REAL MARTIAN LANDSCAPE PICTURED IN LACUNA PASSAGE, A NEW VIDEO GAME

A screenshot of Martian scenery from a video game currently under development   Image credit Tyler Owen/Random Seed Games, photos from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, HiRise (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment)

As was observed at the recent South by Southwest conference in Austin Texas, virtual exploration games and real-life space exploration capture the imagination for the same reasons:  Game designers said their excitement about exploration is closely linked to their desire to create virtual worlds for others to explore.

For those of us who’ll never actually set foot on Mars, comes the opportunity to do so virtually through the embodiment of Jessica Rainer,

an astronaut tasked with exploring the Red Planet to find out why the previous expedition had disappeared.

Jessica is the product of Tyler Owen’s imagination and enthusiasm.  Shortly after graduating from college in 2010, Owen founded Random Seed Games as a creative and independent design outlet specializing in unique gaming experiences for any platform.

All of the scenery used in his Lacuna Passage is indeed unique, in that it’s the real surface of Mars as recorded by NASA’s HiRise.

Owen will let players follow Jessica roam an authentic 25 square-mile section of Mars.  He explains that using HiRise was almost a necessity:  “I started this project as a single developer working in my free time.  In order to create an open world game with the scale that I wanted, it was almost impossible to create all the geography by hand.

“I started researching the use of actual Mars satellite data, and it seemed like a great solution to my problem.”

Because the Mars environment functions as a character in the game, it needs a great deal of detail to be authentic.  The terrain and weather events, such as Martian dust devils, will be recreated as faithfully as possible.

In regard to depicting reality, Owen said, “I think it helps add a level of real depth to the exploration in knowing that most of the features actually exist on another planet.”

LeVar Burton, who played Geordie LaForge of Star Trek:  The Next Generation, was one of the prominent panelists at the Austin conference.  He observed that some video games set in space would benefit from being less about violence and shooting and more about building experiences and keeping calm and using imagination to progress a storyline.

It sounds like Lacuna Passage is just what he’s talking about.

Source:  Discovery News, March 18, 2013    randomseedgames.com

MARS CURIOSITY FINDS MORE EVIDENCE OF LIFE-SUPPORTING ELEMENTS

Curiosity rover’s wheel cracked open this rock, “Tintina,” and exposed white, hydrated minerals inside.   Photo credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS  Photo taken by Curiosity’s Mast Camera (Mastcam), built and operated by Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS), San Diego

Curiosity cracked this 1.2” by 1.6” rock in the Yellowknife Bay area of the Gale Crater where it had touched down last August.  The exposed white substance is most likely calcium sulfate.

Curiosity had previously found signs of hydrated minerals forming veins in the various rock layers in the Yellowknife Bay area. The presence of these minerals suggests that the area had been, at one time, rich in water and possibly in life as well.

The possibility is bolstered by last week’s discovery of clay minerals at a drill site, indicating that the rocks may have formed in neutral water.

After comparing “Tintina’s” substance to similarly bright material filling veins in the bedrock of Yellowstone Bay, scientists believe the substance is the same.

They further conjecture that the rocks and bedrock themselves had been fractured at some point, allowing water to flow through them and deposit the minerals Curiosity is discovering today.

 A hydration intensity map, based on Mastcam Spectra, for “Tintina”     Photo credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS, taken by MastCam

In this photo of “Tintina,” the color-coded bar on the right assigns the relative strength of its mineral hydration—almost over the top.

Notice the specks of weaker strengths of mineral hydration indicated in the bedrock surrounding the rock specimen.

Source:   examiner, March 19, 2013     jpl.nasa.gov/space images, March 18 and 19, 2013

MARS #CURIOSITY’S ROVER HUNTING ORGANIC CARBONS

The hole on the left is the first sample drilling hole dug by the rover on February 8, 2013, in a rock named “John Klein,” a mission manager who died in 2011.  It’s .63” wide and 2.5 inches deep.   The shallower hole, only .8” deep, on the right was dug two days later.  Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) obtained the image.     Photo credit NASA/JPL-caltech/MSSS

The ground-up rock sample Curiosity processed from the 2.5” hole revealed that like Earth, Mars has the chemical building blocks for life.   Specifically, the chemical analysis showed the presence of six elements needed for life:  hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus and water that was neither too acidic nor too salty.

From its greenish-gray coloration, scientists knew the material had been sheltered from the harsh radiation and oxidation processes on the Red Planet’s surface.

“If there was organic material there, it could have been preserved,” says David Blake, principal investigator for Curiosity’s Chemistry and Mineralogy, or CheMin, experiment.

The hunt for organic carbon is a difficult one because the same processes that create rock, destroy organics.  The planet’s thin atmosphere doesn’t protect organics from destructive ultraviolet and cosmic radiation, Additionally, Mars has an abundance of chemicals like perchlorates that consume organic molecules.

Curiosity lead scientist John Grotzinger, with the California Institute of Technology says, “The search for organic carbon is an issue for this mission, and you want to do this as deliberately as possible.  You don’t just want to wander around and try stuff out. . . .   With the issue of habitability in the bag, we can undertake a more systematic search for a strong carbons signal.

“This is not a simple problem, but I think the mission is up to it, and we’re really excited to get started on that now.”

Though Grotzinger’s team is eager to drill another sample in the John Klein, they’ll have to wait until April when a current communications blockage between Earth and Mars will clear up as the sun moves to a more favorable position.

Source:  Discovery News, March 13, 2013

#MARS #CURIOSITY ROVER TWO WEEKS AWAY FROM DRILLING “JOHN KLEIN”

Photo is white-balanced to show what it might look like on earth, obtained by Mastcam on December 13, 2012   Photo credit:  NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’S Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity’s latest attempt to discover if the Red Planet held water at some time involves drilling into a flat rock veined with what might be calcium sulfate, a possible clue about past water.

When water circulates through fractures and deposits minerals along the sides of the fracture, forming veins.  The veins are characteristic of the stratigraphically lowest unit in the “Sheepbed” locality of the “Yellowknife Bay” area where Curiosity recently found “a flower.”

The specific site where the drilling will occur is named after John Klein, a former deputy project manager who died in 2011.

If further engineering test and surveys are encouraging, the MSL will use its high-powered drill for the first time.

The drill, located at the end of a 7-foot-long robot arm, will first make a few test holes to rid itself of any lingering contamination from Earth.  Clean samples from the rock will be placed into the onboard laboratory to analyze their chemical and mineral composition.

In a statement, project manager Richard Cook of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said, “Drilling into a rock to collect a sample will be this mission’s most challenging activity since the landing.  It has never been done on Mars.  We won’t be surprised if some steps in the process don’t go exactly as planned the first time through.”

The area surrounding “John Klein” contains unusual geological features, such as veins, nodules, a pebble embedded in sandstone and what may be holes in the ground.  And scientists are curious to discover why this area cools off more slowly at night than does the surrounding terrain.

Lead scientist, John Grotzinger with the California Institute of Technology believes the rocks were once saturated in water. In a press release, he said, “This area had a different type of wet environment than the streambed where we landed—maybe a few different types of wet environments.”

Sources:   SmartPlanet, January 16, 2013       Space.com, January 15, 2013    NASA.gov, January 15, 2013

#MARS #CURIOSITY ROVER FINDS A “FLOWER”

A magnified view of  MAHLI’s mystery object          Photo credit NASA/JPL-Caltech

While the rover explored “Yellowknife Bay” last December 19^th, its robotic arm-mounted Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera recorded an intriguing image of a bright object nestled in the rocky outcropping.

The initial assumption that the object was another piece of debris dropped by the rover was denied by NASA spokesman Guy Webster after initial analysis confirmed it’s part of the rock and not something foreign lying on the Martian surface.

But alas, contrary to the hopes of some laypersons who first saw the tiny object shaped like a tiny flower, it’s not a flower.  It’s a tiny concentration of minerals embedded in the Martian rockscape.

We’ll have to wait until the mission’s scientists examine the tiny outcropping more thoroughly to learn the nature and significance of Curiosity’s latest discovery.

The human brain is subject to a phenomenon known as “pareidolia,” meaning it tends to attach significance to random shapes, concluding that if an object looks like a flower on Mars, then it is indeed something biological.

My Take:  Perhaps pareidolia is responsible for the affection we feel for the man in the moon and the various constellations named after mythical and natural beings.

It may even account for the sightings of saints in a pancake on a grill.

Source:  Discovery News, January 4, 2013

CURIOSITY ROVER MAKES “EARTH-SHAKING” DISCOVERY—BUT MUM’S THE WORD

Gravel  deposited in an ancient streambed.  Could the latest discovery be related to the finding of organic materials?   Photo credit NASA/JPL-Caltech

John Grotzinger, principal investigator for the Mars mission, is uncharacteristically non-specific about what he terms as an “earth-shaking” discovery.  By way of explanation, he said the findings have come from the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments which have begun analyzing the first soil samples in its onboard laboratory.

“This data is gonna be one for the history books,” he elaborated.  “We’re getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting.  The science team is busily chewing away on it as it comes down.”

In early October, the mission announced that Curiosity had found evidence for a “fast-moving stream up to hip-deep” on a plain called Aeolis Palus within the Gale Crater where it’s currently roving.  This information is consistent with earlier orbital observations of an ancient channel cutting through Gale Crater’s rim, leaving behind an alluvial fan of streambed gravel.

Curiosity rover near “Rocknest,” a patch of wind-deposited soil that’s the target for the first scooping activity.  Photo credit NASA/JPL-Caltech

For the last few weeks, the rover has been scooping samples from a sandy ridge called “Rocknest,” shaking and dumping the soil grains into its SAM and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments.

There’s a strong possibility that organics have been found because that’s one of the primary missions of the project.  Also, the JPL mission site states that one of SAM’s objectives is to address “. . . carbon chemistry through a search for organic compounds, the chemical state of light elements other than carbon, and isotopic tracers of planetary change.”

If organics were found, it would be an important piece of evidence showing that the Red Planet was once more like Earth than it is today.

But we’ll have to wait a few weeks until the results are analyzed, checked, reanalyzed and rechecked again until scientists are certain about what they’ve discovered.

Perhaps they’re being extra cautious after having hinted at the presence of methane on Mars, only to find that the methane present came from Earth—the analyzing instrument needed to be flushed out before Martian air could be properly analyzed.

Sources:  MarsDaily, October 5, 2012    Examiner, November 20, 2012    Discovery News, November 21, 2012

#MARS #CURIOSITY ROVER’S FIRST TEST FOR METHANE: NOTHING . . .YET

 Mars Curiosity Rover  Photo credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/

The three complex lab tools of rover’s gold-plated Sample Analysis on Mars (SAM), its main instrument for its astrobiology research, has failed to detect the presence of methane gas on the Red Planet.

Ninety percent of the methane in Earth’s atmosphere is produced by living organisms, making methane an important by-product to search for in determining if Mars had ever supported some form of life.

Previous testing on earth and in space detected low concentrations of the gas on Mars.

Because Methane concentrations vary somewhat by region and over time, SAM hasn’t necessarily challenged the validity of those earlier results.  Photochemical reactions in the atmosphere may have destroyed the gas, or it may have been absorbed by the Martian surface.

“At this time, we don’t have a positive detection of methane on Mars,” said Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, a SAM co-investigator.  “But that could change over time, depending on how methane is produced and how it is destroyed on Mars.”

The presence of Methane isn’t proof-positive of earlier life, because non-biological sources, such as comet strikes, degradation of interplanetary dust motes by ultraviolet light and water-rock interactions also release the gas.

“The bottom line is that we have no detection of methane so far,” Chris Webster, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena told reporters.  “But we’re going to keep looking in the months ahead–since Mars, as we all know, may yet hold surprises for us.”

Sources:   Livescience, November 5, 2012

#MARS #CURIOSITY’S MASTCAM PHOTOGRAPHS PARTIAL MARTIAN SOLAR ECLIPSE

Martian moon Phobos transiting (crossing) face of sun, September 13   Photo credit NASA/JPL-Caltech

Martian solar eclipses differ markedly from Earth’s solar eclipses in that our moon can totally eclipse the sun.  Though it orbits much closer to Mars than does our moon to Earth, Phobos is only 14 miles across as opposed to our moon, which is about 2,160 miles across.

The other Martian moon, Deimos, is smaller than Phobos and much farther away from the Red Planet.  Scientists believe both Deimos and Phobos are asteroids captured by Martian gravity ages ago.

Unlike on Earth, where photographers get a lucky shot by pointing their cameras at the right place at the right time, luck had nothing to do with Mastcam’s performance.  Curiosity’s mission managers and scientists had plans to aim the Mastcam skyward in the works for quite some time.

“Actually, there are . . . three opportunities in the next month or so where we’ll image those transits,” says Curiosity mission manager Jennifer Trosper, of NASA’s JPL in Pasadena.

“They’re neat opportunities to see a unique scientific observation,” Trosper continued, adding that NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which landed on the Red Planet in January of 2004, have taken similar photos.

Scientists say such transit shots can refine researchers’ understanding of the orbits and orbital evolution of Phobos and Deimos.

From September 14-17, the rover logged 282 feet on the surface of Mars, bringing its total odometry (changes in position related to a known position, usually referring to robotic movement) since landing to 745 feet.

Source:   Space.com  September 18, 2012

FOCUS ON #CURIOSITY’S #MARS SCIENCE CAMERAS: CHEMCAM, MARDI, MAHLI AND MASTCAM

Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam)

The ChemCam package consists of two remote sensing instruments:  the first planetary science Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS), which identifies elemental compositions, and a Remote Micro-Imager (RMI), which places the LIBS analyses in their geomorphologic (terrain formation/structure) context.

ChemCam will make daily analyses of the soil around rover to understand variations within the soils both locally and regionally.  Additionally, the ChemCam instrument package can provide analyses of samples that are inaccessible to other instruments, such as on vertical outcrops where LIBS can target individual strata using its submillimeter beam diameter.

Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)

The MARDI is a fixed-focus color camera fixed-body mounted on the fore-port side of the Mars Science Lab (MSL) rover, pointed in the +Z direction (toward the ground).  The camera took 1600 x 1200 pixel images at 5 frames per second throughout the time between heatshield separation and touchdown on Mars, a period of about two minutes.

Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)

The MAHLI is a focusable color camera fixed on the turret at the end of the MSL robotic arm.  It acquires images in a range of from 11.44 mm to infinity of up to 1600 x 1200 pixels.  Its color quality is equivalent to that of consumer digital cameras.

Mast Camera (Mastcam)

The Mastcam is a two-instrument suite of imaging systems mounted on the MSL rover’s Remote Sensing Mast with a boresight 1.97 mm above the bottom of the wheels when the rover is on flat ground.  It takes both photos and videos.

Source and photo credits:  NASA/JPL-Caltech, September 16, 2012

 

#MARS #CURIOSITY ROVER FLIPS OPEN CAMERA’S DUST CAP FOR FIRST CRYSTAL-CLEAR PHOTOS

Mission controllers calibrate Curiosity’s camera by using a “lucky penny” on the rover’s mast.

“When a geologist takes pictures of rock outcrops she is studying, she wants an object of known scale in the photographs,” said Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Principal Investigator Ken Edgett, of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego.

This weekend mission controllers had Curiosity flip open the dust cap covering the robotic-arm mounted MAHLI, and Presto!  No more fuzzy photos!

Think of MAHLI as the equivalent of a geologist’s magnifying lens, but infinitely more complicated.  Its high-resolution capabilities can focus and magnify objects smaller than the width of a human hair.

Curiosity’s robotic arm angled the camera underneath the rover for a photo of the rolling chem lab’s lower front and under belly areas.   

The MAHLI lens, dust cap in place, in the center of the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm        Two LED lights on either side of the lens illuminate samples.

MAHLI has both white light sources as found in a flashlight and ultraviolet light sources found in tanning lamps, enabling it to create images both day and night.  The ultraviolet light will induce fluorescence to detect carbonate and evaporite minerals, both indicators that water may have helped to shape the Martian landscape.

The ground immediately in front of the rover.  Mission scientists speculate about the large pebble in the bottom right having affected the wind blowing around it to remove surface dust.

Sources:  DiscoveryNews,  September 10, 2012    Space.com, September 10, 2012      NASA.gov, September 10, 2012    Daily MailOnline, September 10, 2012      All photo credits NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems