Latest news with #DougEllison
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New NASA Image Depicts Mars Rover's Lonely Journey From Above
A recent snapshot from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) offers a brand-new look at the Curiosity rover's Martian journey. Published Thursday, the image depicts Curiosity's snail-like tracks on the Red Planet's dusty terrain. The rover itself appears as a tiny dot at the bottom of the tracks, revealing just how long and lonely its trek really is. The MRO's HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera captured the image on Feb. 28, 2025—Curiosity's 4,466th sol. At the time, Curiosity was making its way from the Gediz Vallis channel to the foothills of lower Mount Sharp, where a complex network of ridges might inform Mars' watery history. The rover is still making that journey, but it wasn't quite as far along by then, stunted by its 0.1 mile-per-hour maximum speed. Because Curiosity was still in the earlier half of its latest road trip—which began in November 2024 and is expected to end toward the middle of this year—MRO's snapshot includes only 1,050 feet of tracks. These were made over 11 drives, which occur between Curiosity's stops to take pictures, assess its surroundings, study Martian geology, and transmit data. "By comparing the time HiRISE took the image to the rover's commands for the day, we can see it was nearly done with a 69-foot drive," said Doug Ellison, chief of the Curiosity planning team. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona The tracks seen above are "likely to last for months before being erased by wind," according to JPL. That wind will not only erode the tracks themselves but fill them in with Mars' ultra-fine dust, eventually obscuring Curiosity's footprints as it has obscured JPL's retired InSight lander over time. By the time the tracks vanish, Curiosity will have reached Mount Sharp's boxwork: a "weblike pattern of ridges" first captured by the MRO in 2006. On Earth, boxwork forms when groundwater squeezes through underground rock fractures, depositing minerals that erode over eons into a sponge-like shape. Though scientists know by now that Mars definitely possessed water at one point, the jury is still out on how that water sculpted the Martian landscape—and whether it once supported life. With the Red Planet's boxwork having crystallized in a warm, wet subsurface environment, researchers are eager to discover whether microbes could have survived where only an eerie geological landmark remains.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA satellite spies Curiosity chugging along on Mars
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has traveled over 21.33 miles since it first landed on the Red Planet in 2012. That might not seem like very far, but it's an impressive trek considering the vehicle only averages about 98 feet per hour and mission engineers must remotely steer it from over 140 million miles away. Curiosity's most recent journey began on February 2, when it started inching away from the Gediz Vallis channel towards a region with honeycomb-like boxwork formations potentially created billions of years ago by groundwater. On February 28—Curiosity's 4,466th Martian day—another NASA mission orbiting far overhead managed to snap what is believed to be the first image of the rover actively driving across the Red Planet. Taken by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the black-and-white picture shows the desolate planetscape interrupted by a small, dark speck trailed by a weaving line of tire tracks. According to NASA, the path stretches back roughly 1,050 feet to chart Curiosity's estimated 11 drives while en route to the boxwork formations. Curiosity was preparing to ascend a steep slope at the time of the latest satellite photo, which NASA says it has since scaled. 'By comparing the time HiRISE took the image to the rover's commands for the day, we can see it was nearly done with a 69-foot drive,' said Doug Ellison, Curiosity's planning team chief at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. HiRISE is one of six observational instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that are used to document the planet's surface in high detail. The camera primarily produces black-and-white images with a colorized strip running down the middle to ensure optimal spatial resolution. It previously spotted Curiosity in color in 2023. NASA's rover is making the most of the ground it's covering on Mars. Earlier this month, researchers announced that sediment samples collected by Curiosity and analyzed in its onboard mini-lab contained a key ingredient required for life to once exist on the planet. In March, another study confirmed the rover had detected the largest-ever organic molecules inside what is likely a dried lakebed. Curiosity's mission team expects it to reach its next intended destination within the next month, depending on conditions on Mars. Once it arrives, Curiosity's most recent tracks will remain embedded in the terrain for a few months–until Martian winds erase them completely.
The Independent
26-04-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Amazing space image shows route of Mars rover as it treks across the Red Planet
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter just captured its first image of the Curiosity rover driving along the red planet's surface. The 2,000-pound Mars rover is shown as a dark speck in the bottom center of the picture frame. It leads a long, thin trail of its tracks that stretches 1,050 feet. The space agency said in a statement that Curiosity's tracks are likely to last there for months before the strong Martian wind erases them. The line shows the progress Curiosity has made since it arrived on Mars in August of 2012. The photo was taken using the orbiter's High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, which snaps an image with the majority of the scene in black and white, and a strip of color down the middle to ensure the best spatial resolution. 'By comparing the time HiRISE took the image to the rover's commands for the day, we can see it was nearly done with a 69-foot drive,' Doug Ellison, Curiosity's planning team chief, noted in a statement. Curiosity is seen moving toward the base of a steep slope, and has since ascended it. The orbiter reached Mars orbit in March 2006. It snapped this scene on February 28, or the 4,466th Martian day of the rover's mission. While the camera has captured Curiosity in color before, the rover happened to fall within the black and white part of the image this time around. Earlier in the month, the rover began the first of roughly 11 drives, as it slowly trekked from the Gediz Vallis channel to its next stop. The rover is heading to an area with potential boxwork formations, possibly made by ancient groundwater billions of years ago. The boxwork pattern is a weblike form of ridges that were captured by NASA's orbiter nearly 20 years ago. When exactly Curiosity will get there depends on several factors, including how its software navigates the surface and how challenging the terrain is to climb. It's expected, however, to reach the new science location within a month. 'Engineers at NASA's Southern California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory work with scientists to plan each day's trek,' NASA said.
Forbes
26-04-2025
- Science
- Forbes
NASA Captures First Orbital Image Of Mars Rover On The Move
NASA's Curiosity rover appears as a dark speck in this contrast-enhanced view captured by the Mars ... More Reconnaissance Orbiter. NASA's Curiosity rover was trucking across the surface of Mars, heading to its next destination, when a faraway paparazzo snagged an image of the wheeled explorer on the move. The Mars rover photo didn't end up splashed across the cover of a celebrity gossip rag, but it did end up in NASA's social media feeds. The camera-wielding culprit was NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a spacecraft that has been in residence around Mars since 2006. The snapshot 'is believed to be the first orbital image of the rover mid-drive across the red planet,' NASA said in a statement on April 24. MRO's High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera has sent back plenty of memorable images of the red planet's surface, including a woodpecker-like formation and an updated look at the infamous 'Face on Mars' that first attracted attention in the 1970s. MRO has also helped scientists understand the patterns of global dust storms on Mars. The rover image comes from Feb. 28. Follow the squiggly line down from the upper right of the photo. The dark speck near the bottom at the end of the line is Curiosity. 'By comparing the time HiRISE took the image to the rover's commands for the day, we can see it was nearly done with a 69-foot drive,' said Curiosity's planning team chief Doug Ellison. The tracks in the image show part of Curiosity's recent drive history. The line covers about 1,050 feet from 11 drives the rover made starting on Feb. 2. It's just one small piece of the car-sized rover's explorations. Curiosity landed on Mars in the Gale Crater in 2012. The rover has driven over 21 miles as it studies the slopes of Mount Sharp, the massive central mountain inside the crater. Human-made machines are small objects compared to the wide landscapes of Mars. MRO has developed a side hobby of photographing these tricky subjects, like when it snapped a poignant farewell image of NASA's defunct InSight lander. InSight appeared as a dusty speck in the view. Curiosity is NASA's oldest functioning rover on Mars. Its sibling rover Perseverance arrived in 2021. Curiosity is still making groundbreaking discoveries as it seeks to understand if Mars may have once been habitable for microbial life. Mars is an unfriendly place today, but it once had more water and there are hints it could have hosted life long ago, though more study is needed. NASA's Curiosity Mars rover appears as a dark speck in this image captured from directly overhead by ... More the agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. MRO's HiRise camera has captured Curiosity before, notably in a color image from early 2024. 'The orbiter is equipped with a camera capable of viewing objects the size of a dinner table on the red planet's surface,' NASA said at the time. While the new view captures a single moment in time for Curiosity, Mars fans can imagine the before and after and how the rover was on the move. Curiosity maxes out at about 0.1 mph for its top speed, so it's not exactly a race car. Rocky, sandy and rough terrain can slow it down. It's still a notable achievement for MRO to capture the rover in action like a sports photographer snapping a footballer rumbling down the field.
Forbes
26-04-2025
- Science
- Forbes
See NASA Rover's Epic Mars Panorama — As It's Snapped From Orbit
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this view looking back down at the floor of Gale Crater from ... More its location on Mount Sharp on Feb. 7, 2025, the 4,447th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Curiosity was continuing its climb through a region of the mountain called the sulfate-bearing unit. Above is a sample of a spectacular new panoramic image created using images sent back from Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover. The rover — on its 4,447th Martian day (called a sol) when it took the image — landed in 2012 in Gale Crater near the planet's equator. That crater was formed by an ancient asteroid impact and is about 93 miles (150 kilometers) in diameter. For the last few years, Curiosity has been traveling slowly up Mount Sharp, within the crater. It's about three miles (five kilometers) high and comprises many different geological layers — which is why Curiosity is there. From Mount Sharp, it can see a lot of Gale Crater, with what looks like mountains in the background of its panorama, below, actually the rim of the vast crater. NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this view looking back down at the floor of Gale Crater from ... More its location on Mount Sharp on Feb. 7, 2025, the 4,447th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Curiosity was continuing its climb through a region of the mountain called the sulfate-bearing unit. The image was captured on Feb. 7, 2025, using the telephoto lens on the rover's Mast Camera. It can be downloaded in 19,506x3,191 pixel (62 megapixels) quality from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built and now remotely operates the rover from 203 million miles (326 million kilometers) away. The image took so long to return to Earth because Curiosity can only send data at a speed of 32 kbit/s, which is extremely slow compared to typical broadband speeds. NASA's Curiosity rover appears as a dark speck in this contrast-enhanced view captured on Feb. 28, ... More 2025, by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Trailing Curiosity are the rover's tracks, which can linger on the Martian surface for months before being erased by the wind. Exactly three weeks after Curisoity's exquisite panorama of Gale Crater, the robot itself was imaged by another robot flying above. Captured on Feb. 28 by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — which has been circling the red planet since 2006 — Curiosity appears as a dark speck, its tracks obvious behind it. They're expected to dissipate within a few months as the famously strong Martian wind takes hold. Curiosity moves at a top speed of 0.1 mph (0.16 kph). 'By comparing the time HiRISE took the image to the rover's commands for the day, we can see it was nearly done with a 69-foot drive,' said Doug Ellison, Curiosity's planning team chief at JPL. During its tenure on Mars, Curiosity has detected methane in the atmosphere, complex organic molecules, finger-like rocks and even an 'alien doorway.' The rover was launched from Cape Canaveral on Nov. 26, 2011, and landed inside Gale Crater on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012. A self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the robot at a drilled sample site called ... More "Duluth" on the lower slopes of Mount Sharp in Mars on June 20, 2018. (Photo by NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS / HANDOUT/) The same week these two spectacular images emerged, so did a study that suggested that heavy rain once fell on Mars. The new study from geologists at the University of Colorado Boulder portrays Mars as relatively warm and wet billions of years ago, with rain feeding valleys and channels that shaped the Martian surface. 'You could pull up Google Earth images of places like Utah, zoom out, and you'd see the similarities to Mars,' said research lead Amanda Steckel at the California Institute of Technology. Some water probably existed on Mars during about 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago. 'Once the erosion from flowing water stopped, Mars almost got frozen in time and probably still looks a lot like Earth did 3.5 billion years ago,' said senior author Brian Hynek at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
