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17 September 2008
Potential MSL Site: Gale Crater
I am sort of breaking my own protocol here by posting about Gale crater before I hear the presentations today, but since we will immediately go into discussion and decision making after it is presented this morning, I figured that it would be good to familiarize you with it now. Gale is a ~100 km diameter crater on Mars with a huge 5 km tall mound of sediments in the …
10 September 2008
Last Year's MSL Landing Site Workshop: Day 2
Here is the summary from the second day of last year’s landing site workshop, copied from my old blog. I’m posting these to get everyone on the same page before going to this year’s Landing Site Workshop, where we will narrow the seven possible landing sites for the Mars Science Laboratory down to three. Stay tuned! Today was a marathon of landing site presentations, ranging all over the martian globe, …
11 July 2008
More on the HiRISE View of Phoenix
Emily has posted a bunch more information about how the fantastic, stunning, amazing image of Phoenix descending on its parachute was actually taken with the HiRISE camera. It’s a lot harder than point and shoot. Because of the way the camera was designed, the HiRISE team actually had to cause the MRO spacecraft to rotate at the exact rate to match Phoenix’s descent. And they did it! Go read more …
3 July 2008
Carnival of Space #61
Carnival of Space #61 is up over at Mang’s Bat Page! Why is a scouting-themed blog with a bat-related name hosting the carnival of space? Because they wanted to! And they did a great job! Check it out!
20 June 2008
Carnival of Space #59
Hey everyone, I’m back from my Great Canadian Adventure (more on that later) just in time for the Carnival of Space over at Green Gabbro. For those of you who are not up on the lingo, a Gabbro is a dark, coarse-grained igneous rock. Hooray for geologists who like space!
13 June 2008
Sand Dunes!
Greetings folks! I’ve been silent for a few days because I am in the midst of a lot of traveling. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week I was at a team meeting for the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) and Context Camera (CTX). Rather than spend a lot of time explaining what that means, I will do what I always do and link to the planetary society blog. My adviser …
27 May 2008
HiRISE is my Hero
Another amazing image from HiRISE, this time of the Phoenix lander, heat shield and parachute on the ground: Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy has a detailed interpretation of what we’re seeing here. What struck me was how much darker the landing site looks compared to its surroundings. The dust on Mars is generally lighter than the rocks underneath, so the dark halo around the lander means that its rockets …
26 May 2008
HiRISE catches Phoenix landing!
The HiRISE camera on MRO managed to catch this amazing glimpse of the Phoenix lander as it descended: Photo credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona As the Phoenix news site points out, this is the first time an image has been taken of a spacecraft descending to the surface of Mars! Keep an eye out for updates. We’ll be posting more about Phoenix and the landing site in the next few days. …
1 May 2008
Carnival of Space #52
Happy Birthday to the Carnival of Space! Today is the one year anniversary of the first carnival, and it is being hosted by the originator of the carnival, Henry Cate at “Why Homeschool”. Go take a look at the fantastic entries for this week!
30 April 2008
Opportunity Update: Sols 1515-1516
Opportunity is still sitting on the slope of Victoria crater, doing diagnostics on her arthritic arm. I’m afraid I don’t have any pretty pictures to post today; Pancam has a light load lately. I do have some news about the arm though. I am not deeply involved in the diagnostics process, so take my updates with a grain of salt. It sounds like only one joint is acting up (as …
