Medical and Hospital News  
MARSDAILY
NASA's Opportunity Rover to Explore Mars Gully
by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 10, 2016


This map show a portion of Endeavour Crater's western rim that includes the "Marathon Valley" area investigated intensively by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in 2015 and 2016, and a fluid-carved gully that is a destination to the south for the mission. Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona. For a larger version of this image please go here.

NASA's Opportunity Mars rover will drive down a gully carved long ago by a fluid that might have been water, according to the latest plans for the 12-year-old mission. No Mars rover has done that before.

The longest-active rover on Mars also will, for the first time, visit the interior of the crater it has worked beside for the last five years. These activities are part of a two-year extended mission that began Oct. 1, the newest in a series of extensions going back to the end of Opportunity's prime mission in April 2004.

Opportunity launched on July 7, 2003 and landed on Mars on Jan. 24, 2004 (PST), on a planned mission of 90 Martian days, which is equivalent to 92.4 Earth days.

"We have now exceeded the prime-mission duration by a factor of 50," noted Opportunity Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Milestones like this are reminders of the historic achievements made possible by the dedicated people entrusted to build and operate this national asset for exploring Mars."

Opportunity begins its latest extended mission in the "Bitterroot Valley" portion of the western rim of Endeavour Crater, a basin 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter that was excavated by a meteor impact billions of years ago. Opportunity reached the edge of this crater in 2011 after more than seven years of investigating a series of smaller craters. In those craters, the rover found evidence of acidic ancient water that soaked underground layers and sometimes covered the surface.

The gully chosen as the next major destination slices west-to-east through the rim about half a mile (less than a kilometer) south of the rover's current location. It is about as long as two football fields.

"We are confident this is a fluid-carved gully, and that water was involved," said Opportunity Principal Investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

"Fluid-carved gullies on Mars have been seen from orbit since the 1970s, but none had been examined up close on the surface before. One of the three main objectives of our new mission extension is to investigate this gully. We hope to learn whether the fluid was a debris flow, with lots of rubble lubricated by water, or a flow with mostly water and less other material."

The team intends to drive Opportunity down the full length of the gully, onto the crater floor. The second goal of the extended mission is to compare rocks inside Endeavour Crater to the dominant type of rock Opportunity examined on the plains it explored before reaching Endeavour.

"We may find that the sulfate-rich rocks we've seen outside the crater are not the same inside," Squyres said. "We believe these sulfate-rich rocks formed from a water-related process, and water flows downhill. The watery environment deep inside the crater may have been different from outside on the plain - maybe different timing, maybe different chemistry."

The rover team will face challenges keeping Opportunity active for another two years. Most mechanisms onboard still function well, but motors and other components have far exceeded their life expectancy. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, lost use of two of its six wheels before succumbing to the cold of its fourth Martian winter in 2010.

Opportunity will face its eighth Martian winter in 2017. Use of Opportunity's non-volatile "flash" memory for holding data overnight was discontinued last year, so results of each day's observations and measurements must be transmitted that day or lost.

In the two-year extended mission that ended last month, Opportunity explored the "Marathon Valley" area of Endeavour's western rim, documenting the geological context of water-related minerals that had been mapped there from orbital observations. Last month, the rover drove through "Lewis and Clark Gap," a low point in the wall separating Marathon Valley from Bitterroot Valley. A recent color panorama from the rover features "Wharton Ridge," which extends eastward from the gap.

This week, Opportunity is investigating rock exposures next to "Spirit Mound," a prominent feature near the eastern end of Bitterroot Valley. The third main science goal of the new extended mission is to find and examine rocks from a geological layer that was in place before the impact that excavated Endeavour Crater. The science team has not yet determined whether the mound area will provide rocks that old.


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
Mars Rovers at NASA
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

Previous Report
MARSDAILY
Opportunity completes busy week of science and imaging
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 30, 2016
Since leaving the "Lewis and Clark Gap" of Marathon Valley, Opportunity has been driving through "Bitterroot valley" toward her first waypoint of the new extended mission, "Spirit Mound." With the Sol 4500 (Sept. 20, 2016) drive, she arrived at the base of the mound. The rover then bumped to a parking position for imaging and access to possible surface targets on Sol 4502 (Sept. 22, 2016). ... read more


MARSDAILY
UN chief to visit hurricane-hit Haiti as funding appeal falls short

US halts deportations of Haitians after hurricane

China house collapse survivor a left-behind child

At least 1.4 million need aid in Haiti after Matthew: UN

MARSDAILY
Australia's coordinates out by more than 1.5 metres: scientist

US Air Force awards Lockheed Martin $395M Contract for two GPS 3 satellites

SMC exercises contract options to procure two additional GPS III satellites

Lockheed gets $395 million GPS III Space Vehicle contract modification

MARSDAILY
Wild chimpanzee mothers teach young to use tools, video study confirms

Apes understand that some things are all in your head

Mapping the 'dark matter' of human DNA

Reading literary fiction doesn't boost social cognition

MARSDAILY
Understanding how plants withstand harsh conditions remains major research challenge

Researchers create technique for opening insects' exoskeletons to study living cells

Elephants rescued from SW China water tank

Hawaiian deep coral reefs home to unique species and extensive coral cover

MARSDAILY
Tuberculosis epidemic larger than previously thought

WHO to send 1 mln cholera vaccine doses to hurricane-hit Haiti

After hurricane, Haiti confronts cholera outbreak

X-ray free-electron laser is aiding the fight against Zika-carrying mosquitoes

MARSDAILY
No quick fix from China's 'two-child' policy: study

Jailed Chinese activist wins top rights prize

China jails provincial boss over $36 million in bribes

Hong Kong jails protester over anti-China riots

MARSDAILY
US to deport ex-navy chief drug trafficker to Guinea-Bissau

Gunmen ambush Mexican military convoy, kill 5 soldiers

Mexican army to probe killings of six in their home

Hong Kong arrests 2,000 in triad raids

MARSDAILY
No debt-for-equity cure for zombie firms, says China

China's ranks of super-rich rise despite economic slowdown

Asia markets hit by US rate talk, Samsung losses mount

China's forex reserves fall to 5-year low in September









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.