Mike Deliman

But Not A Drop To Drink...

Congratulations are due to the Mars Phoenix Lander crew.
Not only did their mission get its extension, they found the first part of what they were looking for.

They've confirmed the presence of that illusive substance, so critical to life on Earth: WATER!
Remember, everywhere we find water on Earth, we find something living in it.

Here's the announcement from NASA.  Enjoy!
----

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
                    Jet Propulsion Laboratory,

Pasadena

,

Calif.
                   

guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov                    

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
                    NASA Headquarters,

Washington

               
                    dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

                   

Sara Hammond 520-626-1974
                   

University

of

Arizona

,

Tucson
                   

shammond@lpl.arizona.edu                    

RELEASE: 2008-153  July 31, 2008

                   

NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water,

Mission

Extended

                   

TUCSON

,

Ariz.

-- Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.                    

"We have water," said William Boynton of the

University

of

Arizona

, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. "We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by

Phoenix

last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."

                   

With enticing results so far and the spacecraft in good shape, NASA also announced operational funding for the mission will extend through Sept. 30. The original prime mission of three months ends in late August. The mission extension adds five weeks to the 90 days of the prime mission.

                   

"Phoenix is healthy and the projections for solar power look good, so we want to take full advantage of having this resource in one of the most interesting locations on Mars," said Michael Meyer, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in

Washington

.

                   

The soil sample came from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When the robotic arm first reached that depth, it hit a hard layer of frozen soil. Two attempts to deliver samples of

                   

icy soil on days when fresh material was exposed were foiled when the samples became stuck inside the scoop. Most of the material in Wednesday's sample had been exposed to the air for two days, letting some of the water in the sample vaporize away and making the soil easier to handle.

                   

"Mars is giving us some surprises," said

Phoenix

principal investigator Peter Smith of the

University

of

Arizona

. "We're excited because surprises are where discoveries come from. One surprise is how the soil is behaving. The ice-rich layers stick to the scoop when poised in the sun above the deck, different from what we expected from all the Mars simulation testing we've done. That has presented challenges for delivering samples, but we're finding ways to work with it and we're gathering lots of information to help us understand this soil."

                   

Since landing on May 25,

Phoenix

has been studying soil with a chemistry lab, TEGA, a microscope, a conductivity probe and cameras. Besides confirming the 2002 finding from orbit of water ice near the surface and deciphering the newly observed stickiness, the science team is trying to determine whether the water ice ever thaws enough to be available for biology and if carbon-containing chemicals and other raw materials for life are present.

                   

The mission is examining the sky as well as the ground. A Canadian instrument is using a laser beam to study dust and clouds overhead.

                   

"It's a 30-watt light bulb giving us a laser show on Mars," said Victoria Hipkin of the Canadian Space Agency.

                   

A full-circle, color panorama of

Phoenix

's surroundings also has been completed by the spacecraft.

                   

"The details and patterns we see in the ground show an ice-dominated terrain as far as the eye can see," said Mark Lemmon of

Texas

A&M

University

, lead scientist for

Phoenix

's Surface Stereo Imager camera. "They help us plan measurements we're making within reach of the robotic arm and interpret those measurements on a wider scale."

                   

The

Phoenix

mission is led by Smith at the

University

of

Arizona

with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in

Pasadena

,

Calif.

, and development partnership at Lockheed Martin in

Denver

. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the

University

of

Neuchatel

,

Switzerland

; the universities of

Copenhagen

and Aarhus in

Denmark

; the Max Planck Institute in

Germany

; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

                   

For more about

Phoenix

, visit:

                   

 

                   

http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix

                   

 

                   

-end-

Wind River Webinar: Q and A

Hello All,

last week as some of you know I was the featured presenter / presentation for a Webinar.   (you may have problems watching that with firefox...) .  During the course of the webinar, we were asked a number of questions, and we ran out of time...

Here are some of the questions and answers we couldn't get to.

--
Q: What is the biggest advantage of Vxwork over other real-time operation system?
A:  VxWorks is the most well-deployed and well-used commercial realtime OS in the world.  Because of this, the OS is more well-tested than any other commercial RTOS, for this reason I would say the maturity of VxWorks is perhaps it's greatest advantage.
--
Q:have you ever patched the OS or only the application sw?
A: In most cases, only application code is updated in space, though it is possible to patch  or replace even the bootrom code in many of the space robots.
--
Q:Can VXWorks 'replace' itself in case of malfunction?
A: I'm not certain what "replace" means in this context; some of our customers have invented ways to detect bad RAM locations, map around those locations, and load vxWorks to the remaining RAM. 
--
Q:How do you ensure that the RTOS does not crash? Even due to a simple NULL-pointer access? Do you have any built-in Crash Recovery mechanisms in WindRiver for Space systems?
A: While debugging with newer versions of VxWorks it is possible to use the MMU to trap accesses to, for instance, the 0-page, to catch accesses to uninitialized pointers, etc.  Once code is sufficiently  debugged, the MMU may be disabled if desired, or the product may be deployed with the protection enabled.  As far as crash-recovery systems, most of the systems in-flight have created health maintenance and monitoring systems, and event logging systems.  Wind River has learned from this, and our newer OS releases have support for configurable event logs and health monitoring.
--
Q:Do you customize Vx Works for individual customers ?
A: We have services experts available to help with everything from the initial installation, to implementation of the entire product, including modifying vxWorks for a particular project.
--
Q:Which the CPU platforms are apted for VxWorks? How to get more info about VXWorks and its using?
A: VxWorks is available for many PowerPC, MIPS, ARM, Xscale, and other CPU types.  Wind River has offices world wide.  Please check at WWW.Windriver.com for office locations.
--
Q: I know you have a trial version of vxworks, but for a person who want to learn it, it expires quick. do you have a slim version with no expiration?
A: We do not have a "slim" version.
--
Q:  Is there a Webinar that spotlights VxWorks? A Demo?
A:  Demos are available of all of our products, pleas contact your local sales office.
--
Q: how do you update your software on space robots?
A: This is highly dependent on the hardware and hardware capabilities used to implement the robots, so unfortunately our customers must usually invent the right methods.
--
Q: AI and VX Works.. Any efforts to embed supporting AI as a native support on VX Works?
A: Though AI systems and some AI capabilities have been implemented using VxWorks, I am not aware of any efforts to embed more than rudimentary AI functionality along with VxWorks; Stardust, DS1, and the Mars Exploration Rovers are the best examples I can think of that incorporated any degree of AI.  Wind River is not planning on adding any AI capabilities to VxWorks (or Linux) at this time.
--
Q: how do you know when to time out communication to a mars rover when there is so much delay and interference?
A: That is left to the folks who implement the radio protocols used by the Deep Space Network to communicate with all the probes/robots/satellites in deep space.  They are experts with communications in deep space.  I expect sometime in the near future that this will all change with Delay Tolerant Networking and the implementation of the InterPlanetary Internet.
--
Q: Is VxWorks migrating from support of ASIC hardware to FPGA's?
A: VxWorks runs on a variety of platforms including COTS boards, ASIC, and FPGA based designs.
--
Q: All application using embedded controller or PCs?
A: Many manufacturers of COTS computer boards for VME, PCI, or cPCI supply VxWorks BSPs for their boards, and Wind River Systems supports BSPs for several COTS boards directly.  I hope this answers the question.
--
Q: Do you see an increase in the percentage of embedded applications that use some form of Linux vs others like pure VxWorks (i.e. not including VxWorks Linux)?
A: To be clear: VxWorks is NOT Linux, the two are not even remotely related to each-other; vxWorks pre-dates Linux by... years.  Likewise, Linux did not evolve from VxWorks.  They are similar in some respects (Posix, networking support, etc), but they are not even "kissing cousins".  Wind River does have our own versions of Linux available along with VxWorks.
Though I have seen an increased presence of Linux in the embedded arena, and an increased presence in the development and testing phases of even software for space applications, I have not seen Linux promoted to controlling a mission (e.g. the primary flight computer) yet.
--
Q: What problems are unique and interesting to  underwater implementations of VxWorks like those faced by MBARI?
A: I wish I had a contact at MBARI for you to ask!  As far as I know, most issues unique to the situation would be shared by all submersible vehicles, and MBARI has excellent experience in dealing with submersibles and software for underwater applications. Once the mechanical issues of sealing out the environment are taken care of, weather it's space or deep-sea, the rest becomes implementing software to control your devices, debugging, and deployment.
--
Q: [referring to an earlier question] Additional details on my earlier question on RTOS decision making ... The specific application is for an RTOS decision to be made for new instrumentation used in human spaceflight ... that is where do I start?
A: I would imagine you would need to start with the specifications for your deliverables: what kinds of certifications you will need, if any, and what kind of constraints the computer needs to operate under.  For instance, will this be a deep-spacee project requiring rad-hard hardware, or will rad-tolerant hardware suffice?  Will you need FAA or military certification, or none at all?  Wind River is happy to discuss the software packages we have and how they may be applied to your project.
--
Q: which vxworks versions have flown in the past and how customized were they ? (components)
A: VxWorks 5.2, 5.3.1, 5.3.1 MER Edition, 5.5.1, and I think 6.2 have all flown in space.  Other versions have flown in military aircraft, etc.  The most customized component of VxWorks I believe would be the DosFS file system on the MER rovers.  The folks at JPL made some great improvements after the SOL18 issue. 

For the most part, we strive to keep the releases "as close as possible" to the standard releases in order to facilitate technical support and software maintainability.  Newer radiation hardened chips are available that are very similar to commercial parts, like standard PowerPC or Sparc chips, and these newer chips run the same (current) versions of vxWorks as everyone else does.  This allows the customer to use our standard technical support for many issues, making experts more available for all issues.
--
Q: There were flash managment issues on MER and the Polar Lander. Could you explain the issue?
A: The flash management issues on MER "A" Spirit was actually more a RAM management  issue combined with a debug feature, precipitated from a "feature" of the DOS file system.  I am not intimate with any problems experienced on Mars Phoenix Lander, but the last I heard MPL's experts have identified a possible application problem.  Given when I'd heard this, I'd expect they may already have tested and sent-up a fix.
--
Q:Is VxWorks already been ported to RAD750 or Leon3FT ? Do you support academic R&D with easy to access software or anything other than that ? Thanks!
A: Yes - Rad750 BSP is supported by BAE Systems, from Wind River's perspective it's pretty much a "generic" PowerPC 750 and uses standard software and tools.  BSPs are available for VxWorks versions 5.x and 6.x, I believe 6.4 is available and a BSP for 6.6 will be available soon.

Wind River does not directly support VxWorks on Leon, but the manufacturer does have a solution with VxWorks 6.x available (I find this very fascinating and would love to "play" with it sometime).  :)

Wind River does have a University Program, contact your local Wind River sales office for details.
--
Q: How many versions/levels are there of VxWorks, and, how do you choose a version of VxWorks for example a Mars rover?
A: VxWorks has been around for a while, well over 20 years.  When I first saw it, the version was 4.0, and there was one version of vxWorks that ran on top of other companies kernels.  Now there are various versions of VxWorks for specific markets, and platforms available to help tailor VxWorks for specific usage.  I would always recommend using the latest version available for your hardware platform that satisfies the needs of your program.

This was the first webinar I've ever presented.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. 

The Phoenix has landed... but the dust has not cleared

it's another  beautiful day in the Mojave, temps will easily pass the century mark, and there will be another batch of emails with various questions and "trolling" remarks about what exactly is or is not on Mars and how badly crippled it is.

So far, among the letters from the public, I've received claims of:  "it's an Apollo moon-shot fake, like the rovers", there's a short in the robot arm,  the robot arm is broken,  the lander leaked 'rocket fuel', the OS crashed the lander and it's not responding, the lander runs Linux, the lander runs embedded Windows, the lander has a modern computer and uses 128MB of RAM.

Okay.  I'll go through these to see if I can help clear some of the dust.

None of these were faked in studios in Burbank or anywhere else:  Apollo missions, Mars Missions, rover shots from Mars, Phoenix landing on Mars.  As Mom would say:  Go wash your mouth out!

There's no short in the Robotic arm, as far as I know.  What I do know - when Phoenix first landed, the protective covering over the arm did not pull back far enough, and was covering part of the arm.  It was a bit short of retracting all the way, and might have gotten in the way of using the arm.  Over the first night, it finished retracting, and was no problem.  If there is an electrical short in the arm, I have not heard nor seen any news stories about it.

The Robotic Arm is not broken.  The have managed to "cook" the first oven samples, and are doing science; the arm is delivering samples to the oven as desired.

The lander "leaked rocket fuel".  Well, if you watched the landing, after it was securely on the ground, it vented rocket fuel.  Venting is kind of like a leak, except leaks are unintentional.  We did this because the pressurized fuel is no longer needed, and it's better to have the tanks depressurize on our schedule instead of their own.

The OS crashed the lander and it's not responding.  I give you the day-to-day news item list from the Lander, please point me to the story about this:  Phoenix News.

The Lander Runs embedded Windows / Linux / two hamsters on a treadmill.  Well.  No, no, and hamsters might be faster.  I'm sure even Simon Barret has heard enough about it after this article. The lander runs our VxWorks, which is closer to Unix than Linux and runs our proprietary WIND kernel.  Simon even posted a correction in this interview.   I expect we'll both be getting emails about this for a short while.

The Rad6000  computer on-board can be switched-up to a whopping 20 Mhz. 20.  Not 200, not 133.  If they're following earlier design, the OS "knows about" only the bottom 32 MB of Ram, no matter how much is installed; the rest of the ram is used for application specific needs.  The Rad6000 CPU is a RADiation Hardened RS6000 RISC processor, not MIPS, not Intel; it's a predecessor of PowerPC called Power.  By today's standards it's a old war-torn bit of iron, based on what was a high-tech CPU in 1989.
It takes time to take a standard CPU and make it ready for deep space / mega-rad exposure to radiation.

I hope some of the dust is settling..

"Did you watch it?"

Did I watch it?

I've been asked about a dozen times since Phoenix landed if I watched the landing.

Coverage was available, after all, on NASA-TV (both satellite and web feeds), and the Science Channel ran Mars footage all night, including covering the NASA TV feed.  I've worked on a lot of Mars Stuff, and indeed Phoenix runs VxWorks 5.2 for Rad6000, a direct product of a handful of folks at Loral & JPL, and us 3 chickens at WRS (Brian, Lisa and I; I  was the most-junior member of the engineering team).

But... Monaco, Indy, and Nascar all had big races going, and all the normal stuff of the Memorial Day Weekend - so  many things to do.  Did I watch it?

In answer... reprinted with the author's  permission (I wrote it after all) a blow-by-blow account from a personal web log of an engineer who's worked on a lot of Mars stuff:

------  reprinted with permission from the original author, see copymark info.
[Editorial comment - this blog was updated every few minutes, each [EDIT] mark is between 1 and 5 minutes apart.]

MARS:  EDL data flow starts in about 2 minutes.
[edit]
Mars Ody data stream: verified.
[edit]
Cruise stage separation...
[edit]
verified.  UHF signal acquired.  Separation complete, craft on course.
[edit]
T-3:30 atmospheric entry
[edit]
MRO link-up soon.  t-10:00 touchdown
[edit]
MRO data link: confirmed 
[edit] 
8K data rate... confirmed.

Entering atmosphere.... in 30.. 29...
[edit]
4..3...2...
[edit]
Seven Minutes Of Terror: begin now.
[edit]

For the next few minutes, we will lose COMS as the craft generates a plasma shock wave by it's heat shield burning it's way through the atmosphere. Once we slow enough and cool down, COMS will be re-established.

Ody: drop in signal, but present.

Phoenix: at peak heating
[edit]
Phoenix: we're ready to re-establish direct COMS with Phoenix.  We never lost dopler monitor from Ody.

4..3..2..1...  32K switch detected, ODY has carrier,  Parachute deployed.
[edit]

DATA LOCK-UP.... [Control room goes wild] Ground Velo: 90M/S
[edit]
.... aproaching.

tick... tick....

60M/S .... 

tick... tick...

Altitude Convergence... RADAR RELIABLE @ 2000M
control room goes wild

Gravity turn detected.

... approach... slowing... not much though....
slowing
TOUCHDOWN  - LANDED...

WE'RE THERE!  CONGRATULATIONS to MPL's successful landing
on Mars.

EDL COM:  standing by...
[EDIT]

NORMAL TERMINATION OF EDL COMS, PHOENIX HAS LANDED, we're officially ON MARS!!!!!!!!

Folks, it's time for some champagne!
----------------------
[original work protected by creative-commons copyright. no reprinting w/o original author's permission]

Mars update

Though we haven't seen a lot of Mars in the news lately, for those who keep track, the past couple of months have been somewhat stressful.  A sandstorm started on Mars over a month ago.  It's still raging on, and even though the rovers are on opposite sides of the planet, the storm has affected both rovers.

This dust storm has measurable effects.  It's made the sky more opaque, added dust to the solar panels, and made the atmosphere retain a little more heat.  With the dust in the sky, less sun light makes it down to the rovers.  With new layers of dust on the panels, even more of the sunlight is blocked out.  And even though the dust helps retain heat,  it's not a huge difference, and it's still cold enough that the emergency heaters could be turned on.

Right now the rovers are running on borrowed time.  We're all surprised the robots have lasted this long (happily surprised!), and that the batteries have managed to retain enough charge to keep the rovers going.

Day by day the batteries are monitored, as is the power usage and power generated by the solar panels.  For any given day, if more power is produced than is consumed, it's called a "power positive day". A "Power Negative Day" would be a day when more power is used than is made.  Power negative days drain the batteries down.

Over the last several weeks, the rovers teams have trimmed power consumption down drastically, and the result is that even on the darkest days, the rovers were able to operate with positive power balances.  The danger remains that the heaters could be triggered, and it wouldn't take long for the heaters to drain the batteries. 

The good news is that today on the Rovers web site I see that the dust is starting to clear.

--

Phoenix is on it's way to Mars.  It has successfully completed it's first TCM - trajectory correction maneuver - or flight correction.   So far, everything is going well.

Rovers in dusty peril?

After more than 1234 days in service, after surviving the extreme cold of Martian winter, the rovers may be facing their toughest challenge:  summer dust storms.

I live out in the desert, and on our planet, dust storms can raise-up at the drop of a hat, and obliterate everything.  Just a few months ago we had a couple of days of "zero-visibility" warnings because of dust storms.  In our deserts, though, there are still plants and trees that can hold some of the dust down.

On Mars, when the dust blows, there's nothing to stop it.

Here's the news item from JPL... 
------------

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE

JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

 

Guy Webster/Gay Yee Hill  818-354-6278/5011

Jet Propulsion Laboratory,

Pasadena

,

Calif.

 

Dwayne Brown/Tabatha Thompson 202-358-1726/3895

NASA Headquarters,

Washington

 

NEWS RELEASE: 2007-080  July 20, 2007

 

NASA Mars Rovers Braving Severe Dust Storms

 

PASADENA

,

Calif.

- Having explored Mars for three-and-a-half years in what were missions originally designed for three months, NASA's Mars rovers are facing perhaps their biggest challenge.

 

For nearly a month, a series of severe Martian summer dust storms has affected the rover

Opportunity

and, to a lesser extent, its companion, Spirit. The dust in the Martian atmosphere over

Opportunity

has blocked 99 percent of direct sunlight to the rover, leaving only the limited diffuse sky light to power it. Scientists fear the storms might continue for several days, if not weeks.

 

"We're rooting for our rovers to survive these storms, but they were never designed for conditions this intense," said Alan Stern, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

 

If the sunlight is further cut back for an extended period, the rovers will not be able to generate enough power to keep themselves warm and operate at all, even in a near-dormant state. The rovers use electric heaters to keep some of their vital core electronics from becoming too cold.

 

Before the dust storms began blocking sunlight last month,

Opportunity

's solar panels had been producing about 700 watt hours of electricity per day, enough to light a 100-watt bulb for seven hours. When dust in the air reduced the panels' daily output to less than 400 watt hours, the rover team suspended driving and most observations, including use of the robotic arm, cameras and spectrometers to study the site where Opportunity is located.

 

 

On Tuesday, July 17, the output from

Opportunity

's solar panels dropped to 148 watt hours, the lowest point for either rover. On Wednesday,

Opportunity

's solar-panel output dropped even lower, to 128 watt hours.

 

NASA engineers are taking proactive measures to protect the rovers, especially

Opportunity

, which is experiencing the brunt of the dust storm. The rovers are showing robust survival characteristics. Spirit, in a location where the storm is currently less severe, has been instructed to conserve battery power by limiting its activities.

 

"We are taking more aggressive action with both rovers than we needed before," said John Callas, project manager for the twin rovers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,

Pasadena

,

Calif.

 

By

Opportunity

's 1,236th Martian day, which ended Tuesday, driving and all science observations had already been suspended. The rover still used more energy than its solar panels could generate on that day, drawing down its battery. "The only thing left to cut were some of the communication sessions," Callas said.

 

To minimize further the amount of energy

Opportunity

is using, mission controllers sent commands on Wednesday, July 18, instructing the rover to refrain from communicating with Earth on Thursday and Friday. This is the first time either of the rovers has been told to skip communications for a day or more in order to conserve energy. Engineers calculate that skipping communications sessions should lower daily energy use to less than 130 watt hours.

 

A possible outcome of this storm is that one or both rovers could be damaged permanently or even disabled. Engineers will assess the capability of each rover after the storm clears.

 

NASA will provide mission updates as events warrant. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the rover project for the Science Mission Directorate.

 

For more information about the rovers, visit:

 

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov

 

-end-

Up From The Ashes...

July 4th 1997 NASA did something spectacular: demonstrated a bunch of new technologies and delivered a space craft to the surface of another planet.  Mars Pathfinder landed on Mars.  Not long after, NASA started working on more probes to be sent to Mars, to do some research on the the climate and the polar ice packs.  It's pretty important research given that this seems to be where ALL the water on Mars was. Water is a pretty important item if we ever want to have a return mission or a manned mission.  Not to mention water drives a lot of geological and planetary evolution.  And there's that "life" thing too.

Some bad things happened (most notably, 2 Mars Probes crashed).  Mission delays ensued, launch windows were missed, and eventually the project was "mothballed".  It didn't look like this mission to the polar ice was ever going to get a chance. 

Here we are more than a decade after Mars Pathfinder's success, and Up From The Ashes , The Phoenix rises!  Next month, it will start on it's way to the red planet.  This craft is, in terms of software evolution, Mars Pathfinder's sibling, sort-of one of the Mars Exploration Rovers' grandparents.  I hope you'll join me in wishing it "Bon Voyage"!

Watch the whole story.

One Tin Soldier Rides Away....

Not quite a year ago, Mars was in the news.  Opportunity had made it to a new milestone - Victoria Crater.  Among the issues being discussed at the time was: will we send the rover down into this crater, from which it would likely never return.  I posted my own feelings in an entry titled Precipice .

My feelings haven't changed.  I'm still amazed at what we've managed to achieve.  I still feel a bit mixed about sending this rover to it's eventual doom.  And I still know in my heart that it's The Right Thing to do; it's what we sent it there for, and there's not going to be any better ..opportunities.. to get this much information.

So here it is - Opportunity is going in.  And a whole new adventure begins for our rover.  And I feel excited about this new adventure.

-----  full article from NASA/JPL

Guy Webster 818-354-6278

Jet Propulsion Laboratory,

Pasadena

,

Calif.

 

 

Dwayne Brown/Tabatha Thompson 202-358-1726/3895

NASA Headquarters,

Washington

 

NEWS RELEASE: 2007-070            June 28, 2007

 

NASA Mars Rover Ready For Descent Into Crater

 

PASADENA

,

Calif.

- NASA's Mars rover

Opportunity

is scheduled to begin a descent down a rock-paved slope into the Red Planet's massive Victoria Crater. This latest trek carries real risk for the long-lived robotic explorer, but NASA and the Mars Rover science team expect it to provide valuable science.

 

Opportunity

already has been exploring layered rocks in cliffs around Victoria Crater. The team has planned the descent carefully to enable an eventual exit, but

Opportunity

could become trapped inside the crater or lose some capabilities. The rover has operated more than 12 times longer than its originally intended 90 days.

 

The scientific allure is the chance to examine and investigate the compositions and textures of exposed materials in the crater's depths for clues about ancient, wet environments. As the rover travels farther down the slope, it will be able to examine increasingly older rocks in the exposed walls of the crater.

 

"While we take seriously the uncertainty about whether Opportunity will climb back out, the potential value of investigations that appear possible inside the crater convinced me to authorize the team to move forward into Victoria Crater," said Alan Stern, NASA associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington. "It is a calculated risk worth taking, particularly because this mission has far exceeded its original goals."

 

The robotic geologist will enter Victoria Crater through an alcove named

Duck

Bay

. The eroding crater has a scalloped rim of cliff-like promontories, or capes, alternating with more gently sloped alcoves, or bays.

 

A meteor impact millions of years ago excavated Victoria, which lies approximately 4 miles (6 kilometers) south of where Opportunity landed in January 2004. The impact-created bowl is half a mile (800 meters) across and about five times as wide as Endurance Crater, where

Opportunity

spent more than six months exploring in 2004.

 

The rover began the journey to

Victoria

from Endurance 30 months ago. It reached the rim at

Duck

Bay

nine months ago.

Opportunity

then drove approximately a quarter of the way clockwise around the rim, examining rock layers visible in the promontories and possible entry routes in the alcoves. Now, the rover has returned to the most favorable entry point.

 

"

Duck

Bay

looks like the best candidate for entry," said John Callas, rover project manager, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,

Pasadena

,

Calif.

"It has slopes of 15 to 20 degrees and exposed bedrock for safe driving."

 

If all of its six wheels continue working, engineers expect

Opportunity

to be able to climb back out of the crater. However,

Opportunity

's twin rover, Spirit, lost the use of one wheel more than a year ago, diminishing its climbing ability.

 

"These rovers are well past their design lifetimes, and another wheel could fail on either rover at any time," Callas said. "If

Opportunity

were to lose the use of a wheel inside Victoria Crater, it would make it very difficult, perhaps impossible, to climb back out."

 

"We don't want this to be a one-way trip," said Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the rovers' science instruments, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. "We still have some excellent science targets out on the plains that we would like to visit after Victoria. But if

Opportunity

becomes trapped there, it will be worth the knowledge gained."

 

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

 

For more information on the Mars Rovers, visit:

 

http://www.nasa.gov/rovers

 

Visuals describing this decision and the anticipated science can be viewed at:

 

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/070628

 

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Hi Mom, I'm home from Mars.

Scientists find evidence of ice on Mars.

Not just "ice".  We all know there's ice on Mars, seasonal ice caps and all.
Ice.  "Enough to create oceans" should it ever melt.   And not just in one concentrated spot.

This is pretty incredible news.  This isn't a prediction, but keep in mind, everywhere we've found water on "our" planet, we've found something living in it.  Compelling reason to look at the Ice. 

And beyond any biological implications, it's great news for current and future missions, especially any possible "return" missions.  It takes just a little electricity to turn ice into water, and water into hydrogen and oxygen - perfect rocket fuel.  The MER rovers run entirely on solar panels.  Solar power plus Ice means better odds of refining return-trip rocket fuel.  Another compelling reason to look at the Ice...

Phoenix is getting set to visit Mars, it's mission is... to study ice.  Mapping where the Ice is will help determine where we should send Phoenix.  Phoenix is running vxWorks for Rad6000. 

Look around you - one of today's teens might grow up to be the person who turns the science-fiction of coming home from visiting other planets into science-fact.  The odds just got better.

"Long ago, in a Galaxy far, far away"... perhaps not so far?

Can a planet exist such that you might see two "suns" setting each "night" ?

It appears the answer is: yes.

Bear with me... there's a press from NASA / CalTech / JPL below that's kind of cool, but before sharing that, here's stuff I get asked about all the time.  "Where's the cool stuff to see / read / listen to?  Can you send me some?"  Here's some of those answers for Spitzer Space Telescope.  :-)

If you have time, check out the online version of this article.  It's just that much better with the pictures...

For some really cool windows wallpaper (etc), check out the photos in the Spitzer gallery

Here are Press releases (this is the "Planets Thrive Around Stellar Twins" article, today's release)

And Podcasts are available, too.

Spitzer Space Telescope runs VxWorks 5.3.1 for Rad6000 plus "the SIRTF patch", it's the direct parent of VxWorks 5.3.1 Mars Exploration Rovers Edition.

=====================  and now... the press release:

Whitney Clavin (818) 354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena , Calif.

News Release:  2007-036                                                           March 29, 2007

NASA Telescope Finds Planets Thrive Around Stellar Twins

The double sunset that Luke Skywalker gazed upon in the film "Star Wars" might not be a fantasy.

Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have observed that planetary systems – dusty disks of asteroids, comets and possibly planets – are at least as abundant in twin-star systems as they are in those, like our own, with only one star.  Since more than half of all stars are twins, or binaries, the finding suggests the universe is packed with planets that have two suns. Sunsets on some of those worlds would resemble the ones on Luke Skywalker's planet, Tatooine, where two fiery balls dip below the horizon one by one.

"There appears to be no bias against having planetary system formation in binary systems," said David Trilling of the University of Arizona, Tucson, lead author of a new paper about the research appearing in the April 1 issue of the Astrophysical Journal. "There could be countless planets out there with two or more suns."

Previously, astronomers knew that planets could form in exceptionally wide binary systems, in which stars are 1,000 times farther apart than the distance between Earth and the sun, or 1,000 astronomical units. Of the approximately 200 planets discovered so far outside our solar system, about 50 orbit one member of a wide stellar duo.

The new Spitzer study focuses on binary stars that are a bit more snug, with separation distances between zero and 500 astronomical units. Until now, not much was known about whether the close proximity of stars like these might affect the growth of planets. Standard planet-hunting techniques generally don't work well with these stars, but, in 2005, a NASA-funded astronomer found evidence for a planet candidate in one such multiple-star system (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-115).

Trilling and his colleagues used Spitzer's infrared, heat-seeking eyes to look not for planets, but for dusty disks in double-star systems. These so-called debris disks are made up of asteroid-like bits of leftover rock that never made it into rocky planets. Their presence indicates that the process of building planets has occurred around a star, or stars, possibly resulting in intact, mature planets.

In the most comprehensive survey of its kind, the team looked for disks in 69 binary systems between about 50 and 200 light-years away from Earth. All of the stars are somewhat younger and more massive than our middle-aged sun. The data show that about 40 percent of the systems had disks, which is a bit higher than the frequency for a comparable sample of single stars. This means that planetary systems are at least as common around binary stars as they are around single stars.

In addition, the astronomers were shocked to find that disks were even more frequent (about 60 percent) around the tightest binaries in the study. These coziest of stellar companions are between zero and three astronomical units apart. Spitzer detected disks orbiting both members of the star pairs, rather than just one. Extra-tight star systems like these are where planets, if they are present, would experience Tatooine-like sunsets.

"We were very surprised to find that the tight group had more disks," said Trilling. "This could mean that planet formation favors tight binaries over single stars, but it could also mean tight binaries are just dustier. Future observations should provide a better answer."

The Spitzer data also reveal that not all binary systems are friendly places for planets to form. The telescope detected far fewer disks altogether in intermediately spaced binary systems, between three to 50 astronomical units apart. This implies that stars may have to be either very close to each other, or fairly far apart, for planets to arise.

"For a planet in a binary system, location is everything," said co-author Karl Stapelfeldt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , Calif.

"Binary systems were largely ignored before," added Trilling. "They are more difficult to study, but they might be the most common sites for planet formation in our galaxy."

Other authors on the paper include: John Stansberry, George Rieke and Kate Su of the University of Arizona; Richard Gray of the Appalachian State University, Boone, N.C.; Chris Corbally of the Vatican Observatory, Tucson; Geoff Bryden, Andy Boden and Charles Beichman of JPL; and Christine Chen of the National Optical Astronomical Observatory, Tucson.

JPL manages Spitzer for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena . The multiband imaging photometer for Spitzer was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation, Boulder , Colo. ; the University of Arizona ; and Boeing North American, Canoga Park , Calif. Co-author Rieke is the principal investigator.

For more information and graphics, visit www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .   More information about extrasolar planets and NASA's planet-finding program is at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov .

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