Neil Tyson "we do not have ticker tape parades for robots" Oops. Guess he missed Curiosity in the Inaugural Parade. — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) October 23, 2013
Curiosity Rover Debuts Autonomous Navigation “NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has used autonomous navigation for the first time, a capability that lets the rover decide for itself how to drive safely on Mars. The capability uses software that engineers adapted to this larger and more complex vehicle from a similar capability used by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, which is also currently active on Mars. Using autonomous navigation, or autonav, Curiosity […]
Dr. John Holdren, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, 3rd from left, meets with members of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory team on Thursday, August 1, 2013 at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington. August 6, 2013 EDT will mark the first anniversary of the Curiosity rover’s landing on Mars. Larger image Keith’s note: I am the first one to complain that NASA does not touch […]
Curiosity Finds Conditions Once Suited for Ancient Life on Mars “An analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes. Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon — some of the key chemical ingredients for life — in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet […]
Mars Curiosity Rover Enters Safe Mode “The ground team for NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has switched the rover to a redundant onboard computer in response to a memory issue on the computer that had been active. The intentional swap at about 2:30 a.m. PST today (Thursday, Feb. 28) put the rover, as anticipated, into a minimal-activity precautionary status called “safe mode.” The team is shifting the rover from safe mode […]
NASA: Red Planet looks a little gray inside, USA Today “This is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock on another planet,” says mission sample chief Louise Jandura of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.” Luna 16, WIkipedia “At perilune at 05:12 UT on 20 September [1970], the main braking engine was fired, initiating the descent to the lunar surface. … Less than an hour […]
Curiosity Analyzes First Martian Soil Samples “We have no definitive detection of Martian organics at this point, but we will keep looking in the diverse environments of Gale Crater,” said SAM Principal Investigator Paul Mahaffy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. … SAM tentatively identified the oxygen and chlorine compound perchlorate. This is a reactive chemical previously found in arctic Martian soil by NASA’s Phoenix Lander. Reactions […]
Undisclosed Finding by Mars Rover Fuels Intrigue, NY Times “Guy Webster, a spokesman for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which operates Curiosity, said the findings would be “interesting” rather than “earthshaking.” Mr. Webster noted that “a really big announcement,” if one should occur, would most likely be made at NASA headquarters in Washington and not at an academic conference.” NASA’s “History Book”-Worthy Discovery Is Really Just a Big […]
Keith’s note: Last week NASA PAO was telling the media that there would be an announcement (of what they did not know) of MSL results at the AGU meeting tomorrow next week. It has been a week since this story broke – one that spoke of results that would be “Earthshaking” and “one for the history books”. Since then NASA has tried to unspin those characterizations but has said nothing […]
NASA Hosts Nov. 2 Teleconference About Mars Rover Progress “NASA will host a media teleconference at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) on Friday, Nov. 2, to provide an update on Curiosity’s studies of the Martian atmosphere.” Curiosity set to weigh in on Mars methane puzzle, Nature “NASA has announced that Grotzinger’s team will discuss atmospheric measurements at a briefing on 2 November. If the rover has detected methane at […]