Mars Rover Inspects Its Own Debris
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 27 December 2004
09:40 am ET

NASA’s Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover is wheeling about a field of spacecraft litter -- the remains of heat shield hardware that protected the robot from its plunge through the martian atmosphere last January.

Bits and pieces of flotsam scattered across Meridiani Planum -- including a spring and other junked components -- can be clearly seen in new rover images

The heat shield was shed during Opportunity’s descent and landing sequence, falling several miles to the surface.

Space engineers are eager to study the clutter for clues as to how well the heat shield survived its fiery entry. Scientists hope to glean useful data about Mars’ soil, given the entry shield’s high-speed impact.

Free-falling

The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) survey of spent entry equipment includes looking for any surface disturbance produced when the hardware slammed into the terrain.

An entry shield-created crater might give an idea of the mechanical properties of the soil on Mars, said Benton Clark, Chief Scientist of Space Exploration Systems at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, Colorado.

Clark, a MER science team member, said that such a crater could help identify and "calibrate" other small craters that the rover comes across.

The heat shield hit hard after it was intentionally dropped off while the Opportunity rover and other landing gear were still on a parachute.

"One of the reasons the scientists are interested in inspecting the area is that they are hoping that when the heat shield hit the ground, after free-falling, it would create a small, fresh crater that we could inspect," Clark told SPACE.com.

On images relayed from Opportunity, there appears to be the impact or a bounce location to the far right of the heat shield, Clark noted.

Next on NOVA: "Welcome to Mars"

http://www.pbs.org/nova/mars/

Broadcast: January 4, 2005
(NOVA airs Tuesdays on PBS at 8 p.m. Check your local listings as
dates and times may vary.)

On January 3, 2004, a rover named Spirit, cushioned inside a pyramid
of balloons, hurtled through the martian atmosphere and crash-landed
on the dusty surface of Mars. Minutes later, Spirit sent its first
message home. NOVA captured the elation of the assembled scientists,
along with the much more involved engineering story leading up to
the landing, in the award-winning documentary "MARS Dead or Alive,"
which aired one year ago. That elation is the starting point for the
highly anticipated sequel, "Welcome to Mars." In this mission update
NOVA follows the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity from the second
they crash-land on the planet to many months into their ongoing
mission. The story unfolds from inside NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, providing a unique, behind-the-scenes take on this
voyage of discovery, whose primary goal has been to find evidence
that liquid water once existed on Mars.

Here's what you'll find online:

Inquiry, Interview & More

Life's Little Essential
Everybody knows that liquid water is necessary for life, at
least as we know it. But just why exactly?

Behind the Scenes
Producer Mark Davis talks about his extraordinary experience
filming alongside the Mars Exploration Rover team.

Man on a Mission
Before launch, lead scientist Steve Squyres reveals his hopes
and fears for the rovers.

Mars From Afar
See some of the finest images ever taken of the martian surface.

Interactives & Video

Mars Up Close
Steve Squyres narrates this visual tour of the rovers' most
revealing discoveries.

Anatomy of a Rover
Examine the robotic geologists and their suite of scientific
instruments.

Design a Parachute
Create a parachute strong and light enough to safely slow the
rovers in their descent toward Mars.

From Launch to Landing
Watch an animation of one rover's fantastic journey from
Earth to Mars.

MARS Dead or Alive
NOVA's first hour-long program on the Mars rover mission is
available to view online.

Also, Links & Books, the program transcript, and the
teacher's guide.

http://www.pbs.org/nova/mars/

Mars Rover Inspects Intriguing Rock – A Meteorite?
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 17 January 2005
08:02 am ET

Scientists controlling the Opportunity Mars rover are taking an up-close look at an intriguing pitted rock on Mars, now dubbed "Heat Shield Rock".

A speculative view about the object is that the Mars robot has come across a meteorite. A detailed investigation of the rock is underway, work that should reveal the true nature of the object.

Wheeling about the open landscape of Meridiani Planum, Opportunity has been busily inspecting heat-shield wreckage -- hardware leftovers from the spacecraft’s plummet to Mars in January of last year.

Completing one of several debris surveys, the robot turned and drove north toward Heat Shield Rock. The rover traversed about 33 feet (10 meters), parking itself at the desired standoff distance of about 3.3 feet (one meter) to acquire remote sensing of the rock.

Opportunity then acquired additional remote sensing, bumped forward closer to the rock, putting the odd object within the work volume of the tools mounted at the tip of the robot’s mechanical arm.

Meteorite or "meteorwrong"?

Initial looks at the rock have stirred speculation the object could be a meteorite. Furthermore, Opportunity’s Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) is suggestive that the find is made of metal.

In wait-and-see mode is Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for the science instruments onboard Opportunity, as well as the Spirit rover busy at work on the other side of Mars.

Squyres said data taken by Opportunity’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer -- a device that accurately determines the elements that make up rocks and soils – is to arrive over the weekend. So too is information about the rock from use of the rover’s Mössbauer Spectrometer. This equipment can determine the composition and abundance of iron-bearing minerals.

Too early to tell if it’s a meteorite, said Laurie Leshin, Director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

"Not sure if it is or not, but it does sorta look like one," Leshin told SPACE.com. "Looks a lot like an iron [meteorite] to me."

Leshin said, however, that her Meteorite Center identifies loads of "meteorwrongs" per year. "Looks can be deceiving."

Given the robot’s suite of science instruments, identifying the makeup and origin of the rock should be forthcoming.

Questions to ponder

If Opportunity has come across a meteorite, a number of issues arise.

"To me it is interesting for several speculative reasons," Leshin said. First of all, depending on the size, it may indicate that it fell during the time of a thicker atmosphere, she said.

"But we haven’t done the calculation yet. Things much bigger than it appears to be wouldn't be slowed down by today’s thin atmosphere [on Mars], and thus they would make a crater rather than a ‘soft landing’", Leshin explained.

Leshin also conjectured about the shiny nature of the rock. "Is it because…meteorites don't react with the atmosphere as on Earth or has it been sandblasted?" Lastly, iron metal is one of the most susceptible things to weathering/rust in the presence of water.

"Thus, a nicely preserved meteorite -- unless we’re unlucky and it fell yesterday, which we would never know -- strongly supports the idea that current weathering rates [on Mars] are incredibly low," she said.

Whether or not Opportunity has come across a meteorite is yet to be determined. "I will say that we’ve lent a bunch of iron meteorites to the Mini-TES team to compare with it!"

Also
Mars is to get a new visitor later this summer:

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passes over the planet's south polar region in this artist's concept illustration. The orbiter's shallow radar experiment, one of six science instruments on board, is designed to probe the internal structure of Mars' polar ice caps, as well as to gather information planet-wide about underground layers of ice, rock and, perhaps, liquid water that might be accessible from the surface. Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, appears in the upper left corner of the illustration. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Corby Waste

A Good Year on Mars for NASA Rover Opportunity
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 25 January 2005
7:00 a.m. ET

When it comes to long life, NASA's Mars rover Opportunity takes after its robotic twin Spirit.

Today Opportunity officially hit the one-year mark in its mission to explore Mars and send home data about the red planet's conditions and its history of water. The longevity of the two rovers -- Spirit celebrated its own one-year anniversary on Jan. 3 -- has been a stunning success for rover scientists and engineers, who originally planned for just a 90-day mission.

"This whole mission has surpassed all of our expectations," said Steven Squyres, principal investigator for the rover mission at Cornell University.

Opportunity landed at Meridiani Planum at 12:05 a.m. EST (0505 a.m. GMT) on Jan. 25, 2004, though it was still late Jan. 24 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California where the mission was being managed. Squyres said the entire rover team, including managers, engineers and scientists, planned a one-year celebration Monday night during a two-day mission science meeting at JPL.

But while Squyres said he looked forward to anniversary party, he is still waiting for Jan. 31. It was on that day in 2004 that Opportunity rolled off its landing platform and planted six wheels in Martian soil, he told SPACE.com.

"I've always felt that we had six terrifying events in this mission; two launches, two landings and two egresses," Squyres said. "And it wasn't until both [rovers] were in their native environments on Mars, for me, that I could really feel like I could breathe a sigh of relief."

Only a few major glitches have plagued Opportunity, including a stuck heater, which was a glutton for power early in the mission but circumvented later by the addition of a "deep sleep" mode during a software update. The rover's rear hazard-identification camera has also suffered some minor mottling in images due to dust picked up during recent investigations of its heat shield, JPL officials said.

A flood of science

Both Spirit and Opportunity have returned a wealth of data back to Earth, but rover scientists concur that Opportunity has made the lion's share of Mars science discoveries.

"When you look at the most important accomplishments of the mission, a lot of them were due to Opportunity," Squyres said. "It was the one that found the really powerful evidence for a habitable environment in Mars' past. It's sort have been the good luck rover for this whole thing."

It was Opportunity's studies at its initial landing site Eagle Crater that gave scientists conclusive proof that the region had once been drenched in liquid water. Scientists now believe that Opportunity's Meridiani Planum landing zone supported a habitable environment and possibly a salty sea.

Matt Golombek, a rover scientist at JPL, spent years working to pinpoint Opportunity's landing site.

"There, we have been extraordinary," Golombek said in a telephone interview. "But we've only been able to look at a section of rock maybe 10 meters thick, and we want to know how do these rocks relate to what's above and beneath them."

Mars rocks have not been the only target for Opportunity's panoramic sights. The rover has also been able to swing by its own heat shield, which it cast off during the fiery entry into Mars' atmosphere. Opportunity's images and data taken of the scorched and twisted debris may help engineers develop better heat shields for future missions, NASA officials said.

The rover has also stumbled upon an iron meteorite, the first ever found on another world, which has galvanized rover and non-mission scientists alike to discuss its importance to their understanding of Mars. But for Squyres, just the fact that Opportunity has managed to move from Eagle Crater, to Endurance, to its heat shield and the meteorite is impressive.

"The value of mobility can't be overstated," he said of both Opportunity and Spirit. "We keep finding new stuff with both vehicles, and now this completely new and different-looking rock. No matter when this mission ends, there will still be something out there...that's one of the things I've had to come to terms with."

More exploration ahead

NASA officials have said the Mars rover mission is currently funded through March, with an average cost of about $3 million a month. But Spirit and Opportunity are in their second lifetime extension since the close of their respective 90-day mission in April 2004, and the prospect of another extension seems good so long as they continue to send home good data.

"There is certainly talk of getting another extension," Squyres said.

Rover handlers said that Opportunity, like its twin Spirit - which is busy crawling over hills at its Gusev Crater landing site, still has much to do. To date the rover has driven 1.3 miles (2.3 kilometers) and engineers plan to send the rover toward a circular feature dubbed "Vostok." A longer term goal for the rover is the vast Victoria Crater, six times larger than Endurance, which lies across what researchers call "etched terrain" -- a region they're not sure Opportunity will be able to pass through.

"It's a very exciting time for Opportunity," Golombek said.

John Bluck
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

RELEASE: 05-044

NASA'S TWIN MARS ROVERS CONTINUE EXPLORATION

NASA's Spirit rover found a new class of water-affected rock, while its twin, Opportunity, finished inspecting its own heat shield and set a new martian driving record. The rovers successfully completed their three-month primary missions in April 2004 and are working on extended exploration missions.

"This is probably the most interesting and important rock Spirit has examined," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers. The rock, dubbed "Peace," is an exposure of bedrock in the Columbia Hills. The rock is in the Gusev Crater, where Spirit landed 13 months ago. "This may be what the bones of this mountain are really made of; it gives us even more compelling evidence for water playing a major role for altering the rocks here," Squyres added.

Peace contains more sulfate salt than any other rock Spirit has examined. Dr. Ralf Gellert, of Max-Planck-Institut fur Chemie, Mainz, Germany, said, "Usually when we have seen high levels of sulfur in rocks at Gusev, it has been at the very surface. The unusual thing about this rock is that deep inside; the sulfur is still very high. The sulfur enrichment at the surface is correlated with the amount of magnesium, which points to magnesium sulfate."

Observations by Spirit show the rock contains significant amounts of the minerals olivine, pyroxene and magnetite, all of which are common in some types of volcanic rock. The rock's texture appears to be sand-size grains coated with a material loosely binding the rock together. Spirit's rock abrasion tool dug about 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) deep in two hours.

"It looks as if you took volcanic rocks that were ground into little grains, and then formed a layered rock with them cemented together by a substantial quantity of magnesium-sulfate salt," Squyres said. "Where did the salt come from? We have two working hypotheses we want to check by examining more rocks. It could come from liquid water with magnesium sulfate salt dissolved in it, percolating through the rock, then evaporating and leaving the salt behind. Or it could come from weathering by dilute sulfuric acid reacting with magnesium-rich minerals that were already in the rock. Either case involves water," he said.

Opportunity used its microscopic imager last week to examine a cross section of the heat shield that protected the spacecraft as it slammed into Mars' atmosphere. This is the first time experts have been able to examine a heat shield after it entered another planet's atmosphere. Engineers expect the findings to aid design for future missions.

"We've identified each broken piece of the heat shield. We know there's a lot of data there, but we still need to analyze it," said Ethiraj Venkatapathy of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

Christine Szalai, a spacecraft engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., said, "We are examining the images to determine the depth of charring in the heat shield material. In the initial look, we didn't see any surprises. We will be working for the next few months to analyze the performance of the heat shield," Szalai said.

Since leaving the heat shield, Opportunity has been traveling south to explore new sites. The rover set a single-day martian driving record, covering 154.65 meters (507.4 feet) on Jan. 28. Two days later, it drove even farther, 156.55 meters (513.6 feet). The first 90 meters (295 feet) of each drive was performed in blind-drive mode, following a route planners created from stereo images from the rover and maps created from orbital imagery. The rest was autonomous driving, with the rover choosing its own route to avoid any hazards it perceived in stereo images taken along the way.

"The terrain we're crossing is so flat we can see a long way ahead," said JPL rover planner Frank Hartman, who teamed with Jeff Biesiadecki to plot the drive. "Opportunity has paused for some trenching, but in a few days we'll put the pedal to the metal again."

For Images and additional information about the rovers on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mer_main.html

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

-end-

* * *

Water Spread Across Much of Ancient Mars, Creating Conditions for Life
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 17 February, 2004
2 p.m. ET

Water was common across a vast region of ancient Mars, creating habitable conditions for long stretches of time billions of years ago, scientists said Thursday.

New data reveal water in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars extended across hundreds of thousands of square miles, at least as groundwater and possibly as shallow lakes or seas.

The work significantly expands the amount of surface area on Mars known to have once been water-laden, and it extends the period of time that the water was present.

Rocks that clearly formed in water extend throughout 980 feet (300 meters) of layered material in several locations across the plains, said Ray Arvidson, an Earth and planetary sciences expert at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The layers were built up over time, which means water was present, at least off and on, for extended periods of the early martian history.

The findings mean that the conditions for life were present.

"Everything that we're finding makes the probability [of a habitable environment] go up," Arvidson told SPACE.com.

Signature everywhere

The signature of water is a scrawl of various minerals known as evaporates, which are left behind when water turns to vapor. They are the same aqueous signatures detected last year in two craters by NASA's Opportunity Rover.
"We've been able to show that the evaporates that Opportunity sees in the two craters extend over a much larger area," Arvidson said in a telephone interview.

Liquid water is the key ingredient for life as we know it, but the fact that early Mars was loaded with water does not necessarily mean life ever got going. Mars is comparatively dry today, though it harbors significant amounts of water ice.

Some scientists believe liquid water may lurk in pockets under the surface, and it may even support life now.

The new research is based on data from the European Space Agency's orbiting Mars Express spacecraft. It is presented in five separate papers in the Feb. 18 issue of the journal Science.

Expanding Opportunity

Opportunity found minerals, including jarosite, that can only form in the presence of water.

Other evidence in layered rock called "etched terrain" revealed that the water existed in large quantities, such as shallow lakes or underground aquifers, and that it persisted for long stretches. But the rover could only examine limited sections of they layers -- typically a few inches or feet that poked above the surface.

Over the past few months, scientists have worked to calibrate what they observe from the orbiting Mars Express craft to ground-based observations. The signatures of water are now evident across the landscape, but in much thicker sections that represent longer stretches of time during which rock formed in the presence of water.

The signs of past water exist throughout the entire 980 feet of the etched terrain's thickness.

"The water may have formed in shallow seas or lakes," said Arvidson, who is also deputy principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover instruments. "We don't know yet."

However, there was at least temporary standing water that possibly dried out, with the same area being affected by wind-blown debris before getting wet again, he said. The layered terrain is from the end of the Noachian period and maybe into early Hesperian period, more than 3 billion years ago.

More evidence

Small areas of similar mineral deposits have been found in Valles Marineris, the huge scar on Mars bigger than the Grand Canyon. Pictures of Valles Marineris suggest it was carved by water.

"These minerals contain water, and had to be formed in the presence of water," said Brown University geologist John Mustard, author of another of the new papers.

Other research has turned up clay minerals that also require water to form.

Importantly, Mustard told SPACE.com, these clay minerals can form in more neutral pH waters, unlike the very acidic environments that are thought to have created the minerals in the etched terrains. "This could be very important in the identification of regions that supported habitable conditions," Mustard said.

"These results strongly support the view that Mars had habitable environments," Mustard said. "There are now hundreds of places beyond the Opportunity landing site that need to be investigated."

He said the mineral signatures identified by OMEGA, an instrument on Mars Express, "open up a much more complex and diverse palette of possible habitats to consider, including hydrothermal."

There's a catch, however.

"All the locations where we find these signatures are ancient, probably formed in the first billion years of Mars' history," Mustard said.

Digging and Sniffing for Life on Mars

By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 22 February, 2005
7:00 a.m. ET

Mars is undergoing intensive, simultaneous scrutiny by the largest number of spacecraft ever to explore the red planet.

While orbiters conduct sensor sweeps of the martian landscape, the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers continue their extraordinary surface sojourns. The flood of scientific data continues to expose the truth about Mars.

But still to be nailed down: Was the planet once a home for life, perhaps even a hangout for biology today?

Ground-breaking investigations are just that. Some scientists see Mars underground as breathing room for a subsurface biosphere. If true, drilling down to come up with martian life may be in order.

Time-weathered world

Arriving at Mars in late December 2003, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express has been dutifully scoping out the red planet.

This week, more than 200 scientists will take part in the first Mars Express science conference, to be held February 21-25 at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre located in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. As part of the meeting, a special session is being held on exobiology and the search for life on Mars.

A quick look at the titles of papers hints that Mars Express findings should stir up new views of that time-weathered world. The prospect for still-active volcanism is to be discussed. Evidence for a frozen sea close to Mars' equator will be detailed. And the latest eye-openers from the spacecraft in scouting out methane, formaldehyde and water on the red planet are also on the program agenda.

What's below?

Last September, ESA released data from the Mars Express Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) showing that concentrations of water vapor and methane in the atmosphere of Mars significantly overlap.

The PFS team is led by Vittorio Formisano, Head of Research, National Council for Research's Institute of Physics and Interplanetary Space in Italy. As PFS principal investigator, Formisano reported that these intensities were found in three broad equatorial regions of Mars: Arabia Terra, Elysium Planum and Arcadia-Memnonia.

These particular areas of water vapor concentration reportedly matched up with subsurface water ice layers charted by NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft. It was reasoned that geothermal processes, feeding a subsurface ice table, might push gases like methane up to the surface.

Furthermore, it was speculated that if liquid water does exist below such an ice table, bacterial life may exist there, producing methane and other gases that waft upward to the surface and into the martian atmosphere.

Tantalizing possibility

If substantial confirmation is forthcoming that Mars’ atmosphere is laced with methane, that means that something is replenishing the gas, said Penelope Boston, director of the Cave and Karst Studies Program at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro.

But there are a half-dozen ways to cough up methane on Mars. The most pedestrian source would be an ultraviolet-driven reaction in the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere that creates methane, Boston said.

"A more enticing suggestion, of course, is that volcanic activity is still present on Mars," Boston said. "It would obviously be at a much lower level than in the past. There may be significant heat flow from the planet’s interior…eking out gradually from deep below the surface."

Boston said the "most tantalizing possibility" is the fact that on Earth a great deal of methane is biologically produced by microorganisms. "So this is what has people so revved about detecting methane on Mars," she said.

Whether or not the methane has a biogenic source -- that is, produced by living organisms – remains an unknown.

Dwell time

If localized sources of methane can be pinpointed, then it narrows down the prospect of what is the source of the gas. If it appears defuse, that would argue, in Boston’s view, that the methane is a product of atmospheric chemistry.

Existing missions at Mars, and those yet to fly, will be essential in confirming the methane detection.

"If you had a Mars airplane or a balloon…if you had some aerial mobility…then you could constrain the search pattern," Boston advised.

Having dwell time over and on Mars could help identify likely places where methane might be percolating up into the atmosphere from the subsurface.

Definitive measurement

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) -- a science-sleuthing mobile rover -- is to be launched in 2009. It will have the ability to make high sensitivity, high precision measurements of atmospheric methane.

MSL’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) experiment makes use of both a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer and a tunable laser spectrometer. SAM can search for traces of prebiotic chemistry, or of past or present biological activity.

Once on the martian surface, MSL is to explore a local region as a potential habitat for past or present life. MSL will operate under its own power – likely nuclear. It is expected to remain active on the planet for one Mars year. That’s equal to two Earth years.

"MSL will give us a definitive measurement via its SAM analytical suite," said James Garvin, NASA’s Chief Scientist at the space agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. SAM may be able to "nail" the provenance of any methane it detects in the near-surface atmosphere, he said.

Using all the tools

Garvin said that some at NASA feel an orbital or airborne atmospheric trace gas explorer is on the must have list "if we are to understand this enigma...and potential scientific fingerprint for volcanism or even microbial life."

The PFS on Mars Express is well-suited for first order examination of some of the less abundant photochemical species on Mars, Garvin said. But that instrument’s sensitivity, he continued, makes it impossible to assess provenance, "and hence we cannot tell mode of origin or source!"

Methane could be the manifestation of a small amount of leaky volcanism, Garvin said, which is certainly not precluded or unrealistic on Mars.

To get to the next step of the methane on Mars issue, space scientists will need to use all the tools available, Garvin advised. That includes continued PFS surveys by Mars Express, as well as data gleaned by NASA’s soon-to-be-launched Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, as well as the space agency’s Phoenix lander to be dispatched to Mars in 2007.

A more focused search for the sources and sinks of biogenic trace gases, and then a multi-pronged strategy to respond is a likely course of action, Garvin said. Most certainly, identifying subsurface aquifers and other important features underground will be critical, he said.

Trial-runs: techniques and technologies

One approach to probing for present life on Mars is by drilling. In fact, trial-runs of techniques and technologies are already underway here on Earth.

The Mars Analog Research and Technology Experiment (MARTE) is a three-year, joint project between NASA and Spain’s Center for Astrobiology. Located in southwestern Spain, the Rio Tinto is in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, a large deposit of sulfide minerals that was formed in an ancient hydrothermal system.

The collaborative effort is focused on searching for and characterizing subsurface life at the Rio Tinto that might be living on chemical energy derived from sulfur and iron minerals.

Moreover, the Rio Tinto work is seen as a learning experience for guiding the development of technology for drilling, sample handling and instrumentation to be used in the eventual search for subsurface life on Mars.

Subsurface biosphere found

While the work at Rio Tinto is relevant to finding life in a subsurface terrestrial environment here on Earth, the effort can’t be used to infer anything about life on Mars, directly. Although the Rio Tinto work by its very nature won’t tell scientists if there is life on Mars, the effort does help formulate the strategy on how to search for possible Mars life.

Next month, during the 36th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in Houston, Texas, MARTE members will report on a subsurface biosphere found at Rio Tinto.

According to a LPSC conference abstract submitted by MARTE officials, the kind of subsurface biosphere discovered at Rio Tinto "could be living on Mars today and producing methane that, when released to the atmosphere, could potentially be a source for methane that has been observed in the Martian atmosphere by the Mars Express mission."

Liquid water underground

There is a preponderance of evidence supporting the view that methane is in the Mars atmosphere, said Robert Zubrin, President of the Mars Society. "The issue is the interpretation of that methane as a signature for life."

Given orbiter and recent Mars rover findings, it’s now a known fact that the distant planet once had large bodies of standing water, Zubrin said. "There was liquid water on Mars for a longer period of time than it took for life to evolve on Earth."

Also, add in interplanetary transfer of material at that very same epoch. "There’s every reason to believe that there was life on Mars at that time," Zubrin speculated, if from no other source than the Earth…or perhaps shot from Mars to our planet.

"If there had been life, then it seems quite reasonable to suppose that life could persist underground in reservoirs of water," Zubrin added. "It’s virtually certain there are bodies of liquid water underground on Mars now. And there’s no reason whatsoever that these environments are not fully satisfactory for microbial habitats."

The methane observations could indicate the presence of life today on Mars, Zubrin told SPACE.com. That underground prospect, he said, bolsters the need to send astronauts to Mars, loaded down with drilling equipment.

Wildcatting explorers on Mars

Zubrin envisions wildcatting explorers on Mars, setting up rigs and drilling deep to subsurface aquifers. On-the-spot study of microbes can be done, including culturing the Mars biology and carrying out biochemical testing, he said.

"We’ve got a very strong clue here. And I think this is a very strong argument for human exploration," Zubrin said. "But we won’t know until we go."

Drilling on Mars via robots will be "massively difficult," concurs Boston of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology concurs. "People are talking about doing it robotically, but I think it’s quite the nut to crack."

Boston is deep in her own studies, including a Caves of Mars Project funded by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. Natural subsurface cavities, for example, present the most mission effective habitat alternative for future human missions in the high-radiation environment of Mars, she pointed out.

Additionally, lava tubes, other caves, cavities, and canyon overhangs are sites of intense scientific interest. They offer easier subsurface access for direct exploration and drilling, and may provide extractable minerals, gases, and ices.

One aspect of the Caves of Mars Project is to study inflatable habitat modules and foam-in-place airlock units to support explorers in their cave work.

"One of the things we’ve learned from working in caves is that microorganisms are very sensitive. They are adaptive to the subsurface. We don’t just bring them out. We culture them for weeks to months, to sometimes years. And then we bring them out in controlled-condition containers so as not to expose them to light. So try and handle that material without people…I think it would be really hard," Boston said. "There’s nothing better than live specimens, period."

Ice Packs and Methane on Mars Suggest Present Life Possible, European Team Says
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 22 February 2005
10:06 am ET

A European space probe has found evidence for large blocks of water ice just beneath the Martian surface in relatively warm conditions near the equator.

The frozen sea of sorts, if follow-up studies confirm it, would be the first large quantity of water ice on Mars confirmed to exist near the equator, researchers say. And it would be a good place to search for present life.

"This is a historic moment for Mars exploration when a previously neglected region reveals its secrets," Jan-Peter Muller of the University College London said in a statement today. "Speculations that this area might have water close to the surface have been shown to be correct."

The findings could be important for biology, Muller and his colleagues say.

"Higher levels of methane over the same area mean that primitive micro-organisms might survive on Mars today," the statement reads.

Small quantities of methane were previously detected in the Martian atmosphere by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. Methane could be a byproduct of biological activity, or it could be the result of nonbiological processes, other scientists say. And the methane signature at Mars is tentative for now, researchers have said.

"The methane signature is controversial," Brown University geologist John Mustard told SPACE.com last week.

The new evidence

Scientists know that Mars was once wetter than it is today. Data from NASA's Mars Rovers reveal significant amounts of liquid water must have existed billions of years ago. Since then, the planet has dried up. Scientists have been eager to determine how much water might have remained beneath the surface, either as ice or in occasional pockets of liquid that might support life.

The newfound pack ice, just five degrees from the equator, might have collected millions of years ago when volcanic tempests and water floods brought it down from nearby areas in the Elysium region of the planet, researchers say. Scars to the landscape serve as evidence of those past floods.

Until now, however, scientists had assumed any lakes or seas that resulted from the flooding had either evaporated away or, if frozen into icebergs, had "sublimated" directly into the atmosphere.

"We have found evidence consistent with a presently existing frozen body of water, with surface pack-ice," the scientists write in a paper that is scheduled to be published in March in the journal Nature.

The journal's contents are normally not released prior to publication. The research was first reported on by New Scientist magazine, which says the paper was not under embargo when first viewed by the magazine. SPACE.com has reviewed the paper.

The research was discussed yesterday at a scientific meeting in Europe.

"The fact that there have been warm and wet places beneath the surface of Mars since before life began on Earth, and that some are probably still there, means that there is a possibility that primitive micro-organisms survive on Mars today," study co-leader John Murray at the Open University in the UK said in today's statement. "This mission has changed many of my long-held opinions about Mars – we now have to go there and check it out."
Other researchers have speculated that if life ever formed on Mars, it could have gone underground and survived to the present day. (Lack of surface water now, plus the harsh radiation at Mars, suggest it's very unlikely there is any modern-day surface life.)

Many other scientists have said firm proof of life on Mars, if it exists, would require a new mission. The rovers on Mars and spacecraft orbiting there are not equipped to find life directly.

Formed when human ancestors were around

The ice exists in a block that resemble polar ice on Earth, according to the research team. It measures about 497 by 559 miles (800 by 900 kilometers) and averages up to 150 feet (45 meters) deep.

The underground iceberg is just 2 million to 5 million years old -- recent in geologic terms. It formed when early hominids were roaming Earth.

The feature suggests that "vast flooding events, which are known to have occurred from beneath Mars’ surface throughout its geological history, still happen," the Muller, Murray and their colleagues write. "The presence of liquid water for thousands of millions of years, even beneath the surface, is a possible habitat in which primitive life may have developed, and might still be surviving now. Clearly this must now be considered as a prime site for future missions looking for life."

The researchers propose that the ice has been protected from sublimation by an overlying layer of volcanic ash.

"I think it's fairly plausible," Michael Carr, an expert on Martian water at the U.S. Geological Survey, told New Scientist. "We know where the water came from," said Carr, who was not involved in the work. "You can trace the valleys carved by water down to this area."

Confirmation could come soon

Evidence from the High Resolution Stereo Camera on the European Space Agency's Mars Express craft show characteristics in craters that suggest the water ice remains.

The pack-ice floes appear to have drifted into obstacles and become grounded on islands when the water level dropped, the scientists say.

But the case is not closed.

"The question remains as to whether the frozen body of water is still there, or whether the visible floes are preserved in a sublimation residue draped over the substrate," the scientists write in their journal article. A firm answer could come soon.

The Mars Express probe will finally deploy its delayed MARSIS experiment in May. The ground-penetrating radar instrument is designed to look for ice or water beneath the surface.

"If water ice is confirmed, this site represents a prime target for exobiology landers from the European Space Agency planned for the end of this decade," today's statement said.

If the ice exists, it would add to other frozen water stores on Mars.

Both polar regions of the red planet are capped by large areas of water ice. In the southern hemisphere, frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice, covers the water ice. NASA's Mars Odyssey probe found strong evidence for ice embedded in the soil away from polar regions, but scientists are awaiting confirmation of the extent of that ice.

Researchers stress that while liquid water is a key ingredient for life as we know it, the presence of water does not mean life ever got started.

Creatures Frozen for 32,000 Years Still Alive
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Senior Writer
posted: 23 February 2005
02:20 pm ET

A new type of organism discovered in an Arctic tunnel came to life in the lab after being frozen for 32,000 years.

The deep-freeze bacteria could point to new methods of cryogenics, and they are the sort of biology scientists say might exist on Mars and other planets and moons.

"The existence of microorganisms in these harsh environments suggests -- but does not promise -- that we might one day discover similar life forms in the glaciers or permafrost of Mars or in the ice crust and oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa," said Richard Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

And That's Not All ...
Scientists report in the Feb. 24 issue of the journal Nature the discovery of live bacteria collected from a quarter-mile (400 meters) under the floor of the ocean.

Researchers have long known there were lots of biological cells embedded deep in ocean sediment. But they could not determine how much of it was alive.

The new study drew samples of sediment from beneath the Pacific. Between 10 and 30 percent of the cells were alive. That's a lot, considering that ocean sediment covers about two-thirds of the planet.

"This study brings us closer to understanding the limits of life," says Lev Neretin of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany.

-- RRB


Other microbes have been discovered in similar frigid environments, sometimes clinging to pockets of liquid water in ice packs. And some microbes survive in ice as spores, but they need to be cultured to bring them to life.

NASA described the newfound critter as "the first fully described, validated species ever found alive in ancient ice."

"They immediately started swimming when the ice melted," Hoover told LiveScience, adding that the cryopreserved bacteria were instantly ready to eat and multiply.

Cousins on Mars?

The announcement of the discovery Wednesday comes just a day after a team of European researchers said they found blocks of ice just under the surface of Mars near the equator. The Europeans said the ice, between 2 million and 5 million years old, could serve as storehouses for life.

Hoover said the creatures he has found might be able to survive in their suspended state for millions of years. The discovery opens up a whole new possibility that a future mission to Mars might be able to retrieve any life that's there.

"Ice samples from this [Martian ice] sea could contain cryopreserved microorganisms if life ever flourished on the surface of Mars," Hoover said in a telephone interview. He is particularly excited about the instant revival qualities of the creatures found in Alaska.

"You might actually get them growing in pure culture," he said of the potential Martian cousins. It would be a "wonderful way of retrieving intact, viable Martian organisms, if they are there."

Water does not guarantee life, but it is a crucial ingredient.

Hoover said the Martian ice blocks are so near the surface that they might partly melt in summer, creating underground pools of water that would allow any microorganisms to grow and reproduce. (Life above ground is considered unlikely due to Mars' dry surface conditions and intense radiation.)

Long process

The discovery process goes back to 1999, when Hoover and a colleague started a search for extremophiles in a tunnel north of Fairbanks, Alaska. The tunnel was dug by the Army Corps of Engineers in the mid-1960s to help scientists study permafrost prior to construction of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline.

Other Extreme Life
Hoover went in search of one type of creature, but also found bacterial cells that surprisingly came to life as soon as the ice thawed. The bacteria thrive on sugars and proteins in total absence of oxygen.

"Life is far more diverse, and far more resistant to conditions we consider hostile, than was thought possible only a decade or two ago," Hoover said. "Studying these organisms helps us understand that life may be far more widespread in the cosmos than we previously imagined."

The bacteria, called Carnobacterium pleistocenium, might also be interesting to medical researchers.

"The enzymes and proteins it possesses, which give it the ability to spring to life after such long periods of dormancy, might hold the key to long-term, cryogenic -- or very low temperature -- storage of living cells, tissues and perhaps even complex life forms," Hoover said.

Microbiologist Elena Pikuta of the University of Alabama in Huntsville contributed to the research.

Seen under a microscope, the live bacteria are stained green. Dead ones are red. Credit: NASA/MSFC/R. Hoover

Sidenote : The microscopic photo above strangely reminded me of the oppositely super large Hubble Deep Space Image below. No relation of course but both are purty ;o)

Spirit on Mars: Vista Viewing At Larry’s Lookout
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 03 March 2005
06:53 am ET

When you think Mars, "Tennessee Valley", "Cumberland Ridge" and "Husband Hill" don’t come to mind. But these are spots on the red planet that NASA’s robotically-controlled Spirit rover is exploring, all within its Gusev Crater landing site.

Like a camera-clicking tourist trying to get that best snapshot, Spirit is comfortably sitting at "Larry’s Lookout" –- after days of wheel slipping and sliding to reach the spectacular vista.

Indeed, both Spirit and its sister robot, Opportunity have in recent weeks covered more ground on the planet’s surface over a handful of consecutive days, then either vehicle did in their first 70 days on Mars.

Opportunity has now driven 1.87 miles (3,014 meters) since landing; Spirit even farther, 2.58 miles (4,157 meters). Opportunity is heading south toward a rugged landscape called "etched terrain," where it might find exposures of deeper layers of bedrock than it has seen so far. Meanwhile Spirit succeeded in climbing "Husband Hill."

"We’re at Larry’s Lookout," said Steve Squyres, leader of the Mars rover science team at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The last few days on Mars have been spent jockeying the rover into position to take the "Lookout Pan", he added, a rover photographic assignment to fully document the view from the crest of Cumberland Ridge.

Stepping stone

Spirit is presently positioned at Larry’s Lookout, some 200 feet (60 meters) above the plains.

"It’s kind of up high and on the left side of this valley. It really looked liked a good place to go and stand there…in a coonskin hat…and look out across the vast expanse of the valley. That was what the goal was for going there," said Larry Crumpler, the man who championed the stopover point.

Crumpler is a research curator in volcanology and space sciences at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque, and is on the Mars rover science team.

"It’s a good stepping stone on our way either to the summit or something else more interesting," Crumpler said. The Columbia Hills have proven of high scientific worth, he pointed out.

"Whatever it is, the Columbia Hills represent materials that are much older than the plains that we crossed coming in. Many of us feel that they are likely to represent something getting back into the wetter part of martian history," Crumpler told SPACE.com. "Whatever it is, they represent an older story…older rocks that have seen wetter times."

Sweeping panorama

From Larry’s Lookout, a sweeping panorama of imaging is now basically done. "We’re about to start moving again," Squyres said, after some nearby work before resuming the climb, he said. Hundreds of pictures have been taken from the spot. They will be used to create a spectacular view of what the rover can see.

The reason for climbing to this vantage point, Squyres told SPACE.com, was to allow rover operators to make a crucial decision, either to descend into Tennessee Valley or whether to continue up Husband Hill.

"We’ve already seen what we needed to see, and we’ve made the decision. We’re going to climb," Squyres said.

There were several reasons for the judgment.

Climb or die

According to Squyres, the higher Spirit moves on Husband Hill, the more interesting things seem to get geologically. Second, continuing the climb gives rover scientists access to very interesting terrain on the south side of the hill, he said.

Lastly, Navigation Camera images from Spirit of Tennessee Valley have not revealed anything that looks as tempting as targets up the hill and farther to the south, Squyres explained.

The reach for the crest of the hill has a target date. It is driven by the need for Spirit’s solar arrays to soak up as much solar energy as possible. Squyres said that by Sol 500, "give or take a little", Spirit should roll up to the new arrival point.

"There’s a serious celestial mechanics imperative…to make it to the top of the hill by about sol 500. We have to climb or die," Squyres said.

Saltiest place on Mars

"The seasons continue to change on Mars, with spring really coming on now. By about Sol 500 the Sun will be passing directly overhead Spirit’s site at noon," Squyres continued. "So that will be a good time to be back on relatively level ground, instead of the north-facing slopes we’re on now."

As summer comes on at Spirit’s location, the Sun moves to the south.

"We’ll want to transition to the south-facing slopes on the far side of the hill," Squyres said. "We have not decided whether we’ll try to get to the actual summit or not. This is exceptionally difficult terrain for driving, and if time gets tight it may make more sense to skirt the summit and head around to safe terrain on the other side. But we’re going up from here."

In regards to when the rover will depart the area of Larry’s Lookout is still an open question. "There are some very interesting targets around us, and we may spend a bit of time here before we resume the climb," Squyres said, noting that a patch of soil recently investigated has yielded a surprise. "The record for the saltiest place on Mars is now in Gusev Crater."

"It seems like every time we go higher on Husband Hill, we find more interesting stuff," Squyres said.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Mars, sister robot, Opportunity, continues its surveying of Meridiani Planum. Both rovers are in good shape, "but we’ve completely voided the warranty at this point. Every day is a gift," Squyres concluded.

Site below has mucho more which can be greatly enlarged for detail...

Spirit Gets A Dust Devil Once-Over
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 12 March 2005
12:51 pm ET

Mars scientists and engineers are elated about a dust-busting blast that has struck the Spirit rover at its Gusev crater exploration site.

Turns out that a martian whirlwind – dubbed a dust devil – likely zoomed over the robot high up in the Columbia Hills. That fleeting flyby effectively cleaned Spirit’s solar arrays, giving the robot a new lease on life.

Engineers report that the rover’s power reading quickly shot up to almost as high as when the rover landed on Mars over a year ago.

Gusev: Alive with dust devils

Rover scientists suspected something was up at the Gusev site when Spirit’s wheel tracks were disappearing. Onboard cameras could look down and see the tracks vanishing. Rover team members assumed that the site was experiencing a heavy dust loading in the atmosphere.

Indeed, the rover’s energy quickly dropped. Seeing the robot’s decreasing power level, controllers started to consider cutting back on rover Mars work.

"Gusev was alive with dust devils," explained one scientist familiar with rover operations.

But suddenly Spirit’s available energy rocketed to a high level. The plus-up in power, team members believe, was due to a whirlwind passing right over the robot, removing the dust that had collected on its solar cells.

Martian squeegee men

The impact of the devilish dust-off was significant.

"The noon solar output from the panels went from a 40 percent loss to just 7 percent," said rover science team member, Larry Crumpler, a research curator in volcanology and space sciences at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.

Images of the panels taken later showed "beautiful dark panels," Crumpler explained. "And all the wires and edges on the [rover] deck have little dust tails. I think it might have been the Martian squeegee men. Either that or one heck of a buffeting by a dust devil," he said.

Spirit has been busy wrapping up a spectacular panorama from the vantage point of "Larry’s Lookout."

Miracle cleaning event

Earlier this month, lead investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover mission, Steve Squyres of Cornell University, noted that Spirit’s depleted power was reducing the number of hours per day available to snap photos.

Squyres couldn’t gauge the chance of what he called a "miracle cleaning event" – akin to what occurred months ago on Opportunity, its sister robot on the other side of Mars. "If it happens, I’ll take it!"

"We have to assume the worst…that the solar panels are going to stay dirty and just get dirtier," Squyres told SPACE.com at the time.

As to what caused Opportunity’s solar panels at Meridiani Planum to become cleaned is a puzzle, Squyres said. "Wind has to be involved at some level you figure. Frost might have helped. A frost build-up on arrays could coagulate the dust…but the fact is that we don’t understand it very well. But I’ll take it."

Scientists Struggle to Digest Surprises from Europe's Mars Craft
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 16 March 2005
07:01 am ET

LEAGUE CITY, TEXAS – Europe’s Mars Express spacecraft is casting new light on the past and present status of the red planet, wowing scientists with an impressive set of distinctive observations and in some quarters promoting a tinge of jealousy.

Europe’s first and on-going mission to Mars has spotted signs of very recent volcanic activity along with the vestiges of glaciers and gigantic waterfalls. Given these and other findings from the Mars orbiting spacecraft, it is not unreasonable to suggest that life on Mars not only emerged but could have survived to the present in underground niches.

The latest in Mars Express data and what’s ahead for the mission is being shared between some 1,500 space scientists attending the 36th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, held here March 14-18 and co-sponsored by the Lunar and Planetary Institute and NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

"Clearly, thanks to the instruments on Mars Express, we are seeing a new Mars … a Mars that we didn’t expect," said Bernard Foing, Chief Scientist of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Science Program. "We have found evidence of recent volcanism, which is yesterday in the scale of martian history, as well as very recent glacial activity and ice deposits."

Foing told SPACE.com that some people thought Mars volcanism is dead. "No, it could start up again tomorrow," he said.

Operating in orbit around the red planet for more than a year now, ESA’s Mars Express data confirms that Mars was wet and possibly warm very early in its history. Extended amounts of liquid water were present, Foing said. But with the erosion of the martian atmosphere, the last three billion years have left Mars cold and dry, he said.

Look globally and locally

What is important now, Foing added, is to identify what niches life on Mars could have retreated to and then survived within for the last three billion years.

Mars Express has found levels of methane in the planet’s atmosphere. These measurements are puzzling, Foing said, and could be interpreted as the possible signature of life on Mars today.

"We did not expect to have it," he said, "so it’s a discovery."

Another cause of the methane could be from the presence of active volcanism. Indeed, Mars Express is prodding scientists to consider currently active volcanism in terms of thermal vents that could serve as comfy niches for potential ecosystems.

"Because Mars has a large variety of potential habitats for life, there is need for follow-up measurement to better understand Mars globally and also locally," Foing said.

Grasping the data: long, hard haul

While on one hand there is excitement regarding the Mars Express findings, there is also a "not so fast" feeling drifting through the conference here.

There is a bonanza of data being churned out by dual Mars rovers – Spirit and Opportunity – as well as two U.S. orbiters, the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey.

"I don’t think there’s ever been a time where we’ve had this much information about Mars coming down at once," said Matt Golombek, a Mars geologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"I see some things beginning to emerge," Golombek said. "But there’s so much information coming down now that we’re just trying to grapple with it." It's not the first time. With the Viking missions, a 1970’s Mars orbiter/lander program, "it almost took 10 years to get our arms around what that data was trying to tell us."

Similarly, the newly gained Mars Express data will take time to calibrate and decipher what the instruments are telling the scientific community, said Joseph Boyce, on the research faculty at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu.

"But right now, what you see initially is pretty spectacular," Boyce said. "The images are absolutely incredible. They’ve done a good job."

The European community has arrived

One Mars Express instrument still to be activated also promises to yield unique data. In May, the spacecraft is due to activate its Sub-Surface Sounding Radar Altimeter (MARSIS). It will look for signs of frozen ice underground, as well as search for reserves of liquid water.

The Mars Express is already producing data that you can take to the bank, with other payoffs yet to come, said Ray Arvidson, the Mars Exploration Rover mission deputy principal investigator of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He is also a U.S. collaborator on the Mars Express visible and near infrared mapping spectrometer – called OMEGA -- designed to provide the mineralogical and molecular composition of the surface and atmosphere of Mars.

"I look at it as the European community has arrived," Arvidson noted.

As for the detection of methane, and speculation about its origin, Arvidson said: "I think it will be controversial for years…but it’s exciting. I think that measurement will probably stand … but the interpretation will be subject to scrutiny for a long time."

Credibility gap?

Within the next few weeks the Mars Express data will be distributed widely.

"It will take a while for everything to filter down to the U.S. community," Arvidson advised, "so they can look at the same data sets themselves and come to the same conclusions and then go on to other new conclusions."

Arvidson underscored not only the success of Mars Express, but also ESA’s SMART-1 lunar orbiter now orbiting the Moon, and the recent landing of the European-supplied Huygens probe on Titan, a moon of Saturn.

"They are pumped up and rightly so," Arvidson said. "It bodes well for the independent future of Europeans exploring the solar system and also for joint activities."

In some scientific circles, however, there have been subtle jabs at the Mars Express team for hyping data and making claims as firsts that don’t deserve such a label. In essence, the specter of a credibility gap has been chatted about.

"I think that’s just a few people," Arvidson said. "The not-invented-here [in the U.S.] is a little bit of the shock effect of seeing all these new data from people whose primary language is not English."

Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington April 5, 2005

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

RELEASE: 05-091

DURABLE MARS ROVERS SENT INTO THIRD OVERTIME PERIOD

NASA has approved up to 18 more months of operations for Spirit and
Opportunity, the twin Mars rovers that have already surprised engineers and
scientists by continuing active exploration for more than 14 months.

"The rovers have proven their value with major discoveries about ancient watery
environments on Mars that might have harbored life," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar,
deputy associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "We are
extending their mission through September 2006 to take advantage of having such
capable resources still healthy and in excellent position to continue their
adventures."

The rovers have already completed 11 months of extensions on top of their
successful three-month prime missions. "We now have to make long-term plans for
the vehicles because they may be around for quite a while," said Jim Erickson,
rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Erickson cautioned though, "Either mission could end tomorrow with a random part
failure. With the rovers already performing well beyond their original design
lifetimes, having a part wear out and disable a rover is a distinct possibility
at any time. But right now, both rovers are in amazingly good shape. We're going
to work them hard to get as much benefit from them as we can, for as long as they
are capable of producing worthwhile science results."

"Spirit and Opportunity are approaching targets that a year ago seemed well out
of reach," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program.
"Their successes strengthen NASA's commitment to a vision with the ambitious
targets of returning samples from Mars and sending human explorers to Mars."

-more-

-2-
Opportunity is within a few football fields' length of a region called "Etched
Terrain," where scientists hope to find rocks exposed by gentle wind erosion
rather than by disruptive cratering impacts, and rocks from a different time in
Mars' history than any examined so far.
"This is a journey into the unknown, to something completely new," said Dr. Steve
Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the
rover's science instruments.

To reach the Etched Terrain, rover planners have been pushing the rover fast.
Opportunity has overtaken Spirit in total distance driven. It has rolled more
than three miles -- eight times the original goal. On March 20, Opportunity also
set a new martian record of 722 feet in a single day's drive. Drive-distance
estimates can vary by a few percent. The long drives take advantage of crossing a
plain so smooth it's "like an East Coast beach," said JPL's Jeff Favretto,
mission manager on the Opportunity shift in recent weeks. Also, Opportunity's
solar panels, though now dustier than Spirit's, still generate enough power to
allow driving for more than three hours on some days.

Spirit is in much rougher terrain than Opportunity, climbing a rocky slope toward
the top of "Husband Hill." However, with a boost in power from wind cleaning its
solar panels on March 9 and with its formerly balky right-front wheel now working
normally, Spirit made some longer one-day drives last week than it had for
months. "We've doubled our power," said JPL's Emily Eelkema, mission manager. "It
has given us extra hours of operations every day, so we can drive longer and
we've used more time for observations."

The jump in power output has taken some urgency out of Spirit's southward climb.
With Mars now beginning southern-hemisphere spring, the sun is farther south in
the sky each day. If not for panel-cleaning, Spirit might be facing the prospect
of becoming critically short of power if still on the north-facing slope by early
June.

"We still want to get to the summit of Husband Hill and then head down into the
'Inner Basin' on the other side," Squyres said. "But now we have more flexibility
in how we carry out the plan. Before, it was climb or die." Cresting the hill is
now not as crucial for solar energy, but it still offers allures of potential
exposures of rock layers not yet examined, plus a vista of surrounding terrain.
In orbital images, the Inner Basin farther south appears to have terracing that
hints of layered rock.

Both rovers do have some signs of wear and exposure. Spirit's rock abrasion tool
shows indications that its grinding teeth might be worn away after exposing the
interiors of five times more rock targets than its design goal of three rocks.
Researchers probably won't know the extent of wear until Spirit's next rock- grinding attempt, which may be weeks away. Also, troubleshooting continues for
determining whether Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer is
still usable despite tests indicating a problem last month. All other instruments
on both rovers are still working normally.

For more information about the rovers and their discoveries on the Internet,
visit: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mer_main.html
-end-

* * *

NASA Scientist: 'Mars Could be Biologically Alive'

By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 19 April 2005
06:43 am ET

BOULDER, Colorado – Evidence for intense local enhancements in methane on Mars has been bolstered by ground-based observations. The methane, as well as water on Mars, was detected using state-of-the-art infrared spectrometers stationed atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii and in Cerro Pachón, Chile.

Scientific teams around the globe are on the trail of methane eking out of Mars. And for good reason: The methane could be the result of biological processes. It could also be an "abiotic" geochemical process, however, or the result of volcanic or hydrothermal activity on the red planet.

Many types of microbes here on Earth produce a signature of methane. Indeed, the tiny fraction of atmospheric carbon found as methane on our planet is churned out almost entirely biologically with only a very small contribution from abiotic processes, scientists say.

Lingering methane

New information on Mars methane has been acquired using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, as well as from the Gemini South telescope sitting on a mountain in the Chilean Andes called Cerro Pachon.

Michael Mumma, a lead investigator at the Center for Astrobiology and Solar System Exploration Division at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, presented the findings during the Biennial Meeting of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, held here April 10-14 and hosted by the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Mumma and his research colleagues have used ground-based spectrometers to carry out a simultaneous search for methane and water vapor. "Pronounced enhancements" of methane have been detected over several equatorial regions on Mars, consistent with "enhanced local release," Mumma reported.

In scientific terms, the methane line detected is "very strong indeed," Mumma noted. Using the high-tech infrared spectrometers, spectra of six narrow longitudinal bands across the face of Mars were taken. A spectra is an analysis of light broken into its rainbow of colors.

"Every one of these longitudes shows a very substantial enhancement in the equatorial zone," Mumma explained. "So this is a very intense source of methane on Mars in this region. It also requires a very rapid decay of methane…more rapid than photochemistry would allow," he added.

On Mars, the photochemical lifetime of methane is very short - roughly 300 years. Therefore, any methane now lingering within the martian atmosphere must have been released recently.

Mumma said that his data – along with what Mars Global Surveyor's Thermal Emission Spectrometer measured at the same time – suggests that "a major source" of methane over Valles Marineris is evident during the fall equinox on Mars.

Footprint of data

Spotlighted at this week’s meeting in terms of strong methane detection was an area on Mars east of Hellas Basin to west of Hellas Basin – and the eastern most edge of the large region where NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter found subsurface hydrogen in high abundance. That hydrogen is thought to be the signature of water ice, scientists said.

Moreover, for the first time, and using the Gemini South telescope, two lines of methane have been simultaneously seen on Mars. And when each is studied independently, they show a consistent abundance of methane on the planet -- within the narrow stripes across Mars scanned by the Earth-based gear.

Furthermore, the ground-based "footprint" of data extracted was contrasted with data taken in a similar time period by the Mars Global Surveyor’s (MGS) Thermal Emission Spectrometer. That Mars-orbiting MGS sensor yields information on the red planet’s surface pressure and temperature, as well as water vapor within the column of martian atmosphere the sensor is inspecting.

The MGS data helped validate the approach taken by Mumma and his colleagues.

Extremely challenging to analyze

The new results stem from observational sweeps of Mars done in 2003, made possible by two years of preliminary work.

"We had to invent several new methods for analyzing the data," Mumma told SPACE.com. "These data are extremely challenging to analyze," he said, with the scientist drawing from his nearly 30 years of work in planetary atmospheric spectroscopy.

Mumma said the data collected from Earth is a step to help sort out biogenic versus primordial or geothermal origins of the Mars methane. Additional chemical tests can help constrain these possibilities, he added, but investigations from space, around Mars, or on the planet – perhaps even samples robotically returned to Earth -- are likely needed to reach a definitive answer.

Next up for Mumma and the methane on Mars quest is acquiring more telescope time.

Geologically alive, biologically alive…or both?

Requests are in for telescope time next January, both at the IRTF and at the W.M. Keck Observatory, also in Hawaii. Using the Keck facility, Mumma said his team could look for seven different types of molecules at Mars, allowing them to chip away at the question of biological versus geochemical production of methane.

Culling out from the data the release locales of methane on Mars is critical to the selection of future landing sites, "to search for organics that are either biological or abiotic," Mumma said. Finding out whether methane releases are seasonally dependent is also of keen interest, he said.

There is no doubt in Mumma’s mind that something is going on at Mars. "Mars was wet…was it also alive…or is it now alive?"

But "alive" could geologically alive and not necessarily biologically alive, Mumma said.

"Or Mars could be biologically alive," he added. "Or maybe both. So to me that’s the real issue. Now we think that Mars is not a dead planet. Even if it’s just geology that is occurring and releasing this methane…that’s pretty darn interesting. And the geologists are very excited about this prospect."

Explosions and falling rock once peppered the Martian hills that NASA’s Mars rover Spirit currently calls home, astronomers said Tuesday.

Spirit, currently scaling Husband Hill above its Gusev Crater landing site, has found evidence of an explosive period in the region’s history, in which volcanoes or a massive impact showered the land with debris and possibly unearthed magma. Whether they were volcanic or impact explosions, however, is not yet known.

"Earlier in its history, this part of Gusev Crater was a violent place," said Steven Squyres, lead scientist from Cornell University for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission. "There were explosions going and there was stuff raining from the sky, and some of it was altered to a significant degree by a fairly modest size of water."

Squyres and his fellow rover team members announced the find, which is based on a trio of rock outcrops observed by Spirit’s cameras, during a Tuesday press conference at an American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.

"Really, for the first time since the start of the Spirit mission, we’ve got the kind of geology we can sink our teeth into," Squyres said. "The last six weeks, I’d say, have probably been the most productive of the whole Spirit mission."

Spirit’s sister rover Opportunity has also made progress, though not altogether scientific, at its Meridiani Planum. The rover is slowly but surely inching its way out of a deep sand dune, though mission managers don’t expect to free the robot for another few weeks.

The secret’s in the rocks

It took the Spirit rover months to clamber up Husband Hill’s steep, slippery side, during which time the robot found little to suggest the region differed from the volcanic rock remains scattered across the rest of Gusev Crater.

But now halfway up Husband, after studying three rock outcrops, researchers are telling a different story.

"All of a sudden, we have geologic structure…everything changed," Squyres said. "It was nothing more than you had to look at it from a different angle."

Analysis by Spirit of rock outcrops known as "Larry’s Lookout," "Methuselah" and "Jibsheet" contained signs of the Gusev’s tumultuous past, researchers said.

"Their chemical composition is very distinct from what we found out on the plains," said rover science team member Richard Morris, of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, adding that there are signs of the mineral ilmenite – which is often formed in magma. "This is the first appearance of this mineral we’ve seen."

While the rocks around Spirit share some compositional traits, the amount of weathering due to water differs among the outcrops, as do their textures. At "Methuselah," for example, astronomers found the finest rock layers seen by Spirit to date, while "Jibsheet" sported a bulbous, globular look.

"Gusev has certainly turned out to be different than we expected it to be," Squyres said, adding that he still believes that the crater was once the watery lake suggested by orbital photographs.

The rocks of the Columbia Hill chain, which includes Husband Hill, may completely predate that Gusev lake, rising like an island above the plains, Squyres added.

Opportunity ekes forward

While Spirit continues to explore Husband Hill, its robotic twin Opportunity is slowly but surely crawling out of a sandy quagmire on the other side of Mars.

The rover has moved about 10 inches (27 centimeters) – though its wheels turned enough to travel 157 feet (48 meters) – which mission controllers say is good progress. [An animation of Opportunity’s wheel-spinning is available by clicking here.]

"We’re only traveling about half a percent of what we’re commanding," explained Jim Erickson, rover project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "So it’s a very low number, but very consistent."

At the current rate, it may be two more weeks before Opportunity once again reaches safe ground, Erickson added.

Opportunity is currently stuck in the outskirts of a region known as the "etched terrain" which contains - scientists hope - exposed bedrock that could shed more light on water’s role in the history of Meridiani Planum. Astronomers know that the region was once awash with the liquid stuff.

"We’re learning that’s it’s a tough place to do business," Squyres said of the area.

Now well past the one-year mark, NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers are still going strong.

"We’re still trying to decide exactly how long they’ll go by running them until they wear out," Erickson said. "We just don’t know how long these things are going to last."

posted: 05 June 2005
08:00 am ET

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- The Mars rover Opportunity resumed rolling freely across the Martian surface Saturday after scientists freed it from a sand dune where it had been mired for nearly five weeks, NASA officials said.

Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission, cheered when images beamed back to Earth showed the rover's wheels were free.

"We've got a working rover on Mars that cost $400 million to build and ... keep working," project manager Jim Erickson said. "I'd like to wear it out rather than lose it."

A photograph taken by Opportunity and posted on the laboratory's Web site showed the long tracks of its wheels crossing a featureless dune.

Opportunity's wheels started slipping April 26 during a planned 295-foot trip. While trying to drive over a foot-high sand dune, the robotic explorer stopped moving, its wheels hub-deep in soft soil.

Engineers spent weeks with an Opportunity mock-up figuring out what commands to give the robot to free it, but the maneuvers took time. The rover inched forward less than a foot in a month, losing most of its traction every time it tried to roll.

"It's kind of like we were swimming through it," Erickson said.

But on Saturday morning, data showed that Opportunity was free at last and had moved several feet across the dune.

Erickson said engineers want to be sure the rover will not encounter any more patches that could trap it again. It will be Monday or Tuesday night before a test drive is ordered, he said.

Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, have been exploring opposite sides of Mars since landing in January 2004. Both rovers have long outlasted their primary, three-month missions.

NASA’s dual Mars rovers – Spirit and Opportunity – are wheeling about in their respective zones of exploration: Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum.

The Opportunity Mars rover is headed north right now, but only for a little while, said Cornell University’s Steve Squyres, lead scientist on the Mars Exploration Rover program.

Scientists and engineers are delighted to see the golf cart-sized robot free to move about – after being ensnared in sand for some five weeks.

Now the robot is out of purgatory, quite literally, and making short runs within Meridiani Planum.

A little younger…a little softer

"We think we’ve got a few clues about what made Purgatory Dune different from the ones we drove over before we hit it. It’s a little taller than the dunes that came before it, and a little steeper, Squyres told SPACE.com. "We also have a hunch that the dunes that run from northwest to southeast, like Purgatory does, may be a little younger and a little softer than the ones that run north-south," he explained.

Squyres said rover operators on Earth are now driving Opportunity to the north, but only for a short distance. From that vantage point, scientists and engineers will take a careful look around, south and east and west, to find the southward path that has the fewest Purgatory-like obstacles.

"Once we’ve found our preferred path, we’re going to turn south again and drive, very carefully, back into the thick of it," Squyres said.

Squyres advised not to expect over 650 feet (200 meter) rover drives anytime soon. "We'll have our safety checks turned on, and that’ll make for slower going."

But the goal now is, Squyres said, what the goal was three months ago: Erebus Crater.

In his rover update on a Cornell University rover web site, Squyres said that instruments on Opportunity’s robot arm have been used to study dune dynamics. The hope is to avoid running into another Purgatory Dune.

Following drives to the north first -- away from Erebus -- there will be "long hard push south" toward that large crater and its attraction of geological features.

Holiday driving

For the Spirit rover, on the other side of Mars, science work high in the Columbia Hills -- within Gusev Crater -- has been going extremely well.

Last weekend, the robot stopped to look at an outcrop on the west side of "Husband Hill". All the target names under study were themed to "4th of July", said Larry Cumpler at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque. He is on the Mars rover science team.

Spirit’s instrumented robot arm surveyed an outcrop named "Independence", while a specific target for science study was dubbed "Franklin". Other targets include some of the other signers of the Declaration of Independence…and other spots were named after various types of fireworks, Crumpler told SPACE.com.

This week, the hope of Spirit operators is to steer the rover to ever-higher elevations.

Squyres said the Spirit team is a little puzzled why the rover is barely leaving tracks. The ground is hard, he noted on the Cornell rover web site.

"It makes for great traction and great climbing. I’m still not confident that we’ll make it to the summit, since the images seem to show a transition to softer ground with more loose rocks ahead. But we’re enjoying the conditions while we’ve got them," Squyres reported.

Those plucky robots—Spirit and Opportunity—are continuing their respective missions on Mars, each wheeling toward new science objectives.

Images from Opportunity show an expanse of dunes at Meridiani Planum. Rover operators are taking precautions that the golf cart-sized robot won’t get bogged down in any sand trap—to avoid a repeat performance that halted movement of the machine last April.

It took nearly five weeks for engineers to extricate Opportunity’s wheels that became buried in soft sand of a small martian dune—later dubbed "Purgatory Dune" by the Mars Exploration Rover team.

On the other side of Mars at Gusev Crater, Spirit continues to climb Husband Hill within the Columbia Hills. Using its science-instrumented robot arm, the rover has made observations that are causing a stir within the circle of Mars rover scientists on the project.

In a maze

Opportunity is pressing onward to Erebus crater, said Steve Squyres, lead science team member for the Mars Exploration Rover effort at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

In a rover update, Squyres noted that driving the rover across the sandy landscape is a challenge.

"We are literally in a maze. The easiest going is to stay within the troughs between the ripple crests, which run roughly north-south. So the best way to make southward progress is to follow a trough until it peters out, make a ‘lane change’ to a nearby trough, and continue onward," Squyres explained.

Using imagery taken from Mars orbit, scientists and engineers see what they term the "Erebus Highway". It is a stretch of light-toned terrain, perhaps consisting of exposed bedrock. If so, that’ll make easier going for Opportunity.

"We also like the idea of getting to bedrock from a science perspective," Squyres added. "It’s been a long time since we’ve looked at any rock with Opportunity."

Cross-country driving

But there’s a catch, Squyres warned.

"The entrance to the Erebus Highway is not straight south of us, along the troughs. It is a bit off to the east, on a heading closer to 160 degrees or so," Squyres explained. However, to get there, the rover has to go "cross-country, going up and over quite a few ripple crests."

"That’s do-able," said Squyres, "but it’s also a lot slower than just bombing straight south down a nice trough."

A driving decision is forthcoming. Heading for the highway means making slow progress for awhile, but perhaps a better route to Erebus Crater. If the rover wheels down the troughs instead, it’s a speedier path to Erebus Crater.

"So it should work either way," Squyres said. "Whether or not we’re actually going to ‘hit the Highway’ is an open question at this point, but Erebus isn’t too far off either way you cut it."

There’s some other good news about what Opportunity is driving through. The terrain appears to be changing as it moves south of Purgatory Dune. Rover images show fewer tall dunes, more pebbles in the troughs, and what might be tiny outcrops of bedrock.

"I don’t want to jump to conclusions," said Squyres, "but the driving definitely looks a little nicer here than it did a hundred meters back."

Chugging through the data

The Spirit robot at Gusev Crater is also on the move.

During its ascent of Husband Hill within the Columbia Hills, the robot came across a "very cool outcrop" of layered bedrock that has been tagged as Independence Rock, Squyres said.

"We’ve thoroughly worked it over with all of the arm instruments now, and it’s very strange stuff," Squyres reported. He said it was one of the oddest things seen at Gusev.

"I’m not ready to go into much detail here about the chemistry and mineralogy yet, since we’re still chugging through the data," Squyres noted. The rock is clearly highly altered, sporting an unusually low iron content, he said, "which isn’t something we’ve seen much of before."

Science work at the Independence Rock has been completed. Spirit has resumed its ascent. "The ground is real solid here, and the climbing is good. I still don’t know if we’ll reach the summit or not, but the recent progress has been excellent," Squyres concluded.

According to rover operator, Jake Matijevic of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), both Spirit and Opportunity have benefited from clearing skies at the two landing sites.

Furthermore, the rovers have improved energy levels. That is due to dust clearing events which have been seen on both vehicles, Matijevic reported.

Spirited Assault: Mars Rover Nears Summit of Husband Hill
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 01 August 2005
11:46 am ET

The Spirit Mars rover is within striking range of attaining a once out-of-the-question mission milestone: Reaching the summit of Husband Hill at its Gusev crater exploration site, high in the Columbia Hills, named after the astronauts lost in the tragic shuttle reentry accident of 2003.

"I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I think our chances of making it to the summit look pretty good now," said Steve Squyres, lead scientist at Cornell University for the Mars Exploration Rover effort.

"We’re about to start naming rocks up [t]here after famous mountaineers," Squyres told SPACE.com, "so that gives you a little insight into our mind-set!"

Target-rich environment

Squyres, as well as Chris Leger, one of Spirit’s main drivers, are both climbers.

"So on a gut level we’d really like to get to the summit," Squyres said. "And the scientific case for going to the summit is very solid. But we’re doing mountaineering for which there is no precedent. So I’ve been trying not to get my hopes up."

Squyres said the terrain facing Spirit has been very solid of late, and the driving has gone well.

On the other hand, scaling Husband Hill has been slow going, primarily due to the rich bounty of observations on the way.

"We’d go a lot faster if the science weren’t so good! The upper reaches of Husband Hill are turning out to be a remarkably target-rich environment," Squyres added. As example, a "fabulous new outcrop" dubbed "Voltaire", he said, "doesn’t look like anything we’ve ever seen before."

Voltaire has received close inspection by the rover’s science instruments, Squyres said, prior to resuming the summit assault. "It’s just too interesting to pass up."

Viewing distance

From Spirit’s vantage point at the summit, what kind of outlook can be expected?

"Hard to say," Squyres responded.

"We should get a good view to the horizon in all directions, which should be pretty spectacular. I think, however, that it might be hard to get a really good look in all directions at the lower flanks of Husband Hill itself," Squyres said.

Not only is the summit pretty rounded, Spirit itself isn’t very tall.

"So we may have to proceed down the south side of the hill a little way before we’ll be able to say much about what’s on the other side," Squyres said.

Finding the right balance

Spirit is making "discovery after discovery" on Husband Hill, Squyres said in a recent update on the Cornell-based Mars rover website.

The close-at-hand reaching of the summit – after lengthy bouts of the robot slipping, sliding, and clawing its way up the slope -- has sparked discussion within Spirit’s science team, Squyres remarked.

"The strong feeling on the team is that we should try to go for what we’ve been calling ‘Summit 2’...which is both closer to us and a little bit higher than Summit 1," Squyres reported.

With Spirit’s imminent arrival at the select pinnacle, rover scientists will probably want to take a fairly substantial panorama there, then wheel down onto the lower flanks of Husband Hill, Squyres said.

It has been an interesting time working on Spirit these days, Squyres added, "as we try to find the right balance between our eagerness to get moving up the hill and our excitement over all the new stuff we’re finding at Voltaire."

Long climb

All looks good for reaching the summit in short order, said Larry Crumpler, a Mars rover science team member and a research curator in volcanology and space sciences at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.

"The plan is to start driving in a southeasterly direction toward one of the summits, the exact one being determined after we get a look at the terrain ahead," Crumpler told SPACE.com.

In terms of the significant events or "arrivals" during Spirit’s mission, wheeling up to the summit "probably ranks as one of the greatest," Crumpler explained. "This will be one of the biggest events in the mission."

Crumpler said that arrival at the summit within the Columbia Hills marks the end of Spirit’s long climb that has been underway since sol 330, or about 230 sols ago - with many stops along the way. A "sol" (Latin for "sun") is the Martian equivalent of a day in reference to the planet’s period of rotation.

Spirit landed on Mars at Gusev crater in early January 2003. Its sistercraft -- the Opportunity rover – touched down a few weeks after Spirit and is busy trekking about Meridiani Planum on the other side of the planet.

Reaching "Home Plate"

Claiming victory in getting to the summit will depend on whether some "utterly compelling target" shows up en route, Crumpler advised. "The desire is to get to the summit, do what needs to be done there, and start heading down as soon as possible."

"At the summit we will probably spend some time doing a large panorama," Crumpler said. "One of the goals there will be to take a hard look at the basin to the south where one of the long-term targets of interest -- ‘Home Plate’ -- is located. Specifically we will want to see what the best route might be."

Crumpler advised that there is some fairly steep terrain on the other side of the hill that Spirit will have to descend, so finding the best path is a top agenda item.

"One of the considerations is that many of us would like to get a look at the possibly layered terrain on the east side of the basin on our way to Home Plate," Crumpler said. Yet another factor is the distance. Home Plate is roughly a mile away from Spirit’s current location, which may take a few months of driving.

"In a couple of hundred sols we will need to start considering the decreasing elevation of the Sun again," Crumpler said, "so it would be nice to have north-facing slopes available either before or after reaching Home Plate."

Surrogate explorers

Crumpler recalled that, shortly after Spirit touched down, there were longing looks at the Columbia Hills in the distance. At that time, talk of possibly wheeling the robot to that faraway geological feature was typically met by laughter, he said.

"None of us thought we would ever be in the hills, let alone be on the summit," Crumpler concluded.

The Mars Exploration Rover work is yielding a wellspring of science data, Squyres said, stressing that point in his just released book: Roving Mars – Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet (Hyperion Books, August 2005).

In the book, Squyres writes about the melding of humans and far-flung machines to study Mars…of sending robotic surrogates for human explorers into an unknown environment on a voyage of scientific discovery. "The key is not just to follow the robots, but to follow the intense and passionate people who conceived and built them."

Updated 12:32 p.m. ET Aug. 23

The Spirit Mars robot is closing in on a milestone moment in its roving history – wheeling up into position atop Husband Hill. Images being transmitted by Spirit show a breathtaking view from its vantage point.
"We are within sight of the summit," said Larry Crumpler, a member of the Mars rover science team. He is also research curator in volcanology and space sciences at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.
"We can see 'Home Plate' now as well. The view is really opening up," Crumpler told SPACE.com. Mars rover science teams are prepared to do a "full summit campaign" of observations, he said.

Crumpler said in an earlier interview, once at the summit, one of the goals there will be to take a hard look at the basin to the south where one of the long term targets of interest -- Home Plate -- is located.

Many on the rover science team are hungry to get a look at the possibly layered terrain on the east side of the basin on the way to Home Plate – about a kilometer from Spirit's current location, and a trek that might take a few months, Crumpler noted.

NASA also released an animation of dust devils scooting across the Martian surface.

Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, reached Mars in January 2004 and are well beyond their initial mission timeline.

Crumpler said that Spirit's summit arrival includes a bit of jockeying around.

Rover operators are scouting out the area for a prime picture-taking spot. It is from this slightly higher locale that the big and sweeping panorama images will be taken. Also, science will be carried out at this stop, Crumpler said.

Mars scientists hope to decipher the true makeup of Husband Hill. What exactly is this feature that Spirit is now perched atop?

"Gusev does not give up her secrets easily," said David Des Marais, an astrobiologist at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California.

Images taken by Spirit of the surrounding scene show that the summit area is quite flat, Des Marais told SPACE.com, and is decorated with several drift deposits. "Interesting…but no revelations so far," he said.

All of the hypotheses about the origin of Husband Hill are still quite alive and well, Des Marais noted. They include: 1) a volcanic mount; 2) ancient layered crater floor deposits; 3) remnant of an uplifted crater rim with a mixture of materials having various origins.

"We will probably examine both the sandy deposits and rocks in the summit area," Des Marais said. "Perhaps our greatest opportunity to understand how Husband Hill formed will come when we examine the rocky units that orbital images indicate might adorn the southern flanks of the hill."

Mars Studies Find Buried Crater and Signs of Past Water
By Bjorn Carey
Staff Writer
posted: 30 November 2005
02:10 pm ET

New observations of Mars' interior have revealed a crater hidden from the surface and new information about ice below the polar cap.

Fresh research announced today also finds chemical signatures of past water on Mars that add to other evidence suggesting a wet past.

Scientists have long held that the deep channels and signs of extensive aqueous erosion are evidence that Mars was once a watery world. But these geologic signatures alone are not enough to confirm that liquid water was stable on the planet’s surface for extended periods of time.

Liquid water is a key ingredient to life as we know it. While there is no firm evidence that biology has ever existed on Mars, scientists are seeking locations that may once have held standing water as logical places to search with future missions.

Today researchers on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express team announced they have detected minerals on Mars’ surface that could only have formed from long-term exposure to large amounts of liquid water.

Global view

Over the last 18 months, scientists at OMEGA – Observatoire pour la Mineralogy, l’Eau, les Glaces et l’Activité in France – have used the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer on board the spacecraft to map nearly the entire surface of the planet. During this time, the instrument detected the two different classes of hydrated, clay-like minerals over large, but isolated, regions of the planet.

Phyllosilicates, one of the minerals discovered, form when molten rock is chemically altered by long-term contact with water. Phyllosilicates were spotted as dark deposits mainly in Arabia Terra, Terra Meridiani, Sytris Major, Nili Fossae and Mawrth Vallis regions.

The second type of mineral, hydrated sulfates, are formed as deposits from salted, generally acidic, water. These were seen in layered deposits in the vast canyon Valles Marineris, the Terra Meridiani region, and within dark dunes in the northern polar cap.

"An early active hydrological system must have been present on Mars to account for the large amount of clays, or phyllosilicates in general, that OMEGA has observed," said OMEGA principal investigator Jean-Pierre Bibring.

After analyzing the surrounding areas, the OMEGA team determined that the phyllosilicates were created more than 3.8 billion years ago. The hydrated sulfates would not require as much time to form, but acidic water must be present.

The mineral-rich regions could be interesting places to explore with future missions, said Bibring, who presented a map of Mawrth Vallis region where the water-rich minerals, shown in blue, were detected.

"All the blue spots are where we should go in the future," Bibring said.

Water ice today

Researchers with the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding instrument on board the orbiter also presented their observations of the northern polar ice cap and evidence of subsurface ice, which is published today in the online version of the journal Science.

From the reflection and absorption intensities of the 1.8-kilometer-thick ice cap, they have determined that it is nearly pure water.

"The dust component must be very small – two percent or less based on absorption," said MARSIS co-principal investigator Jeffrey Plaut.

The low frequency radar instrument also revealed a buried crater basin in the northern Chryse Planitia lowlands. Although the giant crater is nearly 250 kilometers in diameter, it is shallowly buried and invisible on the planet’s surface. Additional MARSIS radar probes have shown a 1-kilometer-thick deposit of material in the basin that has the characteristics of ice, suggesting that water once flowed into the crater.

"We have no convincing evidence yet of subsurface liquid water," Plaut said, adding that it is very early on in the search. "However, we can certainly say that we have seen significant amounts of subsurface water in the form of ice. The search for liquid water will begin in earnest next year."

Broken Wheel Forces NASA Rover to Seek Alternate Winter Site on Mars
By Alicia Chang
Associated Press Writer
posted: 11 April 2006
1:59 p.m. ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Mars rover Spirit, hampered by a broken wheel, has failed to reach its destination and will spend the Martian winter at an alternate site, scientists said.

The solar-powered Spirit was rolling toward the north-facing side of McCool Hill last month to recharge on some sunshine during the winter when its right front wheel stopped working.

After they failed three times to get it to climb McCool, engineers steered Spirit to a closer slope known as Low Ridge, where it arrived over the weekend and will spend the winter, said principal scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University on Monday.

It is not the first time Spirit has had trouble with its right front wheel. The wheel previously had an episode of balkiness, but the latest problem is worse because the motor that spins the wheel stopped working.

"We are anticipating it will be a five-wheeled rover for the rest of the mission," he said.

After the wheel stopped working last month, Spirit drove backward while dragging its broken wheel. But the bad wheel kept slipping into a sandy trench on its way toward McCool, said Jacob Matijevic, engineering team chief.

Although the alternate site should provide enough sunlight for Spirit, it won't be as strong as it would have received on McCool Hill, Matijevic said.

Engineers are considering directing Spirit to McCool in the spring.

Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, landed on opposite ends of Mars in January 2004. Opportunity is making its way to the giant Victoria crater.

Spirit and Opportunity, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, have outlasted their primary missions.

Mars Rovers Power On

By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 25 April 2006
06:56 am ET

Those long-lived NASA Mars rovers—Spirit and Opportunity—remain in fairly good shape, with one robot in survival mode as martian winter arrives while its twin snakes its way across a taxing terrain of sand dunes to reach a striking target.

"Both rovers are doing really well right now," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, lead scientists for the Mars Rover Exploration project. "We had a bit of a scare with Spirit awhile back, losing use of the right front wheel less than a hundred meters shy of our intended wintering spot on McCool Hill," he told SPACE.com.

Squyres said the wheel breakdown came at a time when the terrain was treacherous, a site of soft sand and salt deposits. "That kind of stuff is hard enough to drive in with six wheels, and with five it was just about impossible. It was really frustrating, being that close to the place we wanted to get to … and not being able to reach it."

Thanks to the tenacity of rover drivers back on Earth, Spirit was unstuck, then backtracked onto more solid ground—dragging its no longer working wheel. An alternate winter-over spot for the rover was picked on "Low Ridge"—named after George Low, the late NASA Deputy Administrator who played a key role in the Apollo lunar landing effort.

"Low Ridge is actually a beautiful spot ... one of the most scenic places we’ve been at Gusev. And there’s lots of good science nearby," Squyres said. Within just a few meters of the Spirit rover, there is finely layered bedrock, blocks of vesicular basalt, and what appears to be very salt-rich soil.

"So, there’s enough to keep us busy here for quite a long time," Squyres said.

Best studied place on Mars

The solar-powered Spirit is in Mars’ southern hemisphere, where the Sun is crossing lower in the northern sky each day. Thus, the amount of energy available will keep dropping until the shortest days of the Mars winter end, four months from now.

To keep producing enough electricity to run overnight heaters that protect vital electronics, Spirit’s solar panels must be tilted toward the winter sun by driving the rover onto north-facing slopes.

What’s in store for the Mars machine is spending time at the location doing in-depth science.

Since Spirit drove away from the summit of Husband Hill, the rover has been blasting along at high speed, stopping for science only briefly, Squyres said. "The reason, of course, is that we had to get all the way across the Inner Basin and over to this area for north-facing slopes before winter hit."

Now that this has been accomplished—and Spirit is now safe—Squyres said that rover scientists finally have the chance to stop and really do some science in detail.

"So expect to see a very big panorama from this spot," Squyres noted, along with use of the rover’s Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES). This instrument provides remote measurements of mineralogy and thermophysical properties of the landscape around the rover. In addition, he said, a very comprehensive set of measurements will be done with every tool available on the robot’s mechanical arm.

"We’re likely to do some small rover moves, but not any long ones until spring comes. By the time winter is over, Low Ridge should be the best studied place on Mars," Squyres advised.

Keep’er rolling

Meanwhile, on the other side of Mars, the Opportunity rover is wheeling its way to a major goal: Victoria Crater. But it is a tough, long slog.

"It is full speed ahead to the south," Squyres reported. The power situation for Opportunity is much better than it is for Spirit, largely because this rover at Meridiani Planum is much closer to the equator. The robot can be driven an hour and a half or two hours each day, he said.

The terrain Opportunity faces consists of large sand ripples and patches of flat-lying rock outcrops. Whenever possible, rover planners keep Opportunity on the "pavement" for best mobility.

"We’re also really getting the hang of driving in this terrain," Squyres added. At present, Opportunity is less than 5,000 feet (1.5 kilometers) from the rim of Victoria Crater, and making good progress daily. This feature is an enormous depression, measuring a half-mile (800 meters) in diameter.

"There’s still no telling whether we’ll make it or not, of course … we’re so far past warranty that the rover could give out at any time. But at the moment things are looking good," Squyres pointed out. "We will make occasional brief stops for science, but for the next several months we expect mostly to just keep pushing south."

Squyres said that Opportunity team members have been naming all the rocks seen lately after landmarks along old western cattle drives. Doing so is "keeping with our ‘keep’er rolling’ mentality," he concluded.

Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring Mars since they independently landed on the red planet in January 2004.

Opportunity Mars rover is wheeling across Meridiani Planum toward Victoria Crater – a feature that promises to be spectacular in view but also surrender data about the red planet’s past. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Looming large for the Opportunity rover at Meridiani Planum is Victoria Crater—a grand bit of territory that’s roughly half a mile (800 meters) in diameter. That’s about six times wider than Endurance Crater, a feature that the rover previously surveyed for several months in 2004, gathering data on rock layers there that were affected by water of long, long ago.

"We are closing in ... we’ve got only about a kilometer to go now," said Steve Squyres, lead scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York for the dual Mars exploration rovers.

"Feel free to work out your own guess at an estimated time of arrival based on our recent progress…but I’m not making any predictions! Mars has fooled us too many times before," Squyres told SPACE.com.

Lay of the land

Pushing across Meridiani Planum has not been easy for Opportunity. The landscape is one of rolling ripples of sand and splashes of outcrop rock.

"We’re pushing as hard as we can with a very old rover," Squyres added. "We’ll get there when and if we get there."

Once there, Squyres said that the plan is to approach that feature much as they did Endurance Crater.

"[We’ll] start by taking images from several points along the rim to get the lay of the land…and then see if there’s a place where we can enter the crater safely," Squyres said. "There’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to get in, of course, but we’re not driving all this way just for the view."

Rim shots

Also anxiously awaiting Opportunity’s hoped for wheeling up to Victoria Crater is William Farrand, a research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. He is a member of the Mars Exploration Rover science team.

"The rover has been making good progress towards Victoria Crater. So—knock on wood—it should get there perhaps as early as late July," Farrand told SPACE.com. "We will be getting just amazing images when we get to the rim of Victoria Crater."

Farrand said the views at that feature are sure to be spectacular. But the real payoff, he added, is to check out the exposures of outcrop that the science team is expecting to see on the inner walls of Victoria Crater.

"Opportunity’s mission has been all about reading the story contained within the layered rocks that lie just below the surface of Meridiani Planum," Farrand advised. "We got about 40 to 50 centimeters of outcrop at Eagle Crater [at the start of its roving] and then 7 meters at Endurance Crater."

However, at Victoria, it looks like there’s a deeper story there.

Images taken from Mars orbit suggest there might be something like 65 feet (20 meters) of outcrop exposed within the walls of Victoria Crater, Farrand stated.

It is still not clear whether rover scientists will be able to get into the crater to do the type of detailed, on-the-spot analysis that they were able to do within the inner rim of Endurance Crater.

But Farrand said that by utilizing Opportunity’s Panoramic Camera and Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer, researchers should be able to do some tremendous remote sensing at that locale.

Spirit: making it through winter

And on the other side of Mars within Gusev crater, sistership Spirit is devotedly engaged in gathering science data too. It’s in need of a little dental work, however.

The robot’s grinding teeth have worn away on its arm-mounted rock abrasion tool—but only after exposing interiors of five time more rock targets than its design goal of three rocks. The tool still has useful wire bristles for brushing targets.

"Spirit has been very busy lately, taking an enormous panorama that we call the McMurdo Pan," Squyres reported. The robot is doing lots of work with its robot arm—officially labeled, in mechanical jargon, as the Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD.

Spirit has been positioned in such a way that its solar panels can help the machine endure several months of Martian winter.

The power on Spirit is good, Squyres noted. Projections of the rover’s overall health, he said, suggest the robot will make it through the martian winter and be able to keep doing science the whole time.

"One thing about staying in one place for a long time is that it enables lots of interesting science that just isn’t possible when you’re always moving. We’re taking advantage of that now with Spirit," Squyres explained.

The "eyes" have it

Both Spirit and Opportunity are churning out travelogue-like photos of their respective treks over Mars. The eyes of the robots – their camera systems – are capturing a wide range of scenery along the way.

"All of the cameras continue to work remarkably well and are continuing to acquire beautiful images," said astronomer Jim Bell, the Panoramic camera (Pancam) payload element lead for the Mars exploration rovers at Cornell University. "They have proven to be extremely robust to the extreme conditions on the martian surface…large temperature swings, fine dust everywhere, large cosmic ray flux," he told SPACE.com.

Since the twin rovers independently landed on Mars in January 2004, Spirit’s cameras have taken about 82,000 pictures. Opportunity has taken about 71,500 pictures - for a total down-linked image data volume of about 19 gigabytes. Of these, 54,400 and 49,500 are the high-resolution Pancam images, respectively, Bell said.

"At Meridiani, once we get to Victoria Crater in June or July we are obviously looking forward to remarkable views of the interior," Bell said, and to help identify possible routes to explore even deeper exposures of sedimentary outcrop rocks.

"At Gusev, we are hunkered down for the winter now, obtaining detailed chemical measurements on reachable rocks and soils and acquiring the gigantic 360° McMurdo panorama with little or no compression in all [camera] filters from our winter haven parking spot," Bell said.

Up there on Mars, Bell concluded, "the missions just keep rocking on!"

Exploring Mars: The Snows of Udzha
By Robert Burnham and Phil Christensen
ASU Themis Team
posted: 15 June 2006
11:01 am ET

Near one edge of Mars' northern polar cap stands Udzha. Named for a town in Siberia, Udzha, which is 45 km (28 mi) across, is classified as a crater. Yet it's almost hidden from view as its sharp-edged, rocky rim peeks from under the polar cap's layers. Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University

The northern polar cap of Mars sprawls across the top of the Red Planet for roughly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). At thickest, the cap piles up about 2.7 km (9,000 feet) high, but becomes thinner toward its serrated edges, where deep canyons and smaller troughs carve a spiraling pattern into the cap.

Near one edge of the northern polar cap stands a curious feature named Udzha. Named for a town in Siberia, Udzha, which is 45 km (28 mi) across, is classified as a crater. Yet it's almost hidden from view as its sharp-edged, rocky rim peeks from under the polar cap's layers.

A newly released image of Udzha was taken at visible wavelengths during local summer. It comes from THEMIS, the Thermal Emission Imaging System, a multi-wavelength camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. We see Udzha surrounded by dark, stratified layers mostly covered with bright deposits of water ice.

The polar caps of Mars, which are large enough to be glimpsed even in backyard telescopes from Earth, form an archive of the planet's recent climate history. The record is written in layer after layer of dust and ice.

Each polar winter sees an accumulation of carbon-dioxide frost, which falls as light snow, condensing directly from the atmosphere as temperatures plunge to minus 130 degrees Celsius (minus 202 Fahrenheit). This produces a thin "polar cap" that reaches down to about latitude 60 degrees north. This layer resembles the layer of snow cover that collects in Earth's northern hemisphere every winter....

Victoria's Secrets: Mars Rovers Ready for New Duties
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 06 November 2006
04:29 pm ET

Victoria secrets? Opportunity Mars rover is poised to survey huge crater that can reveal clues as to the planet’s past. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

NASA’s lively robotic twosome—the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers—are in good shape to soldier onward in their dealings with the red planet.

Both machines have come through superior conjunction—when the Sun impedes transmissions between Mars and Earth—and are in fine shape to start new work assignments.

That solar conjunction stretched over several weeks, ending in early November. Even with the Sun getting in the way of direct Earth-Mars telecommunications, the rovers didn’t get a rest.

Each was uploaded prior to the conjunction with science tasks while they stayed put - like weather watching and self-inspecting their respective coatings of Martian dust. Stored data is now making its way from the robots to Earth via NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft that is orbiting the red planet.

Opportunity has reached, geologically speaking, prime real estate. The robot is surveying Victoria Crater, a huge impact crater about half a mile (800 meters) in diameter at Meridiani Planum near the equator of Mars.

On the other side of the planet, the Spirit rover is ready to take on new errands at Gusev Crater.

Approaching three years of service, the rovers have been working on Mars since landing there in January 2004....

...full story below...