Mars News and Discussions

[caltrek]

Future Mars Helicopters Could Explore Lava Tubes
by Matt Williams
January 19, 2024

Introduction:

(Universe Today) The exploration of Mars continues, with many nations sending robotic missions to search for evidence of past life and learn more about the evolution of the planet’s geology and climate. As of the penning of the article, there are ten missions exploring the Red Planet, a combination of orbiters, landers, rovers, and one helicopter (Ingenuity). Looking to the future, NASA and other space agencies are eyeing concepts that will allow them to explore farther into the Red Planet, including previously inaccessible places. In particular, there is considerable interest in exploring the stable lava tubes that run beneath the Martian surface.

These tubes may be a treasure trove of scientific discoveries, containing water ice, organic molecules, and maybe even life! Even crewed mission proposals recommend establishing habitats within these tubes, where astronauts would be sheltered from radiation, dust storms, and the extreme conditions on the surface. In a recent study from the University Politehnica Bucuresti (UPB), a team of engineers described how an autonomous Martian Inspection Drone (MID) inspired by the Inginuity helicopter could locate, enter, and study these lava tubes in detail.

Read more of the Universe Today article here: https://www.universetoday.com/165166/f ... e-165166

For a Science Direct paper on the subject: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ ... ss_sd_all

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NASA Reestablishes Communication With Ingenuity Mars Helicopter
The drone dropped out at the end of its last flight, but NASA was able to reconnect a few days later.
By Ryan Whitwam January 23, 2024

It was a scary 48 hours for the team overseeing NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter. The flying drone dropped out of contact during a flight on Jan. 18, and it remained offline for two days, raising fears that the seemingly unstoppable robot had finally succumbed to the harsh Martian conditions. This story has a happy ending, though, as NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports that it has reestablished communication with Ingenuity.

The problems began during Ingenuity's 72nd flight. It was supposed to be a quick up-and-down test, aiming to suss out any possible glitches after the 71st flight ended early due to an unspecified error. Ingenuity reached its prescribed 39-foot (12-meter) altitude for flight 72, but the drone suddenly lost contact during the descent.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/nas ... helicopter

[wjfox]

After Three Years on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Mission Ends

Jan. 25, 2024

NASA’s history-making Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has ended its mission at the Red Planet after surpassing expectations and making dozens more flights than planned. While the helicopter remains upright and in communication with ground controllers, imagery of its Jan. 18 flight sent to Earth this week indicates one or more of its rotor blades sustained damage during landing and it is no longer capable of flight.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/after-thr ... ssion-ends

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Confirmation of ancient lake on Mars offers hope that Perseverance rover's soil and rock samples hold traces of life
https://phys.org/news/2024-01-ancient-l ... rover.html
by University of California, Los Angeles

If life ever existed on Mars, the Perseverance rover's verification of lake sediments at the base of the Jezero crater reinforces the hope that traces might be found in the crater.

In new research published in the journal Science Advances, a team led by UCLA and The University of Oslo shows that at some point, the crater filled with water, depositing layers of sediments on the crater floor. The lake subsequently shrank and sediments carried by the river that fed it formed an enormous delta. As the lake dissipated over time, the sediments in the crater were eroded, forming the geologic features visible on the surface today.

The periods of deposition and erosion took place over eons of environmental changes, the radar indicates, confirming that inferences about the Jezero crater's geologic history based on Mars images obtained from space are accurate.

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[firestar464]

Testing shows some bacteria could survive under Mars conditions

https://phys.org/news/2024-02-bacteria- ... tions.html

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Astronomers: Mars Was Once Covered With Active Volcanoes
More than 60 volcanoes once recycled and transformed the Red Planet’s rocky crust.
By Adrianna Nine February 14, 2024

Mars might be geologically quiet today, but it once teemed with tectonic and volcanic movement. New research shows that Mars’ ancient surface was studded with 63 volcanoes, each responsible for morphing the Red Planet’s rocky geography. The discovery ultimately transforms researchers’ understanding of Mars’ mysterious past and offers a rare peek into early planetary evolution.

According to a paper published Monday in Nature Astronomy, geoscientists and astronomers from the United States and China used data from the old Mars Global Surveyor, the Mars Odyssey Orbiter, and the ultra-powerful Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to map Mars’ ancient volcanic landscape. The “diverse volcanism” they discovered consisted of four feature types: caldera complexes, pyroclastic shields, stratovolcanoes, and volcanic domes. While caldera complexes are known as destructional volcanic features due to their hallmark surface collapse and the absence of raised rims, volcanic domes meanwhile possess a tell-tale convex shape. Pyroclastic shields and stratovolcanoes possess a more classic “volcano shape,” with valleys etched into their flanks by erosion.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/ast ... -volcanoes

[firestar464]

earth, is that you?

[caltrek]

Astronomers: Mars Was Once Covered With Active Volcanoes
More than 60 volcanoes once recycled and transformed the Red Planet’s rocky crust.
By Adrianna Nine February 14, 2024

...

https://www.extremetech.com/science/ast ... -volcanoes

Science Alert also had an article on this same subject: https://www.sciencealert.com/ancient-v ... lost-past

Both articles review a study the results of which were published in Nature Astronomy which can be read here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-02191-7

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Three years later, the search for life on Mars continues
https://phys.org/news/2024-02-years-life-mars.html
by Michael Miller, University of Cincinnati

In the three years since NASA's Perseverance rover touched down on Mars, the NASA science team has made the daily task of investigating the red planet seem almost mundane.

The rover and its helicopter sidekick, Ingenuity, have captured stunning images of Mars and collected 23 unique rock core samples along 17 miles of an ancient river delta.

One science team member, University of Cincinnati Associate Professor Andy Czaja, said he sometimes has to remind himself that the project is anything but ordinary.

"This is so cool. I'm exploring another planet," he said. Czaja teaches in the Department of Geosciences in UC's College of Arts and Sciences. He is a paleobiologist and astrobiologist helping NASA look for evidence of ancient life on Mars using a rover outfitted with custom geoscience and imaging tools with three of his UC graduate students, Andrea Corpolongo, Brianna Orrill, and Sam Hall.

Three years into the mission, the rover has performed like a champ, he said.

"Perseverance has excelled. It's been fantastic. It has such capable instrumentation for doing geology work. It's able to explore distant objects with its zoom lens cameras and can focus on tiny objects at incredible resolution," Czaja said.

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Giant volcano discovered on Mars
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-giant-volcano-mars.html
by Rebecca McDonald, SETI Institute

In a groundbreaking announcement at the 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in The Woodlands, Texas, scientists revealed the discovery of a giant volcano and possible sheet of buried glacier ice in the eastern part of Mars' Tharsis volcanic province near the planet's equator.

Imaged repeatedly by orbiting spacecraft around Mars since Mariner 9 in 1971—but deeply eroded beyond easy recognition, the giant volcano had been hiding in plain sight for decades in one of Mars' most iconic regions, at the boundary between the heavily fractured maze-like Noctis Labyrinthus (Labyrinth of the Night) and the monumental canyons of Valles Marineris (Valleys of Mariner).

Provisionally designated "Noctis volcano" pending an official name, the structure is centered at 7° 35' S, 93° 55' W. It reaches +9022 meters (29,600 feet) in elevation and spans 450 kilometers (280 miles) in width. The volcano's gigantic size and complex modification history indicate that it has been active for a very long time. In its southeastern part lies a thin, recent volcanic deposit beneath which glacier ice is likely still present.

[Time_Traveller]

Future Mars plane could help solve Red Planet methane mystery (exclusive)

published 7 hours ago



Mars methane is hard to trace, but a solution might be on the way.

An early-stage airplane concept called MAGGIE will soon kick off a nine-month NASA-funded study to explore its feasibility for soaring over Mars. It won't go to the Red Planet any time soon, if ever, but there's a clear science need for more flying vehicles on Mars.

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, the first heavier-than-air vehicle to soar on Mars, finished 72 flights after arriving with the Perseverance rover in February 2021. While Ingenuity had a hard landing in January 2024 that grounded it for good, there's plenty of room for more flying vehicles in the future.

MAGGIE — short for "Mars Aerial and Ground Intelligent Explorer" — is designed to operate for a Martian year (nearly two Earth years) anywhere around the Red Planet. Flying 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) above the surface, one of its prime missions could be finding methane. That elusive molecule could be a sign of life, but scientists have had little luck figuring out its presence in the Martian atmosphere after decades of searching.

Methane, a possible biosignature gas, has been hard to find on Mars. It pops up now and again in the atmosphere, detectable by spacecraft on or orbiting the Red Planet or by powerful telescopes here on Earth. NASA's long-running Curiosity rover mission (ancestor to Perseverance), for example, has repeatedly detected methane since 2012, but the levels go up and down — a background level of less than 0.5 parts per billion (ppb) molecules of air, sometimes spiking up to 20 ppb.

https://www.space.com/mars-plane-maggie-methane-mystery

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Curiosity rover searches for new clues about Mars' ancient water
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-curiosity ... cient.html
by NASA

NASA's Curiosity rover has begun exploring a new region of Mars, one that could reveal more about when liquid water disappeared once and for all from the Red Planet's surface. Billions of years ago, Mars was much wetter and probably warmer than it is today. Curiosity is getting a new look into that more Earth-like past as it drives along and eventually crosses the Gediz Vallis channel, a winding, snake-like feature that—from space, at least—appears to have been carved by an ancient river.

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[firestar464]

Life on Mars was discovered 50 years ago and then eradicated - astrobiologist

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... r-AA1fQxrm

If this is true I hope we didn't kill the only life on the planet. That would have sucked.

[firestar464]

NASA plasma propulsion project promises Mars in a flash

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... r-AA1o32jd

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NASA Steps in to Get ESA's ExoMars Rover to the Red Planet
NASA will provide launch services and some key lander components.
By Ryan Whitwam May 20, 2024

The European Space Agency's long-delayed ExoMars mission is back on track with a little help from NASA. The US space agency has signed an agreement to offer launch services and lander components for the mission. With NASA's help, the European Space Agency (ESA) hopes to get the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars before the decade is out, resuming an operation derailed by COVID, hardware failures, and war.

The agreement was signed on May 16, handing NASA several key responsibilities for the second phase of ExoMars. While the ESA is building the rover itself, it needs several components for the landing system, including throttleable braking engines that will slow the lander's descent. NASA will also provide three radioisotope heating units (RHUs), which use the heat of decaying plutonium-238 to keep the spacecraft warm.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/nas ... red-planet

[caltrek]

Agriculture on Mars Is Closer to Reality Thanks to Mayan Farming Practices
by Elizabeth Beiser
May 28, 2024

Introduction:

(My Modern Met) Humans visiting Mars will likely happen within the next 15 years. However, it will be a nine-month-long journey one way. Finding a way to feed humans on Mars is, therefore, critical before anyone steps foot on the Red Planet. A recent study done by researchers in the Netherlands may have come up with a viable method for growing nutrient rich vegetables by drawing upon ancient farming techniques used by the Mayans.

While dehydrated food has become a staple of space missions, it's not an ideal method of feeding humans long-term. It is less nutritious than fresh food, and being able to pack enough for a Mars mission is unfeasible. Regular supply missions are not efficient economically, leaving agriculture as the best method to feed Mars-bound humans. Of course, with an atmosphere 100 times thinner, with more carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon than Earth's atmosphere, Mars isn't readily hospitable to our crops.

Building upon past studies, scientists at Wageningen University & Research are looking for ways to optimize plant growth. Centuries ago, Mayans started using a method of farming which involved intercropping. Their descendants still use this method today, resulting in drought and disease resilient farms. Intercropping, as opposed to monocropping, consists of multiple plant types being grown together in the same plots of land.

Researchers compared three different crops in an approximation of dusty Martian soil called regolith, as well as soil and river sand, both by monocropping and intercropping. Tomatoes, carrots, and peas were grown for 105 days. These three vegetables are high in nutrients that are destroyed during food dehydration. Also the researchers believed they would be complementary to each other. Tomatoes provide climbing support to peas and shade to carrots that are heat-sensitive, while peas “fix” nitrogen in soil by turning it into ammonia which becomes food for plants. Carrots, in turn, help aerate soil, thus improving water and nutrient uptake.

Read more here: https://mymodernmet.com/agriculture-on ... actices/

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[weatheriscool]

First detection of frost on the solar system's tallest volcanoes on Mars
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-frost-sol ... -mars.html
by University of Bern

For the first time, water frost has been detected on the colossal volcanoes on Mars, which are the largest mountains in the solar system. The international team led by the University of Bern used high-resolution color images from the Bernese Mars camera, CaSSIS, onboard the European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft. Understanding where water can be found, and how it is transported, is relevant for future Mars missions and possible human exploration.

"ExoMars" is a program of the European Space Agency ESA: for the first time since the 1970s, active research is being conducted into life on Mars. On board the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) is the Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS), a camera system developed and built by an international team led by Professor Nicolas Thomas from the Physics Institute at the University of Bern. CaSSIS has been observing Mars since April 2018 and is delivering high-resolution color images of the surface of Mars.

Using these high-resolution color images, an international team led by Dr. Adomas Valantinas has been able to detect water frost on Mars. The study has just been published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Valantinas was a Ph.D. student at the Space Research & Planetary Sciences Department of the Physics Institute of the University of Bern until October 2023 and is currently a guest researcher at Brown University (U.S.) thanks to a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) postdoc mobility fellowship.