Mars News, Science, Technology at MarsDaily.com

December 13, 2015

Curiosity reaches sand dunes
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 12, 2015
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has begun an up-close investigation of dark sand dunes up to two stories tall. The dunes are on the rover's trek up the lower portion of a layered Martian mountain. The dunes close to Curiosity's current location are part of "Bagnold Dunes," a band along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. Observations of this dune field from orbit show that edges of individual dunes move as much as 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year. The rover's pla ... read more

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Opportunity on west rim of Endeavour Crater within Marathon Valley The rover is positioned on steep, north-facing slopes for improved solar array energy production. On Sol 4202 (Nov. 19. 2105), the robotic arm was raised so Panoramic Camera (Pancam) color images co ... more		NASA's Curiosity rover reaches Martian sand dunes NASA's Curiosity rover is continuing its trek up Mount Sharp. Recently, the Mars rover reached a series of sand dunes covering a lower portion of the layered Martian mountain inside Gale Crater. ... more		Mars Mission Team Addressing Vacuum Leak on Key Science Instrument A key science instrument that will be carried aboard NASA's Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft being prepared for launch in March 2016 ... more
				Letter to Mars? Royal Mail works it out for British boy, 5 Britain's Royal Mail has turned to NASA for help after a five-year-old boy wrote in asking how much it would cost to post a letter to Mars. ... more		European payload selected for ExoMars 2018 surface platform Two European instruments and four European contributions on two Russian instruments have been selected for the Russian-led science platform that will land on Mars as part of the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMar ... more

ExoMars has historical, practical significance for Russia, Europe The ExoMars program to explore the environment on Mars has historical and practical significance for Russia and Europe, deputy-head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Sergei Savelev, said Thursd ... more		ExoMars prepares to leave Europe for launch site The two ExoMars spacecraft of the 2016 mission are being prepared for shipping to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan ahead of their launch in March. A joint endeavour with Russia's Roscosmo ... more		SpaceX launches secretive US military spacecraft Documents show New Zealand unease over Chinese warships in South Pacific North Korea's Kim decorates troops who fought for Russia against Ukraine		Tracking down the 'missing' carbon from the Martian atmosphere Mars is blanketed by a thin, mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere--one that is far too thin to prevent large amounts of water on the surface of the planet from subliming or evaporating. But many researc ... more
				Mars to lose its largest moon, Phobos, but gain a ring Mars' largest moon, Phobos, is slowly falling toward the planet, but rather than smash into the surface, it likely will be shredded and the pieces strewn about the planet in a ring like the rings en ... more		Study: Mars to become a ringed planet following death of its moon A new study, published in Nature Geoscience, suggests Mars could become ringed if its smaller moon Phobos falls apart, as scientists believe it will. ... more

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

A witness to a wet early Mars Vast volumes of water once flooded through this deep chasm on Mars that connects the 'Grand Canyon' of the Solar System - Valles Marineris - to the planet's northern lowlands. The image, taken by ES ... more		NASA completes heat shield testing for future Mars exploration vehicles As NASA missions to Mars progress with science and complex human exploration missions, spacecraft will require larger heat shields to protect against the extreme heat of entering a planet's atmosphe ... more		Comet water analysis strengthens link to Earth origins Do you want to freeze a cloud? Desert dust might help Genetic traits behind hibernation may offer new hope for treating metabolic disease		Curiosity Mars Rover Heads Toward Active Dunes On its way to higher layers of the mountain where it is investigating how Mars' environment changed billions of years ago, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover will take advantage of a chance to study some m ... more
Upgrade Helps NASA Study Mineral Veins on Mars Scientists now have a better understanding about a site with the most chemically diverse mineral veins NASA's Curiosity rover has examined on Mars, thanks in part to a valuable new resource scientis ... more		Dust devils detected by seismometer could guide Mars mission Buried in the shallow soft mud of a dry California lake bed, a seismometer was able to detect the tiny tilts of the ground as it was pulled up by passing dust devils. The experiment, described onlin ... more		Amnesia Event Slows Down Opportunity Robotic Arm Work Opportunity is within 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The plan ahead was for Opportunity to use the robotic arm to place the Alpha Particle X-ray spectrometer down on a ... more		Swiss Camera Leaves for Mars A camera designed and built at the University of Bern will leave Bern on Monday, 9 November, at 6:00 in the morning for Cannes in France where it will be integrated on the European Space Agency's Ex ... more

	NASA's RS-25 flight engine getting ready to fly NASA took the next big step on its Journey to Mars on Nov. 4 by placing the first RS-25 flight engine, engine No. 2059, on the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center. The engine will be tested ... more		NASA mission reveals speed of solar wind stripping Martian atmosphere NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission has identified the process that appears to have played a key role in the transition of the Martian climate from an early, warm and wet e ... more

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Scientists Predict that Rocky Planets Formed from "Pebbles"

NASA Completes Critical Design Review for Space Launch System

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Opportunity working at 'Marathon Valley' before winter relocation

Climate models used to explain formation of Mars valley networks

Pebbles on Mars likely traveled tens of miles down a riverbed

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