Mars. The list of companies range from large known aerospace companies to small aerospace companies that have been around for only a short time to nonprofit companies that only want to manage the trip. Even though there is many companies striving to be the first to put a man on mars. They all will have the same hurdles to jump and space to travel through to get there. Mars has always been a wonderment to mankind. Human eyes have looked in its direction since nearly the 17th century, but it wasn’t till 1965 that a satellite was close enough to get decent pictures of its surface. The only thing those pictures did was raise more questions than answers (Lockheed Martin). The only thing left to do was to put something or someone on its surface. Lockheed Martin built the first orbiter that took pictures as well as the first two landers to touch the surface of Mars. Lockheed participated in the Mars Odyssey mission by building the orbiter in which the mission was named. The Odyssey later became the main means of communication for NASA to the rovers on the surface of Mars. Lockheed has no plans to quit being in the cutting edge of sending satellites to Mars. NASA started the race to Mars with the launch of Mariner 3 on November 5, 196 which was the first flyby spacecraft...
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...Unit 2 Assignment 2: New Technology in my Field-Research and Essay Nanobots on Mars Nanorobotics on Mars Ryan Robert Smith ITT Technical School Abstract Putting such large equipment on other planets is not altogether as we know the Mars rover Curiosity has made some amazing finds in its short time on the Martian surface, suggesting that Mars was once a wet and fertile planet. Although these findings still in their infancy and not fully substantiated it still gives us time for pause wonder and awe. However one of the main issues with Curiosity is its size. About the size of an SUV which requires more than a million pounds of fuel at an enormous cost to get to the red planet. Limiting its range and over all likelihood to be practical. With curiosity carrying around 165 pounds of research equipment to go even farther would be exponentially expensive. With nanobot technologies not only can we save on costs concerning such explorations, you can also save on logistics. We can send not one or tens or hundreds or even thousands but tens of thousands if not more nanobots out into the solar system at a much more reasonable cost and too many locations. The first nabobs could arrive on mars as a cloud of “smart dust” each one about one-one-billionth of the size of Curiosity. From a drop capsule these sand grain sized robots dropped from an orbiting spacecraft studying or merely passing by the Martian planet dropping them to ride Mars’s lower gravity (about 38% less than Earths)...
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...than Earth in many ways when it comes to the soil and the plate tectonics. Red soil. Mars is called the red planet for a reason. The soil on Mars is rich in magnetic iron oxides which is rust. Scientists took a soil sample that mimics that of Mars and tested it to see if it would rust the way it looks like on Mars. The iron was unchanged after a year in a dry atmosphere and finally changed when the sample was put in a wet atmosphere. (R., 2005) Canyons. The martian canyons are huge compared to the ones seen on Earth. Scientist suggest that there had to have been a continual flow of water to erode the rock and form the deep and long canyons. Valles Marineris is a canyon near Olympus Mons. The canyon is 2500 miles long and 7 miles deep. (Cowen, 1998) Volcanoes. Mars is home to the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons. Olympus Mons is extinct and stands 16 miles (25 kilometers) and has a caldera that is 50 miles (80 kilometers) wide. Nearby are three smaller volcanoes that are also extinct. These volcanoes are near the canyon, Valles Marineris. From Mars no longer generating heat...
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...Mars and its Future. On November 28, 1964, the Mariner 4 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. After 7 ½ months of flight, Mariner 4 reached the surface of mars and took the first pictures of the Martian planet. Since then we have launched more than 40 spacecrafts to mars, from orbiters that fly by the atmosphere to landers that have been on the surface of Mars (“10 things to know about mars”) . Today we still continue to progressively learn and to explore the famous red planet. Mars is the same age as Earth. The whole solar system and everything in it was formed the same time, about 4.56 billion years ago. One of the greatest scientific questions is if there's life on Mars. Since scientists know that Earth and Mars both experienced similar weather conditions in early history, and life eventually happened on Earth. Therefore life may have begun on Mars too. The big question is if life did start their, then how did it die out? Maybe there is still life on Mars, and it’s buried underground where conditions may be less hostile. The only way to answers all these questions is to explore Mars. Scientist call comparisons between Earth and Mars analogs. Scientists say that even though, the two planets are mostly different when it comes to the atmosphere, temperature, size, and the geologic processes on the two planets. Surprisingly there are similarities between the two planets, also. An example is, on Mars there are volcanoes, channels...
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...Evidence of Prehistoric Bacterial Life found from Mars: I wonder if there are still any possible life-forms on Mars From the beginning of time, the universe has always been a mystery to mankind. We have been intrigued by the many wonders of the universe and as time elapsed, technology increased, and the minds of human beings have evolved, extraterrestrial life remains a recurring interest. The rising curiosity of extraterrestrial life has plagued the minds of Scientists to common folk. People have held various theories based on their imagination on what life would resemble. Over time, many great discoveries have been made as well as many excursions into outer space. Planets, stars, galaxies, comets, our moon and sun we’ve discovered. We have advanced enormously within the technology field and this advancement has enabled man to be educated about space and the wonders thereof. However, the greatest question of extraterrestrial life has not been answered. Many of us perceive life forms to be humanlike species or “Cycloptic” (one-eyed) creatures similar to the aliens depicted in Science fiction films. However we fail to realize the life can be as small as bacteria or as enormous as prehistoric creatures like dinosaurs. The planet Mars, is one which is very close to the characteristics of our very own earth and with recent missions to Mars in the search for life I believe that life does exist on Mars upon recent findings and also theories which dictate the requirements for life...
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...Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. 2 I. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3 II. Mars Odyssey Overview and Missions ................................................................................................. 3 III. Launch Vehicles .................................................................................................................................. 4 IV. Aerobraking........................................................................................................................................ 5 V. Instruments ......................................................................................................................................... 6 1. Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) ................................................................................ 6 2. Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) .................................................................................................. 7 3. The Mars Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) ................................................................. 7 VI. Results ............................................................................................................................................... 8 VII. Legacy .......................................
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...Abstract: The evidence for past life on Mars is supported by Steve Ruff and Jack Farmer’s findings about silica deposits on Mars, the Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001, and evidence of past water valleys. Silica deposits from Mars are very similar to deposit formations here on Earth, which were made from biotic processes. Furthermore, Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001) gives evidence of organic buildups native to ancient Mars. Lastly, valleys on Mars’ surface has evidence of flowing water, shown in outflow channels and sinuous valleys. While it is important to look into the past, SpaceX is looking to the future. Ambitious Elon Musk has plans for building a colony on Mars and allowing humans to be the first interplanetary species....
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...During my research, some very interesting facts were accumulated. By accumulating modern data on Mars, I attempted to outline the possibilities of colonization in my own perspective. One consideration is that not only is technology lifting mankind up into new heights, but we are on the verge of a new cooperation on a global scale. This cooperation that I am conveying is that world governments are now working together to eventually go to Mars. This exploration will be a culmination of data produced from the rovers that are currently sending data to us from Mars. (http://www.googleearth.com, go to Mars entry) We now know there are natural resources available to use to sustain life, and harvesting them will lead to our first colony being started and expanding there. The question arises, as to how to get there, and with careful thought, the technology that we now possess will certainly deliver us there to Mars. The first fact to consider is that we have a natural satellite that is only approximately 252,000 miles away from us, which is the Moon. (www.answers.ask.com) (http://www.chacha.com) We also have the International Space Station, revolving around the earth. (http://wiki.answers.com) We are also going to be building an outer space vehicle that is larger than the Gemini space capsule, but will be built to go deeper into space and stay there longer. On January 14, 2004, then President George W. Bush announced the “Orion” spacecraft. This spacecraft is a replacement of the space...
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...“The Martian” merges the fictional and factual about Mars that the work Nasa and others have done exploring Mars and moving it forward into the 2030s. This is a time when NASA astronauts are regularly traveling to Mars and living on the surface to explore. Although the action takes place 20 years in the future, NASA is already developing many of the technologies that appear in the film. Mark Watney is an astronaut who is left on Mars by the Ares crew when a dust storm happens on Mars which is an actual factorial possibility. Watney is stuck on Mars when a dust storm happens and he is buried under the sand as his crew members are forced to evacuate the planet. This where the fictional aspect comes into the book. The wind in the largest dust storms on Mars most likely could not tip a spacecraft or rip apart major mechanical equipment. The winds in...
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