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A New Tool in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life: A Tricked-Out Point-and-Shoot

By Guest PostFebruary 10, 2014Scienceastrobiological imager, curiosity, extraterrestrial life, henry sun, hirise, macroscopic scale, mars, mars reconnaissance orbiter, mars rover, mojave desert, NASA, osiris rex, rock formation, search, tool, university of arizona, wolfgang fink

UA engineers have turned an off-the-shelf digital camera into an imaging device that could be key in the search for life forms on other planets.

The next time a NASA rover blasts off to explore Mars or some other planet, it might be equipped with a new type of “do-it-all” camera developed by an engineering team at the University of Arizona.

The prototype of the “Astrobiological Imager” – described in a research paper featured on the cover of a recent issue of the journal Astrobiology – consists of an off-the-shelf digital point-and-shoot camera with some surprisingly simple modifications. A slightly more sophisticated version, mounted on a rover, could do what even NASA’s latest and greatest Mars rover, Curiosity, can’t: identify, photograph and even analyze patches of soil or rocks from afar and in extreme close-up, all with the same camera. (more…)

Curiosity Resumes Science after Analysis of Voltage Issue

By Guest PostNovember 26, 2013Scienceanalysis, cumberland, curiosity, data, electrical shorts, electrical system, engineering data, mars rover curiosity, mechanical frame, microbial life, multi mission radioisotope, NASA, rob zimmerman, robotic arm, Science, thermoelectric generator, voltage issue

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity resumed full science operations on Saturday, Nov. 23.

Activities over the weekend included use of Curiosity’s robotic arm to deliver portions of powdered rock to a laboratory inside the rover. The powder has been stored in the arm since the rover collected it by drilling into the target rock “Cumberland” six months ago. Several portions of the powder have already been analyzed. The laboratory has flexibility for examining duplicate samples in different ways. (more…)

Long Drive Puts NASA Mars Rover Near Planned Waypoint

By Guest PostSeptember 11, 2013Scienceancient environment, curiosity, exposed bedrock, mars, mount sharp, nasa mars rover, panorama point, yellowknife bay

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity now has a view of a patch of exposed bedrock scientists selected for a few days of close-up study, the first such study since the rover began its long trek to Mount Sharp two months ago. (more…)

Questions for Jack Mustard: Helping to shape a new Mars rover

By Guest PostAugust 4, 2013Science2020 mission, brown university, carbon compounds, curiosity, exist on mars, geological sciences, human spaceflight, jack mustard, life on mars, mars 2020, NASA, new generation, new mars rover, planet, resources on mars, science definition team, signs of life, Technology

In 2020, a new-generation Mars rover will land on the Red Planet and gather much more detailed data than Curiosity, which is on Mars now. NASA revealed details about the new rover at a news conference Tuesday, July 9, 2013. Brown University’s Jack Mustard chaired the Mars 2020 Science Definition Team.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — NASA unveiled details about a new rover proposed to land on the surface of Mars in 2020. The details came in the form of a 154-page document prepared by the Mars 2020 Science Definition Team, which was tasked with recommending scientific objectives of the mission. (more…)

NASA Mars Rover Preparing to Drill into First Martian Rock

By Guest PostJanuary 16, 2013Scienceaileen yingst, bassinite, bradbury landing, calcium, california institute, camera, chemcam, chemical composition, concretions, curiosity, drill hardware, drilling, drilling target, drt, dust removal tool, Environment, evidence, flat rock, fractures, france, gale crater, gillespie lake rock, gypsum, hydrated calcium sulfate, hydrogen, imager, internet buzz, jet propulsion laboratory, john grotzinger, john klein, laser pulsing chemistry, level, mahli, mars, mars hand lens, mars rover curiosity, mars science laboratory, martian flower, martian material, mast camera, mastcam, microbial life, mineral, mission, nantes, NASA, nicolas mangold, pale veins, pasadena, red planet, richard cook, rock, samples, sedimentary rocks, shaler unit, shallow depression, sheepbed outcrop, stream flow, sulfur, Technology, terrain, tucson, veins, wet environment, wet history, yellowknife bay

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is driving toward a flat rock with pale veins that may hold clues to a wet history on the Red Planet. If the rock meets rover engineers’ approval when Curiosity rolls up to it in coming days, it will become the first to be drilled for a sample during the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

The size of a car, Curiosity is inside Mars’ Gale Crater investigating whether the planet ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life. Curiosity landed in the crater five months ago to begin its two-year prime mission. (more…)

Curiosity Rover Explores ‘Yellowknife Bay’

By Guest PostJanuary 6, 2013Sciencecuriosity, darker rock cutting, gale crater, habitable environment, john grotzinger, jpl, mars rover, martian day, microbe, NASA, red planet, richard cook, shallow depression, sinuous rock feature, snake river, sol, yellowknife bay

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. – After imaging during the holidays, NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity resumed driving Jan. 3 and pulled within arm’s reach of a sinuous rock feature called “Snake River.”

Snake River is a thin curving line of darker rock cutting through flatter rocks and jutting above sand. Curiosity’s science team plans to get a closer look at it before proceeding to other nearby rocks. (more…)

Curiosity Rover Nearing Yellowknife Bay

By Guest PostDecember 14, 2012Sciencecalculation, camera, chemcam, chemistry, curiosity, curiosity traverse map, glenelg area, jet propulsion laboratory, layered martian outcrop, mars, mars rover, mast camera, mastcam, mount sharp, NASA, navcam, navigation camera, outcrop, pasadena, point lake, rick welch, rock composition, sam, sample analysis, science laboratory mission, shaler, sol 123, status report, yellowknife bay

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. –– The NASA Mars rover Curiosity drove 63 feet (19 meters) northeastward early Monday, Dec. 10, approaching a step down into a slightly lower area called “Yellowknife Bay,” where researchers intend to choose a rock to drill.

The drive was Curiosity’s fourth consecutive driving day since leaving a site near an outcrop called “Point Lake,” where it arrived last month. These drives totaled 260 feet (79 meters) and brought the mission’s total odometry to 0.37 mile (598 meters). (more…)

Author Paul Tough Gives Talk on the Traits that Help Children Succeed

By Guest PostNovember 14, 2012Culture, Educationariel kalil, character strength, character traits, chicago harris, college, completion rate, conscientiousness, crime lab, curiosity, dimension, homecoming, how children succeed, information, international house, james heckman, joshua anderson, journalistic enterprise, neighborhoods, nobel laureate, non cognitive skills, northwestern university, optimism, paul tough, perseverance, public policy, school success, Science, self control, social policy, stress, success, trauma, uchicago

To Paul Tough, his recent visit to the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy was “a nice homecoming.”

During the two years of research for his new book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character, Tough spent time at UChicago and in its surrounding neighborhoods.

“The nerve center of my journalistic enterprise was a small dorm room in International House,” he joked Oct. 18 in a speech at Chicago Harris, saying that many of the ideas in the book drew from work in the Department of Economics, the Economics Research Center, the Crime Lab and from the Consortium on Chicago School Research. (more…)

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