Search results for "Exploration of Mars"
showing 10 items of 12 documents
FIDO science payload simulating the Athena Payload
2002
[1] The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Field Integrated Development and Operations rover (FIDO) emulates and tests operational rover capabilities for advanced Mars rover missions, such as those originally planned for the Mars Surveyor 2001 Rover and currently planned for the Athena Payload on the Mars Exploration Rovers scheduled for launch in 2003. This paper describes FIDO's science instrument payload, which is fully integrated with rover hardware and software. Remote science teams visualize instrument suite data and generate FIDO commands using the Web Interface for Telescience. FIDO's instrument suite has been used in terrestrial laboratory and field tests to simulate Mars operations, to t…
Spirit Mars Rover Mission: Overview and selected results from the northern Home Plate Winter Haven to the side of Scamander crater
2010
Spirit Mars Rover Mission : Overview and selected results from the northern Home Plate Winter Haven to the side of Scamander crater
Spirit Mars Rover Mission to the Columbia Hills, Gusev Crater: Mission overview and selected results from the Cumberland Ridge to Home Plate
2008
This paper summarizes the Spirit rover operations in the Columbia Hills of Gusev Crater from sols 513 to 1476 and provides an overview of selected findings that focus on synergistic use of the Athena Payload and comparisons to orbital data. Results include discovery of outcrops (Voltaire) on Husband Hill that are interpreted to be altered impact melt deposits that incorporated local materials during emplacement. Evidence for extensive volcanic activity and aqueous alteration in the Inner Basin is also detailed, including discovery and characterization of accretionary lapilli and formation of sulfate, silica, and hematite-rich deposits. Use of Spirit's data to understand the range of spectra…
Extracting science from Mössbauer spectroscopy on Mars
2003
[1] Deployment by the Mars Exploration Rovers of backscatter Mossbauer spectrometers offers an incredible opportunity to (1) elucidate the iron mineralogies of rocks, soils, and atmospheric dust and (2) gain insight into the physical event by which the mineralogy came into existence and consequently acquire information having potential for yielding ancient planetary history relevant to broad issues including the question of life. Determining the mineralogy is done by subjecting raw data to reduction algorithms and generating products known as Mossbauer parameters, which are highly characteristic. Mixed mineralogies are treated through deconvolution. Through being able to exploit Mossbauer m…
Nickel on Mars: Constraints on meteoritic material at the surface
2006
[1] Impact craters and the discovery of meteorites on Mars indicate clearly that there is meteoritic material at the Martian surface. The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometers (APXS) on board the Mars Exploration Rovers measure the elemental chemistry of Martian samples, enabling an assessment of the magnitude of the meteoritic contribution. Nickel, an element that is greatly enhanced in meteoritic material relative to samples of the Martian crust, is directly detected by the APXS and is observed to be geochemically mobile at the Martian surface. Correlations between nickel and other measured elements are used to constrain the quantity of meteoritic material present in Martian soil and sedimen…
The new Athena alpha particle X-ray spectrometer for the Mars Exploration Rovers
2003
[1] The new alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) is part of the Athena payload of the two Mars Exploration Rovers (MER). The APXS sensor head is attached to the turret of the instrument deployment device (IDD) of the rover. The APXS is a very light-weight instrument for determining the major and minor elemental composition of Martian soils, rocks, and other geological materials at the MER landing sites. The sensor head has simply to be docked by the IDD on the surface of the selected sample. X-ray radiation, excited by alpha particles and X rays of the radioactive sources, is recorded by a high-resolution X-ray detector. The X-ray spectra show elements starting from sodium up to yttrium…
Weathering of Fe-bearing minerals under Martian conditions, investigated by Mössbauer spectroscopy
2004
Abstract The surface of Mars is covered by weathered material. Mars' rusty red colour in particular is commonly ascribed to ferric iron-bearing minerals. The planet's surface is generally iron rich. Mossbauer spectroscopy is a powerful tool for quantitative mineralogical analysis of Fe-bearing minerals. Consequently, the miniaturized Mossbauer spectrometer MIMOS II is part of the payload of NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers “Spirit” and “Opportunity”, and ESA's ill-fated Mars Express lander “Beagle 2”. Both Mars Exploration Rovers are currently conducting successful surface operations on Mars. In this paper, we give a brief insight into mission operations with respect to the reconstructio…
Identification of Morphological Biosignatures in Martian Analogue Field Specimens Using In Situ Planetary Instrumentation
2008
International audience; We have investigated how morphological biosignatures (i.e., features related to life) might be identified with an array of viable instruments within the framework of robotic planetary surface operations at Mars. This is the first time such an integrated lab-based study has been conducted that incorporates space-qualified instrumentation designed for combined in situ imaging, analysis, and geotechnics ( sampling). Specimens were selected on the basis of feature morphology, scale, and analogy to Mars rocks. Two types of morphological criteria were considered: potential signatures of extinct life ( fossilized microbial filaments) and of extant life (crypto-chasmoendolit…
Missions to Mars: Characterization of Mars analogue rocks for the International Space Analogue Rockstore (ISAR)
2013
International audience; Instruments for surface missions to extraterrestrial bodies should be cross-calibrated using a common suite of relevant materials. Such work is necessary to improve instrument performance and aids in the interpretation of in-situ measurements. At the CNRS campus in Orléans, the Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC) has created a collection of well-characterised rocks and minerals for testing and calibrating instruments to be flown in space missions. The characteristics of the analogue materials are documented in an accompanying online database. In view of the recent and upcoming rover missions to Mars (NASA's 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL…
Indication of drier periods on Mars from the chemistry and mineralogy of atmospheric dust
2005
The cover shows part of the Larry's Lookout panorama, seen from the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit during its drive up Husband Hill: the summit is about 200 metres from the rover. Six papers this week report in detail on the MER mission. An Analysis compares predictions used to select a landing site with the conditions actually encountered. This ‘ground truth’ will be invaluable for interpreting future remote-sensing data. Surface chemistry suggests that the upper layer of soil may contain 1% meteoritic material. MER provides a unique glimpse of solar transits of the moons Phobos and Deimos. Rover Opportunity examined wind-related processes, and spectroscopy indicates a dry origin for …