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An image captured Jan. 29 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Bonneville Crater, with the Spirit rover's landing platform off to the side. Can you spot the platform? How about the Spirit spacecraft's heat shield?
Color pictures taken from Martian orbit feature the landing spots for two of NASA's dearly departed probes on the Red Planet. Can you spot the Spirit rover's landing platform in the picture?
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell
The panoramic camera on NASA's Spirit rover looks back at its landing platform just after rolling onto the Martian surface in 2004.
Bonneville Crater is easy to find: That was Spirit's first big destination after its landing in January 2004, and it took weeks for the six-wheeled robot to get there. But it's harder to make out the three-petal lander that was Spirit's home base for the airbag-cushioned landing.
If you haven't spotted it yet, the lander is the small bright object in the lower left corner of the picture above, captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's high-resolution camera on Jan. 29. The reddish tint suggests that Mars' red dust is accumulating on the platform.
MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, has taken pictures of the site before, but only in black and white.
Making out the Spirit spacecraft's heat shield, which was jettisoned during the final stage of the descent, is even more challenging. It's the bright spot at the 12 o'clock position on the rim of the 650-foot-wide crater. That heat shield was jettisoned as planned during Spirit's descent.
Spirit got a good look at the crater and plenty of other sites during its five-year, 4.8-mile trek. Don't bother to hunt for the rover in the orbital picture. It went way beyond the right side of the frame, clambering up the Columbia Hills, chronicling the planet's dust devils and turning up ample evidence of liquid water on ancient Mars.
By the time 2009 rolled around, the rover was struggling with a gimpy wheel and got itself stuck in a patch of soft Martian soil near a 300-foot-wide plateau nicknamed Home Plate. Scientists believe the rover's solar arrays were no longer able to provide enough power to keep Spirit going through the harsh Martian winter, and it fell out of communication with NASA in March 2010. After more than a year of trying to re-establish contact, NASA ended Spirit's mission.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / UA
This annotated image traces the Spirit rover's trek from its landing site in 2004 to its final resting place near a feature known as Home Plate.
Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is still in operation on the opposite side of the Red Planet, more than eight years after landing. Not bad for a couple of golf-cart-sized machines that were expected to last just 90 days.
Just as NASA was winding down its efforts to revive Spirit, HiRISE caught the glint of sunlight reflected by the rover's solar arrays. The fresh picture of the landing site serves as a renewed remembrance — but I have a feeling this won't be the last we see of Spirit. Every once in a while, it's nice to check in on the robot that did so much for planetary science.
Picturing Phoenix
The same could be said for NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. That spacecraft touched down in the Red Planet's north polar region in May 2008 and spent several months studying the frozen surface. Phoenix was the first probe to see Martian water ice close up, and watch it disappear as vapor.
Phoenix went dormant after several months of work and presumably fell prey to Mars' winter weather. But Phoenix's scientific legacy is alive and well: One study, published last August, cited Phoenix data to suggest that Martian soil might be more capable of supporting life than previously thought. Another report with a different spin came out just this month: Researchers said the soil collected by the Phoenix lander hinted at a Martian "superdrought" that lasted for hundreds of millions of years.
HiRISE snapped an amazing picture of Phoenix during its descent through the Martian atmosphere, and sent back more photos of the probe during and after its mission. The latest image was acquired Jan. 26 and released today.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / UA
A Jan. 26 image acquired by the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft in Mars' north polar region after its second Martian winter. The defunct lander is the bright spot at the center of the frame.
Will Mars orbiters still be able to see something 10, 20 or 30 years from now? Will humans ever walk where Phoenix or Spirit now sit? Feel free to reflect on the latest views of NASA's past probes in the comment section below.
More from Mars:
- Crazy colors from the Red Planet
- Is the case for Mars facing a crisis?
- Scientists thrilled by rover's mineral find
- Mars-bound rover adjusts its course
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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Ray; we will need law enforcement in space. With out them will have lawless and disorder!
I think I should be awarded a degree in Space Science after reading this blog. LOL
Really though, I did enjoy the back and forth between those who really do have knowledge of space exploration. Kind of like a trial where both sides bring their experts to say the other sides "experts" are not...
The Tea-baggin' neanderthals won't even cover Social Security let alone a trillion dollar cruise to Mars.
We are going to have to wait a bit longer...........
The main propulsion system for most starships that is capable of faster-than-light travel.
The core of the warp drive uses to control the annihilation of matter and antimatter. This controlled explosion is what generates the tremendous power required to warp space and travel faster than light.
On Earth, warp drive was invented in 2063 by noted scientist Zefram Cochrane.
Lead stops some radiation (electron density is very high), however it enhances secondary radiation when struck by higher energy radiation (high energy electrons (beta radiation) stopped suddenly would produce xrays or gammas). Cosmic rays hitting lead (or anything else) would produce burst of radiation, just as they do in earth.
The average density of interstellar space is about one hydrogen atom per cubic meter. Anything traveling at a speed approaching light would be bombarded by protons.
Were that this could be so, as remote and scoffish as it seems, the intellectual level and the technological attainment of raw power and sophistication, and the dedication of time and resources together suggest something profound. Were that this were the human race that achieved the unsurpassed design in all its awe and magnificence, we would fairly have obtained a vast if not totally complete knowledge of the Universe. We would have done so without so much as launching our creation or traveled much of anywhere in the solar system and we would not need to go anywhere. None the less the inward facing view would show us to be such poor success in managing our affairs, done this badly we would always up look to the heavens just to hope for the better.
in all these calculations no one has mentioned that after accelerating at 1g to what ever % sol that the craft will attain once gaining proximity to the next earth no one seems to have taken into account that it will take as long to slow down thereby doubling the trip time. or have i guessed this wrong? or this is already worked into these calculations.
Very astute and correct. All of this would have to be taken into account. I think most calculations are from Point A to Point B or Best Straight Line Method to your destination. Also another problem of interstellar travel. You need to speed up and you need to slow down. I can not tell you how much fuel or power needed to propel a craft to one million miles per hour lets say and then slow it back down to orbital speed. First we need to conquer a trip to Mars or Solar System areas before we can even think of such a task of travel outside of it. Please read Bill In Mill Creek posts as he has the most insight in such travels.
The slowing down, landing is every bit a problem more than doubling the cost of a one way trip. Adding to that the hopeful prospect of repeating this on a return trip more than doubles the cost again. Most off the cuff proposals are not all that well thought out. There are many limits imposed when a particular fueling strategy is selected, and then made feasible, but these are very inflexible. The follow on to the Saturn-V intended for Mars, was one solution that was at least feasible, until politics intervened, and was a intended for the short time frame of the public’s interest. There are many articles available on the web, but it would take a lifetime to sift through this material, eliminate factual errors, revise calculations and itemize 99% of the bizarre understandings of physics, chemistry, biology and engineering that are essential to focus on what works, has been done and are feasible.
There is no way to collaborate with or to narrow down the existing literature, web or otherwise. There are more productive and interesting ways to be productive, and the likely hood of developing a design organized and developed with validated in depth details id remote. There is no way to develop a Vulcan mind meld holding on to these technical details, in such a way that the next person, the next generation can be informed, educated and skilled enough to participate in a ten year project, after a lifetime of education. It would far more beneficial to develop a collaborative engineering design support system that say a bright teenager could access and explore reliable factual useable information as well as senior designer who could review the design changes and the educator who could assist in communicating to the curious. Not the least would be the enforcer who would isolate the 99% rubbish to the recycle bin.
37 Years Ago, See YouTube http://motherboard.vice.com/2011/8/9/the-fantastic-and-banal-dreams-of-1970s-space-colonies
One of the more dedicated efforts: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/books/lunar_bases/LSBchapter02.pdf
First, a THANK YOU to Mr. Boyle for sharing these pictures with us. Back in the Sixties, we raced the Russians to the moon, and won! By the year 2000, we were supposed to have colonies on the moon, and would have landed on Mars. What happened?
Well, once we did beat the Russians to the moon, the American public lost complete interest in Space exploration. Hence, NASA suffered massive budget cuts. The Russians then turned their attention to orbital space stations, and then, so did we. This is probably the real reason for the Space Shuttle Program.
Where are we today? We are no longer a player in space, our Shuttle Program is done, and we don't have the capability to return to the moon! Meanwhile, it appears that China will be the next major player in space exploration, with us on the sidelines.
We have allow 40 years to wastefully slide by. I was so looking forward to witnessing our first man on Mars.
Very sad to see NASA a mere shadow of its former glorious self.
OK, my prior post was serious, now for some fun:
#1 WHERE IS MARVIN?????
#2 Anyone see that spaceship from Vulcan yet?
#3 Give Colonel Samantha Carter is few minutes to figure this wormhole thing out, and we will be there in a flash!
#4 DANGER, WILL ROBERTSON!!!!
#5 Anyone remember that British series "SPACE 1999"?
#6 "HAL" was so misunderstood
Anyway, just having a little fun here. Soon enough, we will have this 'warp engine' thing figured out, and this will all be 'irrelative'. (groan)
1. He is hiding below the dry ice pack waiting for us to rescue him
2. Not since they went into Warp Drive
3. She went into the wrong wormhole and ended up in the Ferengi Star System.
4. Flailing your arms around like that can get you into plenty of trouble
5. Yes. Now where would our Moon be?
6. Hal's just a soul and don't let him be misunderstood-
Just a note: ET CALL HOME!
It's Will ROBINSON! And I never liked Space 1999.
What a waste of time and money..... Who cares if Mars has water ?
Spend the money on finding a cure for cancer & starvation here on earth !
There are cures. do you have the money or power? No.
Let the future take care of itself... The big problem with can't is has it even been tried???
Unless and until a study is launched where in foods other than dry are taken out beyond near earth orbit, left there for a couple of years, brought back and tested for nutritional value; then all we have is an unknown.
The same goes for the acceleration of a massed object beyond the influence of the suns gravity.
Our primary concern should be the exploration of our solar system with the explicit aim of finding sources for any and all needed/depleted resource we have here on earth.
As for man's willingness to go there without a guaranteed return or some kind of benefit? Think Americas...
just bring back the cheese, enough of this madness....................................................
or...
the bots are gonna have their way,
Build a refueling substation with launching capability on the Moon and jump to Mars from there. At least you'd have more fuel than launching from Earth!
If the governments around the world possessed the technology to go to the moon and back and not tell you about it would you still think that "rockets" is all we have to use? (Perhaps the mirrors were put on the moon when we were actually able get there VS when they supposedly "faked" the landing....?)
Is it possible there is technology that exists on our planet that is suppressed by the powerful?
Where did Nikola Tesla's research go?
Has anyone ever tried to create an engine with mercury and a gyroscope?
I'm being serious, please let me know and i'm not a crackpot conspiracy theorist, just a guy looking for answers like a lot of others out there.
Thanks in advance
Even if you could make a space ship that travels arond 90% of the speed of light, any stray hydrogen or other sub atomic particles in interstellar space the ship would hit headon, and at that energy they would be deadly radiation to life. Not only would they break down the structure of the ship atomically, BUT would chop any cellular DNA into small fragments. It would do the same thing to astronauts awake or in "suspended animation". It would be like camping out in a core of a nuclear reactor for the duration of the trip. Shielding would require enormous mass, which would require a humongous nuclear power source it itself.
Life is too fragile. Why not focus on the advanced computer technologies and bio-engineering to create virtual reality interfaces that tie directly to the human brain. We could put a host of cameras, sensors, and probes into a very small package, protect it from radiation with a smaller amount of shielding than a ship with astronauts, and send that space probe to the next star system to send back the data for our virtual interface.
An observer hooked up to the receiver and virtual reality interface would see, smell, and feel everything as if he/she were there.
I think we should concentrate our efforts more on robot probes with the capability like this to go places to hazardous for us humans to tolerate. Given the choices of having to create million ton ships and place astronauts on a ship for their lifetime versus developing robot probes with virtual reality communications the latter is cheaper and much more feasible.
Ion engines only produce a few grams of thrust, even though exhuast velocity is very high. It will take a plasma fusion engine or some new technology to ever get the speed we need even for a robot probe to make it to
the nearest star in our lifetime, even going at 90% SOL.
I totally agree. Virtual reality and space probes are the way to go. I'd already written my post when I saw yours (wasn't aware of a second blog page). So after a quick edit I posted anyway. Should've replied here instead. Anyway, ckeck it out below and visit the officetowers.com site which has the exact intent of doing virtual reality space exploration.
We are on the cutting edge of time and space travel,another dimesion is about to be revealed,Watch
Reference a statement read above. .... One can go anywhere in the solar system with a solar sail, including to Mercury. You tack exactly like a sailboat in water does. Instead of a rudder and water to slide against, you have the force of the sun's gravity. Turn the sail to a point, for example, about 40 degrees from the point away from the sun in the direction of travel, and you will be slowing the vehicle down. When you slow the vehicle down it has to fall in towards the sun. It no longer has the speed to maintain that orbit.
In theory, one can leave earth orbit via sail, travel to, say, Mars, and enter orbit, in the reverse of leaving Earth's.
It's all in the cut of the jib.
I'm sure Uranus would be a popular port of call
Are my eyes playing tricks on me or does that look like vegetation surrounding the Mars Phoenix Lander? That is some funky colored sand... what is it?
Lots of you are talking we need this or that technology or this amount of fuel, etc. Approx. 14 years ago I was outside in the backyard in Costa Mesa at 3 am (I worked nights) and was looking at a clear sky when I noticed some stars starting to disappear. As I watch the night sky with telescope and binos, went an got binos and saw that it was an almost perfect black delta-shape moving toward Newport at an altitude I couldn't guess. There was absolutely no noise and the bottom of it had a square honeycomb look and was ever so lightly yellow. If we have the technology for that, I wouldn't think a lot of these problems exist for space exploration. The governments may already be in some of these places already. Then again, if it isn't our aircraft, then what?
I have read all comments here and their all good. I can only say we don't have the technology, the thought about space travel is great. We don't have the means. There are to many obsticles for an event of this magnatude. I'm not saying give up. We can't travel in space unless we can maybe get 10 to 17 times the speed of light in order to reach destinations in a timely manner. We don't have the time in that sense. Although we have come along way, were no where where we need to be. Lets face it were doomed. I remember someone folding a piece of paper explaining how to bend time/ warp/ worm hole. What ever happen to that theory? I can only imagine what our technoloy will be in 20 years from now. But it may still not be enough. lets say we meet the spped requirements, How can we sustain our bodies in space, I think it's to much. Try for the moon 1st and take it from there
COOL and cool!
Someone mentioned virtual reality for space exploration. It has already begun... read on about the prospects of deep (and not so deep) space travel. It does seem to be the consensus that space travel of any kind (except maybe to the Moon) is rather unlikely for quite some time if ever, not only due to scientific feasibility reasons but also reasons related to economy, resources, psychology, biology and even metaphysic as well, many of which we have probably not even begun to ascertain.
One post about teleportation caught my attention that did not receive a reply. Perhaps it wasn't considered all that serious, but I think it might very well be the closest to how we will eventually actually approach space travel. Let me explain. So far, the best advances we have made in space exploration involve unmanned vehicles and telescopes, while manned expeditions exponentially add to the costs and numerous other challenges, risks and uncertainties. Since we are already in possession of tremendous amount of data, can and will obtain more safely and cheaply as time goes by, it wouldn't be too unreasonable to think that manned expeditions to deep space should not be a goal at all, especially considering the multitude of problems that need to be solved right here on Earth.
Ok, so what about teleportation? I'll get to that but let me make one last turn. Whether anyone believes in the existence of a god or not, deep space exploration clearly belongs to the realm of the gods, the intrinsic and largely misunderstood metaphysic energy underlying all aspects of existence as we know it. It has even been suggested that time and space do not actually exist but in our mind. Can we not conceive space travel as one and foremost a mind activity, something much closer to anything spiritual as we have ever encountered? Didn't the Egyptians worship the Sun as pure energy? My point being, wherever you go, there you are, thus bringing us to the famous teleportation.
In achieving it, it is not the mass of objects (physical bodies) that needs moving but the mind of the beholder of said teleportation. A simple example is when we watch television, but as it applies to the concerns of hands-on space exploration, I believe 3D virtual worlds can be perfectly suited to the task. Collaborators and I have already started building a realistic solar and star system at www.officetowers.com that anyone can use as I write this.
It is my hope that at least a few people here are interested enough about space exploration to come and help us build it further for the benefit of all mankind using already accessible data. And yes, the 3D world does have a teleport. Use it to enter the multiple-YouTube-screen Command Center for space information, live chat and updates. I do hope no one will see this post as some kind of shameless plug. I have made my point (albeit briefly due to space) and gone further with an actual implementation. See you there…
Modern rockets are analogous to filling a balloon with air then releasing it in a controlled manner. Another analogy might be putting wheels on a Florida Swamp Boat and trying to drive it through Miami.
We need to figure out what we can leverage off to get a grip on moving through space in a manner analogous to a powered wheel, a propeller or Jet driven airplane. I would look in the E-M spectra and reactions there since ether is not a viable working fluid. Perhaps when we figure out what String theory is all about the answer will be right there clear as day.
Personnally, I suspect there is a loophold that when we find it this becomes trivial. Keep up the faith.