[Moogs]

Big (Replenished) Methane Discovery

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7829315.stm

Methane being a green-house gas, and seeing as how it's being replenished in large quantities (not sure what that means)... could be the start of a habitable atmosphere... in a few hundred years. Make your cryo-freeze and post-mortem transport reservations now so they can revive you on Mars!

[Kickaha]

Methane could also mean active life.

Or geologic processes.

But either is pretty freaking big news.

[Chinney]

I actually have not been paying much attention to this over the past few years, so this story is a good summary:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...echnology-nasa

Fascinating. And more missions to come. 'Get your ass back to Mars' indeed.

[Moogs]

I wonder if we'll see an ISS-like station (just not quite as big) on Mars in the next 20 years. Would be pretty amazing although will require people with The Right Stuff x 2 to get it done / survive so far from home for an extended period. I predict unmarried, super-nauts of both sexes will be the choices. Less angst over spouse and kids at home (and whether you'll ever see them again), plus sexual contact will be a must to maintain sanity living for a year on Mars, I suspect. Martian Booty Call FTW. Imagine the title on your mantle "First man to get laid on Mars"... brings a tear to your eye just thinking about it, doesn't it?

That, or actually two married astronauts with no kids might work, too.

[709]

*bump*

Boston Globe's "The Big Picture" put out a set of MRO Hi-Res images this past weekend. Some seriously amazing stuff.

[Hassan i Sabbah]

Originally Posted by 709 *bump* Boston Globe's "The Big Picture" put out a set of MRO Hi-Res images this past weekend. Some seriously amazing stuff.

Holy shit. Those are amazing.

Actually, those are beyond 'amazing'.

Incomprehensible. Beautiful beautiful.

[curiousuburb]

Expected in 2010: confirmation that 2 more Mars meteorites contain life

Originally Posted by Spaceflightnow The team that found evidence of Martian life in a meteorite that landed in Antarctica believes that during 2010, by using advanced instrumentation on now three Martian meteorites, it will be able to definitively prove whether such features are truly fossils of alien life on the Red Planet. This new information goes well beyond the updated findings released by NASA in November 2009 about signatures for magnetic type bacteria. "We do not yet believe that we have rigorously proven there is [or was] life on Mars." says David S. McKay, chief of astrobiology at the NASA Johnson Space Center. "But we do believe that we are very, very close to proving there is or has been life there," McKay tells Spaceflight Now. ... Scanning electron microscope image of what JSC researchers believe are the fossil remains of a once-living Martian bacterial mat was found in the Nakhla meteorite from Egypt in storage at the British Museum of Natural History. Credit: NASA Features similar to a fossil of bacterial matting has also been found in the Yamato 593 meteorite discovered by the Japanese in 2000 in Antarctica. Credit: NASA Johnson Space Center team believes pits in Nakhla meteorite were left by living bacteria. Some of remaining bacteria is also in each pit. Credit: NASA

Would make for a memorable 2010.

[curiousuburb]

NASA grudgingly accepts Spirit is now an ex-Rover.

Fixed science to continue.

Originally Posted by NASA After six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will be a fully mobile robot. NASA has designated the once-roving scientific explorer a stationary science platform after efforts during the past several months to free it from a sand trap have been unsuccessful. The venerable robot's primary task in the next few weeks will be to position itself to combat the severe Martian winter. If Spirit survives, it will continue conducting significant new science from its final location. The rover's mission could continue for several months to years. "Spirit is not dead; it has just entered another phase of its long life," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We told the world last year that attempts to set the beloved robot free may not be successful. It looks like Spirit's current location on Mars will be its final resting place." Spirit's total odometry is 7,730.24 meters (4.80 miles). ^- click for larger traverse maps ... Even in a stationary state, Spirit continues scientific research. "There's a class of science we can do only with a stationary vehicle that we had put off during the years of driving," said Steve Squyres, a researcher at Cornell University and principal investigator for Spirit and Opportunity. "Degraded mobility does not mean the mission ends abruptly. Instead, it lets us transition to stationary science." One stationary experiment Spirit has begun studies tiny wobbles in the rotation of Mars to gain insight about the planet's core. This requires months of radio-tracking the motion of a point on the surface of Mars to calculate long-term motion with an accuracy of a few inches. "If the final scientific feather in Spirit's cap is determining whether the core of Mars is liquid or solid, that would be wonderful -- it's so different from the other knowledge we've gained from Spirit," said Squyres. ... continues ...

Meanwhile... if you want to point the orbiting HiRise camera at something on Mars, login and make a suggestion

[Moogs]

Yes... definitive proof of even primitive life elsewhere breaths some new life into evolution, theory of origins and related topics that will be hard for anyone to refute logically. Hope they find it. Life FTW.

[curiousuburb]

Two weeks and counting until MSL "Curiosity" rover arrives at Mars.

Primer (with groovy animation of EDL) from Guardian.co.uk

7 minutes of squeezed sphincters for sure.

Go Curiosity!

[Quagmire]

It's definitely scary considering when we get the signal the vehicle has hit the atmosphere, the vehicle landed safely or the vehicle is dead.

[Majost]

T-minus 4 days, 4 hours til atmospheric entry for Curiosity! See the live local countdown at http://getcurious.com/

In case you missed the animation that 'uburb linked to, it's been redone with awesomer music and voiceovers and a handful of new animations as Seven Minutes of TERROR.

I think I'll be staying up til 1:30AM come Sunday night!

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Majost In case you missed the animation that 'uburb linked to, it's been redone with awesomer music and voiceovers and a handful of new animations as Seven Minutes of TERROR.

Love those dramatic, punctuating Inception BWOOONGs.

[curiousuburb]

Less than 12 hours to go.

Early morning event here, but I'm setting my alarm and crossing fingers.

Go Curiosity!

[drewprops]

Okay!!!

The package I have with my cable provider (U-verse) does NOT give me access to NASA Television, which annoys the living shit out of me.

So plan 'B' is to watch it on NASA TV (currently featuring Will I. Am from the Black-eyed peas.... he seems like a nice man but I'm glad this is a pre-show because it's bo-ring).

IF any of you see that it's going to play on any legitimate cable news network please let me know - without a full explanation of the logic behind this, AT&T's decision to make NASA TV a "for pay, under a higher tier" option is really, really insulting.


...

[turtle]

How about someone who doesn't have cable? Anywhere streaming this?

[drewprops]

Yes, NASA TV is streaming it right now (pre-show)...

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/ma...ity_news3.html


...

[Maciej]

Huh, NASA TV actually has a cable channel?

[drewprops]

Some carriers will include it in cable packages.

The thing that grates is paying for a service we already paid for as tax payers - I assume that the cable company gets it for free.

Where's a good consumer watchdog when you need one?


...

[drewprops]

Ah, they've broken out the lucky peanuts!!

(hope none of the engineers have peanut allergies....)


And CNN is carrying it!!!




...

[curiousuburb]

Cruise stage separation in 5 min!

Exciting!

[Brad]

It landed! "High-res" (256x256) images have already come in from two of the cameras. All the people in the NASA video stream are still hooting and hollering after ten straight minutes.

[curiousuburb]

WooHoo!

More robots conquering Mars! With Frickin' Lasers!

[Majost]

Nasa has the two images up now: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/




From my understanding, there won't really be anything more for a bit, as the MRO is out of sight and Curiosity is on the far side of Mars. But it sounds like the MRO will orbit again within an hour when there will be more telemetry and perhaps more images.

It's absolutely amazing that *everything* worked. This is the first time they had live telemetry during entry. It's absolutely awesome that we have a "Deep Space Network" that's able to support such a feat... and that we can get *two* satellites over the landing site at the same time.

[JohnnyTheA]

Originally Posted by drewprops Some carriers will include it in cable packages. The thing that grates is paying for a service we already paid for as tax payers - I assume that the cable company gets it for free. Where's a good consumer watchdog when you need one? ...

For directv customers (like me) you NO LONGER get NASA tv unless u pay for the HD package. This may have been the straw that breaks the .... Whatever...

[drewprops]

I'd love to see how many hits the NASA servers are getting right now from all around the world. The pride, it hurts.


...

[Moogs]

A) Go NASA / Go Space Program

B) I am pissed. For some reason I thought this was on early this morning (6am-ish) and missed it.

[Moogs]

Get you some parachute!

[Moogs]

Mountains, dunes and craters, Gandalf!

This gallery is all kinds of awesome.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19263053

[Quagmire]

Watch actual footage of Curiosity land in HD.

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2012...er-descent.cnn