john grotzinger – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Long Drive Puts NASA Mars Rover Near Planned Waypoint

By Guest PostSeptember 11, 2013Scienceenvironmental conditions, exposed bedrock, glenelg area, hazard avoidance system, jeff biesiadecki, john grotzinger, mars reconnaissance orbiter, mount sharp, nasa mars rover, panorama point, rover planner, 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.

Curiosity reached the crest of a rise informally called “Panorama Point.” From Panorama Point, the rover took photographs of a pale-toned outcrop area that the team chose earlier as “Waypoint 1” on the basis of imagery from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (more…)

NASA’S Mars Curiosity Debuts Autonomous Navigation

By Guest PostAugust 27, 2013Science376th martian day, ancient mars, autonomous navigation, environmental changes, gale crater, glenelg area, hirise camera, john grotzinger, john wright, mark maimone, mars, mars rover curiosity, mount sharp, NASA

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has used autonomous navigation for the first time, a capability that lets the rover decide for itself how to drive safely on Mars.

This latest addition to Curiosity’s array of capabilities will help the rover cover the remaining ground en route to Mount Sharp, where geological layers hold information about environmental changes on ancient Mars. The capability uses software that engineers adapted to this larger and more complex vehicle from a similar capability used by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, which is also currently active on Mars. (more…)

NASA Rover Finds Conditions Once Suited for Ancient Life on Mars

By Guest PostMarch 12, 2013Scienceancient life, ancient wet environment, bedrock, calcium sulfate, carbon, chemical energy source, chemical ingredients, chemin, chlorinated forms, condition, david blake, gale crater, hydrogen, instruments, john grotzinger, john klein, life, living microbes, mars, mars exploration program, methane, michael meyer, micro-organisms, mildly alkaline, mudstone, nasa rover, neutral, nitrogen, oxygen, paul mahaffy, phosphorus, powder, presence, red planet, rocknest, sam, soil, stream bed, sulfur, yellowknife bay

PASADENA, Calif. –– An analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes.

Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon — some of the key chemical ingredients for life — in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet last month.

“A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “From what we know now, the answer is yes.” (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…)

NASA Mars Rover Fully Analyzes First Soil Samples

By Guest PostDecember 4, 2012Scienceanalyze, carbon organics, chemin, chemistry, chlorine, curiosity rover, gale crater, ingredient, john grotzinger, ken edgett, life, mahli camera, mars, martian organics, martian soil, mount, NASA, organic compounds, pathfinder, paul mahaffy, rock sample, rocknest, sam, sample analysis, sharp, sulfur, water, water molecules, windblown dust

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has used its full array of instruments to analyze Martian soil for the first time, and found a complex chemistry within the Martian soil. Water and sulfur and chlorine-containing substances, among other ingredients, showed up in samples Curiosity’s arm delivered to an analytical laboratory inside the rover.

Detection of the substances during this early phase of the mission demonstrates the laboratory’s capability to analyze diverse soil and rock samples over the next two years. Scientists also have been verifying the capabilities of the rover’s instruments. (more…)

‘Mount Sharp’ on Mars Links Geology’s Past and Future

By Guest PostApril 1, 2012Sciencearizona, bob sharp, curiosity, edward stolper, gale crater, geological sciences, grand canyon, john grotzinger, ken edgett, life magazine, liquid water, mars, michael malin, mount rainier, mount sharp, NASA, robert p sharp, san diego, seattle, spacecraft

One particular mountain on Mars, bigger than Colorado’s grandest, has been beckoning would-be explorers since it was first sighted from orbit in the 1970s. Scientists have ideas about how it took shape in the middle of ancient Gale Crater and hopes for what evidence it could yield about whether conditions on Mars have favored life.

No mission to Mars dared approach it, though, until NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, which this August will attempt to place its one-ton rover, Curiosity, at the foot of the mountain. The moat of flatter ground between the mountain and the crater rim encircling it makes too small a touchdown target to have been considered safe without precision-landing innovations used by this mission. (more…)

Tag Archives: john grotzinger