Entries by Ryan Raub

Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS/ARC

This panorama of images from the Spirit rover, taken on Sol 1925 (June 2, 2009), is helping engineers assess the rover's current state and plan her extraction from the soft soil in the region now called "Troy." The images were taken by Spirit's Microscopic Imager (MI) instrument, mounted on the end of her robotic arm. The MI science investigation is led by Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff.

This is the first time the MI has been used to assist in planning a rover's escape from an embedding event. The MI isn't intended to take these types of images--it is designed to focus on targets only 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) in front of its optics. As a result, the images in this mosaic are well out of focus. Yet despite the focus and the backlighting of the scene, Joel Hagen (Modesto Jr. College) and colleagues at NASA's Ames Research Center in California were able process the images to bring out the details shown here. The mosaic shows the underside of the rover, the depth to which the wheels are embedded and the terrain itself in sufficient detail to assess the rover's state.

Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS/ARC

More information on the rovers | Official Press Release

Posted by Ryan Raub in MER at 17:43

The USGS and Arizona State University have released THEMIS-derived daytime infrared (IR), nighttime IR, visible, and thermal inertia mosaics of the MSL candidate landing sites, and all mosaics are available for download in ISIS, PNG, and Geo-TIFF formats. The objective of this work is to improve our understanding of the physical characteristics of the surface at the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) candidate landing sites and to aid in the selection of a final landing location. This objective is addressed by using these mosaics to interpret the surface characteristics of these sites and identify potential hazards for lander safety and trafficability. These mosaics are generated in collaboration with Arizona State University (Philip R. Christensen), and their development is funded by the Critical Data Products program through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Posted by Ryan Raub in Missions at 12:18

Modeling Mars' surface in search of ancient rivers and oceans

Was there ever life on Mars? Many would like to believe that we used to have relatives who lived nearby. The likelihood that life existed on Mars is higher than for any other planet in the solar system. Because all known forms of life require water, the evidence that water once flowed on Mars is essential to prove that life existed there. Conversely, the possibility of life cannot definitely be rejected unless it is conclusively demonstrated that there was never water in a liquid form on Mars.

Posted by Ryan Raub in Astrogeology at 16:00

A digital cartographic Lunar Orbiter global mosaic is now available on Map a Planet. This mosaic was constructed using lunar data acquired by Lunar Orbiters III, IV, and V.

Posted by Ryan Raub in Lunar Orbiter at 13:53

Artist's Concept of Rover on Mars (credit: Maas Digital LLC)

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity sent signals Monday morning, July 23, indicating its power situation improved slightly during the days when it obeyed commands to refrain from communicating with Earth in order to conserve power.

Dust storms on Mars in recent weeks have darkened skies over both Opportunity and its twin, Spirit. Last week Opportunity was commanded to go into a very low-power state and to communicate only once every three days. Next scheduled transmission will be Thursday, July 26, though controllers may command Opportunity to send information on Tuesday, July 24. "The outlook for both Opportunity and Spirit depends on the weather, which makes it unpredictable, " said JPL's John Callas, project manager for both rovers. "If the weather holds where it is now or gets better, the rovers will be OK. If it gets worse, the situation becomes more complex ".

Read the Full Story from NASA.

Posted by Ryan Raub in MER at 14:17

Check out Cartrite's HiRISE Mosaic Images he produced using the Isis3 software package.

Posted by Ryan Raub in MRO at 09:47

Photo by Dave Anning

A five-acre wildfire on the east-facing slope of McMillian Mesa Friday afternoon appears to have been caused by youngsters playing with fireworks. The first of the fire's two alarms was called in at 2:14 pm, and by 3:45 p.m., firefighters had established a perimeter around the fire with the help of four slurry drops, holding the blaze to about five acres, said Jim Wheeler, assistant fire chief for the Flagstaff Fire Department. Luckily no structures were damaged.

Dave Anning captured some of the action from the USGS campus in this photo gallery.

More: The Arizona Daily Sun.

Posted by Ryan Raub in Flagstaff & Arizona at 12:15

Presented by: Paul Geissler, Research Geologist, USGS-Astrogeology Team

Posted by Ryan Raub in Astrogeology at 18:35

New HiRISE Website

HiRISE has just released hundreds of reprocessed images to the Planetary Data System. These are images that have been previously unreleased through their Web site, and are now part of the HiRISE PDS catalog.

The HiRISE Website features a drastic redesign, with some new features to really enhance your browsing experience.

Posted by Ryan Raub in MRO at 11:38