Rover Update

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Rover Update

• Both rovers are healthy
• Spirit is at the southern end of Home Plate,
  investigating at a rock named Humboldt Peak
• Starting to think about this years winter haven
• Opportunity is calibrating its cameras, and
  looking at the Steno layer

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Rocks at Southern End of Home Plate Humboldt_Peak
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Geographic Feature Names
Fracture?
120 m
Next Target
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Steno (née a)
?
Smith (née b)
?
Lyell (née g)
Layers renamed Nicholas Steno (1638-1686)
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Steno William
Smith (1769-1839) http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi
lliam_Smith_(geologist) Charles Lyell (1797-1875)
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lyell
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2nd Steno target (behind)
Steno
Sol 1313 FHaz
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Field Trip!
In the Shadow of the Moon -- an oral history of
the Apollo program Just from the distance of
the moon, you can hide the Earth behind your
thumb, everything that you have ever known your
loved ones, your business, the problems of the
Earth itself, all behind your thumb. It makes you
consider how insignificant we really are. --
James Lovell

• Voted best documentary at the Sundance Film
  Festival
• Playing at Cinemapolis until October 18th

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From last time

• Martian year 687 days (669 sols)
• The heliopause is around 100-200 AU from the sun
• Voyager I has passed the termination shock, where
  the solar wind speed drops from supersonic to
  subsonic Voyager II is seeing the first signs of
  the shock. They should get to the heliopause in
  10-20 years
• Before the heliopause most particles are
  electrons and protons
• ISM most particles are hydrogen and helium atoms

Reference http//voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/int
erstellar.html
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Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)Science Results

• Astro 280
• October 10, 2007

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Mission Overview

• Launched on November 7, 1996
• Arrived on September 11, 1997
• Aerobraked until March 9, 1999
• Communication ended in November 2006

http//nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/image/mars_gl
obal_surveyor.jpg
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Highlights

• First spacecraft to use aerobraking to
  circularize its orbit around Mars
• Operated longer than any other spacecraft at Mars
• Sent more than 240,000 images back to Earth
• Observed annual weather cycles
• Produced a global topographical map of Mars
• Found evidence of the mineral hematite
• Found evidence of an ancient magnetic field
• Found evidence of modern-day sudden erosion

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Instrument Overview

• Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
• Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA)
• Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES)
• Magnetometer/Electron Reflectometer (MAG/ER)
• Ultrastable Oscillator for Radio Science
  experiments
• Mars Relay

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MOC

• First high-resolution camera in Mars orbit (up to
  1.5 m per pixel)
• Found evidence of ancient river deltas, layered
  sediments, and geologically young gullies
• Compiled a global mosaic (7.5 km/pixel) every 24
  hours

http//www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/may_2000/n_pol
e/ Image credit NASA/JPL/MSSS
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Evidence of Ancient Water/Sediment Flow
http//www.msss.com/msss_images/2007/04/13/
Image credit NASA/JPL/MSSS
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New Gullies!
http//www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/images/pia0
9027.html Image credit NASA/JPL/Malin Space
Science Systems

• A gully appeared in Terra Sirenum between
  December 2001 (left) and April 2005 (right)
• Might be due to water, but not necessarily

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Other cool pictures
http//www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/19/ Im
age credit NASA/JPL/M SSS
http//mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/sci/earth/index.html
Image credit NASA/JPL/M SSS
Earth
Mars Odyssey
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Hearts and Rippled Fog
From http//www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/02/1
4/ Image credit NASA/JPL/M SSS
From http//www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/07/1
7/ Image credit NASA/JPL/M SSS
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The Face on Mars
From http//www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/extended_
may2001/face/ Image credit NASA/JPL/M SSS
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Surface Features
From http//www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/02/0
2/
From http//www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/07/2
5/
From http//www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/09/1
2/
Image credit NASA/JPL/M SSS
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Rover Tracks!
From http//www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/09/2
7/ Image credit NASA/JPL/M SSS
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MOLA
N
S
http//ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/mola.html
Image credit MOLA Science Team

• First high-resolution global topographical map of
  Mars
• Used a 1.064 ?m (IR) laser pulse
• 1 spatial resolution (59 km at equator), 13 m
  accuracy
• Also measured albedo and ice clouds

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http//ssed.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/map_lab.html
Image credit MOLA Science Team
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MOLA Results

• The south pole is about 6 km higher than the
  north pole!
• The surface of the southern hemisphere is rougher
  than the northern lowlands
• Hellas basin is the deepest place on Mars -- 9km
  from crater rim to bottom
• The polar caps contain at most enough water to
  cover Mars about 22-33 m deep (less than people
  thought)

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TES

• Used IR spectroscopy to map the minerals on the
  martian surface
• Continuously monitored the atmosphere for several
  martian years
• Discovered hematite in Meridiani Planum

From http//tes.asu.edu/discoveries/1/index.html I
mage credit NASA/JPL/Arizona State University
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TES Results

• Most of the martian surface is made up of igneous
  rocks, which are as diverse as Earths
• Mars has minerals that (on Earth) only form in
  water
• When the atmosphere gets dusty, water-ice clouds
  disappear for months
• The polar caps are water-ice, seasonally covered
  by CO2

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MAG/ER
Mitchell et al., Journal of Geophysical Research,
Vol.112, E01002, doi10.1029/2005JE002564 , 09
January 2007

• Compiled a global map of the magnetic fields in
  the martian crust, with a sensitivity of 10 nT
  (Earths magnetic field is about 5 x 10-5 T
  50,000 nT)

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MAG/ER Results

• Mars does not currently have a global magnetic
  field
• It used to the older areas of the surface
  exhibit magnetic anomalies
• The magnetic field flipped like Earths does, but
  either it flipped less often or the surface
  spread faster (or both)
• The magnetic field (mostly) disappeared before
  the surface of the northern plains formed

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Radio Science
http//mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/sci/mola/mar10-2000/i
nternal_paper.html Image credit MGS RS and MOLA
Science Teams

• Monitored atmospheric temperature and pressure
  variations for several martian years
• Used Doppler shifts to precisely measure the
  gravitational field

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Mars Weather Maps
http//www-star.stanford.edu/projects/mgs/high/hig
hlight06.html