The Search and Prospects for Life on Mars Overview
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VI FORSKER PÅ MARS Kort Om Aktiviteten I Mange Tiår Har Mars Vært Et Yndet Objekt for Forskere Verden Over
VI FORSKER PÅ MARS Kort om aktiviteten I mange tiår har Mars vært et yndet objekt for forskere verden over. Men hvorfor det? Hva er det med den røde planeten som er så interessant? Her forsøker vi å gi en oversikt over hvorfor vi er så opptatt av Mars. Hva har vi oppdaget, og hva er det vi tenker å gjøre? Det finnes en planet i solsystemet vårt som bare er bebodd av roboter -MARS- Læringsmål Elevene skal kunne - gi eksempler på dagsaktuell forskning og drøfte hvordan ny kunnskap genereres gjennom samarbeid og kritisk tilnærming til eksisterende kunnskap - utforske, forstå og lage teknologiske systemer som består av en sender og en mottaker - gjøre rede for energibevaring og energikvalitet og utforske ulike måter å omdanne, transportere og lagre energi på VI FORSKER PÅ MARS side 1 Innhold Kort om aktiviteten ................................................................................................................................ 1 Læringsmål ................................................................................................................................................ 1 Mars gjennom historien ...................................................................................................................... 3 Romkappløp mot Mars ................................................................................................................... 3 2000-tallet gir rovere i fleng ....................................................................................................... 4 Hva nå? ...................................................................................................................................................... -
A Stringent Upper Limit of 20 Pptv for Methane on Mars and Constraints on Its Dispersion Outside Gale Crater F
A&A 650, A140 (2021) Astronomy https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202140389 & © F. Montmessin et al. 2021 Astrophysics A stringent upper limit of 20 pptv for methane on Mars and constraints on its dispersion outside Gale crater F. Montmessin1 , O. I. Korablev2 , A. Trokhimovskiy2 , F. Lefèvre3 , A. A. Fedorova2 , L. Baggio1 , A. Irbah1 , G. Lacombe1, K. S. Olsen4 , A. S. Braude1 , D. A. Belyaev2 , J. Alday4 , F. Forget5 , F. Daerden6, J. Pla-Garcia7,8 , S. Rafkin8 , C. F. Wilson4, A. Patrakeev2, A. Shakun2, and J. L. Bertaux1 1 LATMOS/IPSL, UVSQ Université Paris-Saclay, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Guyancourt, France e-mail: [email protected] 2 Space Research Institute (IKI) RAS, Moscow, Russia 3 LATMOS/IPSL, Sorbonne Université, UVSQ Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Paris, France 4 AOPP, Oxford University, Oxford, UK 5 Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France 6 BIRA-IASB, Bruxelles, Belgium 7 Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC?INTA), Torrejón de Ardoz, Spain 8 Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA Received 20 January 2021 / Accepted 23 April 2021 ABSTRACT Context. Reports on the detection of methane in the Martian atmosphere have motivated numerous studies aiming to confirm or explain its presence on a planet where it might imply a biogenic or more likely a geophysical origin. Aims. Our intent is to complement and improve on the previously reported detection attempts by the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) on board the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). This latter study reported the results of a campaign that was a few months in length, and was significantly hindered by a dusty period that impaired detection performances. -
Generate Viewsheds of Mastcam Images from the Curiosity Rover, Using Arcgis® and Public Datasets
TECHNICAL Coupling Mars Ground and Orbital Views: Generate REPORTS: METHODS Viewsheds of Mastcam Images From the Curiosity 10.1029/2020EA001247 Rover, Using ArcGIS® and Public Datasets Key Points: 1 2 1 3 4 • Mastcam images from the Curiosity M. Nachon , S. Borges , R. C. Ewing , F. Rivera‐Hernández , N. Stein , and rover are available online but lack a J. K. Van Beek5 public method to be placed back in the Mars orbital context 1Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, 2Department of Astronomy • This procedure allows users to and Planetary Sciences—College of Engineering, Forestry, and Natural Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, generate Mastcam image viewsheds: 3 4 locate in a map view the Mars AZ, USA, Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA, Division of Geological and Planetary 5 terrains visible in Mastcam images Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, CA, USA • This procedure uses ArcGIS® and publicly available Mars datasets Abstract The Mastcam (Mast Camera) instrument onboard the NASA Curiosity rover provides an Supporting Information: exclusive view of Mars: High‐resolution color images from Mastcam allow users to study Gale crater's • Dataset S1 geologic terrains along Curiosity's path. These ground observations complement the spatially broader • Dataset S2 • Dataset S3 views of Gale crater provided by spacecrafts from orbit. However, for a given Mastcam image, it can be • Table S1 challenging to locate the corresponding terrains on the orbital view. No method for locating Mastcam images • Table S2 onto orbital images had been made publicly available. -
Chemical Variations in Yellowknife Bay Formation Sedimentary Rocks
PUBLICATIONS Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets RESEARCH ARTICLE Chemical variations in Yellowknife Bay formation 10.1002/2014JE004681 sedimentary rocks analyzed by ChemCam Special Section: on board the Curiosity rover on Mars Results from the first 360 Sols of the Mars Science Laboratory N. Mangold1, O. Forni2, G. Dromart3, K. Stack4, R. C. Wiens5, O. Gasnault2, D. Y. Sumner6, M. Nachon1, Mission: Bradbury Landing P.-Y. Meslin2, R. B. Anderson7, B. Barraclough4, J. F. Bell III8, G. Berger2, D. L. Blaney9, J. C. Bridges10, through Yellowknife Bay F. Calef9, B. Clark11, S. M. Clegg5, A. Cousin5, L. Edgar8, K. Edgett12, B. Ehlmann4, C. Fabre13, M. Fisk14, J. Grotzinger4, S. Gupta15, K. E. Herkenhoff7, J. Hurowitz16, J. R. Johnson17, L. C. Kah18, N. Lanza19, Key Points: 2 1 20 21 12 16 2 • J. Lasue , S. Le Mouélic , R. Léveillé , E. Lewin , M. Malin , S. McLennan , S. Maurice , Fluvial sandstones analyzed by 22 22 23 19 19 24 25 ChemCam display subtle chemical N. Melikechi , A. Mezzacappa , R. Milliken , H. Newsom , A. Ollila , S. K. Rowland , V. Sautter , variations M. Schmidt26, S. Schröder2,C.d’Uston2, D. Vaniman27, and R. Williams27 • Combined analysis of chemistry and texture highlights the role of 1Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes, CNRS, Université de Nantes, Nantes, France, 2Institut de Recherche diagenesis en Astrophysique et Planétologie, CNRS/Université de Toulouse, UPS-OMP, Toulouse, France, 3Laboratoire de Géologie de • Distinct chemistry in upper layers 4 5 suggests distinct setting and/or Lyon, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA, Los Alamos National 6 source Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA, Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, California, USA, 7Astrogeology Science Center, U.S. -
The Mystery of Methane on Mars and Titan
The Mystery of Methane on Mars & Titan By Sushil K. Atreya MARS has long been thought of as a possible abode of life. The discovery of methane in its atmosphere has rekindled those visions. The visible face of Mars looks nearly static, apart from a few wispy clouds (white). But the methane hints at a beehive of biological or geochemical activity underground. Of all the planets in the solar system other than Earth, own way, revealing either that we are not alone in the universe Mars has arguably the greatest potential for life, either extinct or that both Mars and Titan harbor large underground bodies or extant. It resembles Earth in so many ways: its formation of water together with unexpected levels of geochemical activ- process, its early climate history, its reservoirs of water, its vol- ity. Understanding the origin and fate of methane on these bod- canoes and other geologic processes. Microorganisms would fit ies will provide crucial clues to the processes that shape the right in. Another planetary body, Saturn’s largest moon Titan, formation, evolution and habitability of terrestrial worlds in also routinely comes up in discussions of extraterrestrial biology. this solar system and possibly in others. In its primordial past, Titan possessed conditions conducive to Methane (CH4) is abundant on the giant planets—Jupiter, the formation of molecular precursors of life, and some scientists Saturn, Uranus and Neptune—where it was the product of chem- believe it may have been alive then and might even be alive now. ical processing of primordial solar nebula material. On Earth, To add intrigue to these possibilities, astronomers studying though, methane is special. -
Review of the MEPAG Report on Mars Special Regions
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS This PDF is available at http://nap.edu/21816 SHARE Review of the MEPAG Report on Mars Special Regions DETAILS 80 pages | 8.5 x 11 | PAPERBACK ISBN 978-0-309-37904-5 | DOI 10.17226/21816 CONTRIBUTORS GET THIS BOOK Committee to Review the MEPAG Report on Mars Special Regions; Space Studies Board; Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; European Space Sciences Committee; FIND RELATED TITLES European Science Foundation Visit the National Academies Press at NAP.edu and login or register to get: – Access to free PDF downloads of thousands of scientific reports – 10% off the price of print titles – Email or social media notifications of new titles related to your interests – Special offers and discounts Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the National Academies Press. (Request Permission) Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Review of the MEPAG Report on Mars Special Regions Committee to Review the MEPAG Report on Mars Special Regions Space Studies Board Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences European Space Sciences Committee European Science Foundation Strasbourg, France Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Review of the MEPAG Report on Mars Special Regions THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 This study is based on work supported by the Contract NNH11CD57B between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and work supported by the Contract RFP/IPL-PTM/PA/fg/306.2014 between the European Science Foundation and the European Space Agency. -
PUTTING LIFE on MARS: Using Computer Graphics to Render a Living Mars
InSight: RIVIER ACADEMIC JOURNAL, VOLUME 9, NUMBER 1, SPRING 2013 PUTTING LIFE ON MARS: Using Computer Graphics to Render a Living Mars Kevin M. Gill ‘11G* Senior Software Engineer, Thunderhead.com, Manchester, NH Keywords: Computer Graphics, Mars, Life, Planetary Science, OpenGL Abstract This article describes the software, algorithms & decisions that went into the development of the Living Mars image project. This includes topics related to computer graphics, software development, astronomy, & planetary science. The purpose of the project was to create a visualization of the planet Mars as could look with a living biosphere. This makes no distinction as to whether this biosphere would represent an ancient or future, possibly terraformed planet. 1 Background Mars, named for the Roman god of war. Ancient civilizations have forever associated the planet with fear, war, and destruction. It is the color of blood, and “one of a handful of planets visible to the naked eye, and the only one of marked color, so the planet demanded attention (Pyle, 2012).” Ever since man has noticed it, there have been dreams and visions of life on Mars, from Giovanni Schiaparelli and Percival Lowell describing channels and canals to Robert A. Heinlein’s science fiction. Lowell, in particular famous for fantastic writings of Mars, asked “are physical forces alone at work there, or has evolution begotten something more complex, something not unakin to what we know on Earth as life?” (Lowell, 1895) Even more recent discoveries by NASA’s Curiosity rover have found proof that liquid water once flowed billions of years ago positing an environment that could have served host to life (Brown, 2013). -
ROVING ACROSS MARS: SEARCHING for EVIDENCE of FORMER HABITABLE ENVIRONMENTS Michael H
PERSPECTIVE ROVING ACROSS MARS: SEARCHING FOR EVIDENCE OF FORMER HABITABLE ENVIRONMENTS Michael H. Carr* My love affair with Mars started in the late 1960s when I was appointed a member of the Mariner 9 and Viking Orbiter imaging teams. The global surveys of these two missions revealed a geological wonderland in which many of the geological processes that operate here on Earth operate also on Mars, but on a grander scale. I was subsequently involved in almost every Mars mission, both US and non- US, through the early 2000s, and wrote several books on Mars, most recently The Surface of Mars (Carr 2006). I also participated extensively in NASA’s long-range strategic planning for Mars exploration, including assessment of the merits of various techniques, such as penetrators, Mars rovers showing their evolution from 1996 to the present day. FIGURE 1 balloons, airplanes, and rovers. I am, therefore, following the results In the foreground is the tethered rover, Sojourner, launched in 1996. On the left is a model of the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, launched in 2004. from Curiosity with considerable interest. On the right is Curiosity, launched in 2011. IMAGE CREDIT: NASA/JPL-CALTECH The six papers in this issue outline some of the fi ndings of the Mars rover Curiosity, which has spent the last two years on the Martian surface looking for evidence of past habitable conditions. It is not the fi rst rover to explore Mars, but it is by far the most capable (FIG. 1). modest-sized landed vehicles. Advances in guidance enabled landing Included on the vehicle are a number of cameras, an alpha particle at more interesting and promising places, and advances in robotics led X-ray spectrometer (APXS) for contact elemental composition, a spec- to vehicles with more independent capabilities. -
Companion Q&A Fact Sheet: What Mars Reveals About Life in Our
What Mars Reveals about Life in Our Universe Companion Q&A Fact Sheet Educators from the Smithsonian’s Air and Space and Natural History Museums assembled this collection of commonly asked questions about Mars to complement the Smithsonian Science How webinar broadcast on March 3, 2021, “What Mars Reveals about Life in our Universe.” Continue to explore Mars and your own curiosities with these facts and additional resources: • NASA: Mars Overview • NASA: Mars Robotic Missions • National Air and Space Museum on the Smithsonian Learning Lab: “Wondering About Astronomy Together” Guide • National Museum of Natural History: A collection of resources for teaching about Antarctic Meteorites and Mars 1 • Smithsonian Science How: “What Mars Reveals about Life in our Universe” with experts Cari Corrigan, L. Miché Aaron, and Mariah Baker (aired March 3, 2021) Mars Overview How long is Mars’ day? Mars takes 24 hours and 38 minutes to spin around once, so its day is very similar to Earth’s. How long is Mars’ year? Mars takes 687 days, almost two Earth years, to complete one orbit around the Sun. How far is Mars from Earth? The distance between Earth and Mars changes as both planets move around the Sun in their orbits. At its closest, Mars is just 34 million miles from the Earth; that’s about one third of Earth’s distance from the Sun. On the day of this program, March 3, 2021, Mars was about 135 million miles away, or four times its closest distance. How far is Mars from the Sun? Mars orbits an average of 141 million miles from the Sun, which is about one-and-a-half times as far as the Earth is from the Sun. -
Mariner to Mercury, Venus and Mars
NASA Facts National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 91109 Mariner to Mercury, Venus and Mars Between 1962 and late 1973, NASA’s Jet carry a host of scientific instruments. Some of the Propulsion Laboratory designed and built 10 space- instruments, such as cameras, would need to be point- craft named Mariner to explore the inner solar system ed at the target body it was studying. Other instru- -- visiting the planets Venus, Mars and Mercury for ments were non-directional and studied phenomena the first time, and returning to Venus and Mars for such as magnetic fields and charged particles. JPL additional close observations. The final mission in the engineers proposed to make the Mariners “three-axis- series, Mariner 10, flew past Venus before going on to stabilized,” meaning that unlike other space probes encounter Mercury, after which it returned to Mercury they would not spin. for a total of three flybys. The next-to-last, Mariner Each of the Mariner projects was designed to have 9, became the first ever to orbit another planet when two spacecraft launched on separate rockets, in case it rached Mars for about a year of mapping and mea- of difficulties with the nearly untried launch vehicles. surement. Mariner 1, Mariner 3, and Mariner 8 were in fact lost The Mariners were all relatively small robotic during launch, but their backups were successful. No explorers, each launched on an Atlas rocket with Mariners were lost in later flight to their destination either an Agena or Centaur upper-stage booster, and planets or before completing their scientific missions. -
JSC-Rocknest: a Large-Scale Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS) Based Soil Simulant for In-Situ
1 JSC-Rocknest: A large-scale Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS) based soil simulant for in-situ 2 resource utilization water-extraction studies 3 Clark, J.V.a*, Archer, P.D.b, Gruener, J.E.c, Ming, D.W.c, Tu, V.M.b, Niles, P.B.c, Mertzman, 4 S.A.d 5 a GeoControls Systems, Inc – Jacobs JETS Contract at NASA Johnson Space Center, 2101 6 NASA Pkwy, Houston, TX 77058, USA. [email protected], 281-244-7442 7 b Jacobs JETS Contract at NASA Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Pkwy, Houston, TX 8 77058, USA. 9 c NASA Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Pkwy, Houston, TX 77058, USA. 10 d Department of Earth and Environmental, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA 17604, 11 USA. 12 *Corresponding author 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Keywords: Simulant, Mars, In-situ resource utilization, evolved gas analysis, Rocknest 1 20 Abstract 21 The Johnson Space Center-Rocknest (JSC-RN) simulant was developed in response to a 22 need by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) 23 project for a simulant to be used in component and system testing for water extraction from Mars 24 regolith. JSC-RN was designed to be chemically and mineralogically similar to material from the 25 aeolian sand shadow named Rocknest in Gale Crater, particularly the 1-3 wt.% low temperature 26 (<450 ºC) water release as measured by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on the 27 Curiosity rover. Sodium perchlorate, goethite, pyrite, ferric sulfate, regular and high capacity 28 granular ferric oxide, and forsterite were added to a Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS) base in order 29 to match the mineralogy, evolved gases, and elemental chemistry of Rocknest. -
Combinatorics in Space
Combinatorics in Space The Mariner 9 Telemetry System Mariner 9 Mission Launched: May 30, 1971 Arrived: Nov. 14, 1971 Turned Off: Oct. 27, 1972 Mission Objectives: (Mariner 8): Map 70% of Martian surface. (Mariner 9): Study temporal changes in Martian atmosphere and surface features. Live TV A black and white TV camera was used to broadcast “live” pictures of the Martian surface. Each photo-receptor in the camera measures the brightness of a section of the Martian surface about 4-5 km square, and outputs a grayness value in the range 0-63. This value is represented as a binary 6-tuple. The TV image is thus digitalized by the photo-receptor bank and is output as a stream of thousands of binary 6-tuples. Coding Needed Without coding and a failure probability p = 0.05, 26% of the image would be in error ... unacceptably poor quality for the nature of the mission. Any coding will increase the length of the transmitted message. Due to power constraints on board the probe and equipment constraints at the receiving stations on Earth, the coded message could not be much more than 5 times as long as the data. Thus, a 6-tuple of data could be coded as a codeword of about 30 bits in length. Other concerns A second concern involves the coding procedure. Storage of data requires shielding of the storage media – this is dead weight aboard the probe and economics require that there be little dead weight. Coding should therefore be done “on the fly”, without permanent memory requirements.