Cool places on Mars to land

Sagan369 · 2007-12-14 14:39:55

When will NASA land rovers at interesting locations on Mars, like the bottom of Valles Marineris, or on the slopes of Mount Doom umm err Olympus Mons! The three rover sites picked so far were for safety reasons I know, but how hard can it be to land in the solar systems largest canyon?

cIclops · 2007-12-14 15:07:58

Landing inside Valles Marineris is easy, the hard part is to have the probe working afterwards.

Places to land are selected by scientists together with engineers who understand where they can put down safely. The next lander, Phoenix, will land in the unexplored Northern region to look for evidence of life below the surface.

Ron Carlson · 2007-12-14 17:11:37

I would very much like to see many sample return missions from Valles Marineris. I believe this will happen over the centuries as Mankind explores and settles Mars.

Stidying the stratigraphy of Valles Marineris will greatly enhance our understanding of Mars and it's potential resources for use by the human race.

IMHO, we need to develop rovers that are nuclear powered and much larger than the current generation of rovers that have served us so well.

Martian rovers really need to be able to travel, at a minimum, hundreds of miles per day and have the ability to collect samples, transport astronauts over the Martian landscape, and have the ability to carry heavy loads of goods and equipment over long distances to various outposts and human settlements.

Ron Carlson

cIclops · 2007-12-14 17:48:41

NASA and ESA have started work on a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, it's extremely difficult and expensive, but the first mission may happen in about ten years. In much less than centuries from now people will be exploring Valles Marineris, they won't need to bring back samples as there will be laboratories on Mars.

A nuclear powered rover is being built right now called the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) it will be on Mars in about 30 months.

Sagan369 · 2007-12-14 18:03:38

Oh yes, the canyon walls will be in the way! They'd need a probe in geosync orbit above the landing site to relay the photos back to earth. Think those canyon walls are striated like the Grand Canyon's? The rover should also have a liter of salty water on board that it can open once down there, to see if it will stay liquid. Hopefully next decade!

JoshNH4H · 2007-12-14 20:18:33

Hi, welcome to new mars. This is also addressed, although for people, at http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5603 But this is a different topic. One aim for rovers should be Somewhere in the Hellas Basin. it definitely has something interesting there.

Ron Carlson · 2007-12-15 00:31:40

In much less than centuries from now people will be exploring Valles Marineris, they won't need to bring back samples as there will be laboratories on Mars.

Interesting projection, cIclops!

Ron Carlson

Michael Bloxham · 2007-12-20 03:44:54

You're not Ron Carlson the novelist, are you?

Ron Carlson · 2007-12-20 22:10:51

You're not Ron Carlson the novelist, are you?

Hi, Michael Bloxhan,

No, although I used to make my living as a researcher/writer (and actually paid my bills)!

I am a former Nike-Hercules missile system radar mechanic and foreman from my days in the U.S. Army Air Defense Command.

Technically, I am also an environmental scientist at the Masters level though those days are long gone.

Mostly what I do for the time being is read a book on NASA or Mars or the space program every 1 or 2 days, work on my homebrew PC clone and surf the Internet.

I would like to catch some kind of job with NASA, JPL or a related contractor on a Mars project. I live just a few miles from the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Clear Lake, Texas. In fact I drove by JSC after dark a couple of hours ago and was impressed by how many lights were still on in the buildings. I think they burn a lot of midnight oil at JSC as there are always a lot of office lights on after dark.

So, what do you do?

Ron Carlson, B.A., M.Sc.

Commodore · 2007-12-20 22:18:36

We may have a very fresh target to investigate soon...

Asteroid May Soon Slam into Mars

By Alicia Chang
The Associated Press
posted: 20 December 2007
10:32 pm ET
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mars could be in for an asteroid hit. A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, scientists said Thursday.
"These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The asteroid, known as 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November and is similar in size to an object that hit remote central Siberia in 1908, unleashing energy equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb and wiping out 60 million trees.
Scientists tracking the asteroid, currently halfway between Earth and Mars, initially put the odds of impact at 1 in 350 but increased the chances this week. Scientists expect the odds to diminish again early next month after getting new observations of the asteroid's orbit, Chesley said.
"We know that it's going to fly by Mars and most likely going to miss, but there's a possibility of an impact," he said.
If the asteroid does smash into Mars, it will probably hit near the equator close to where the rover Opportunity has been exploring the Martian plains since 2004. The robot is not in danger because it lies outside the impact zone. Speeding at 8 miles a second, a collision would carve a hole the size of the famed Meteor Crater in Arizona.
In 2004, fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smacked into Jupiter, creating a series of overlapping fireballs in space. Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.
"Unlike an Earth impact, we're not afraid, but we're excited," Chesley said.

I somehow doubt that Opportunity would survive, but would have great front row seat. I think it would be boon to program as we rush to get the freshest samples.

Ron Carlson · 2007-12-20 22:44:41

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mars could be in for an asteroid hit. A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, scientists said Thursday.

I think that the exploration and colonization of Mars is imperative shold we wish to insure the long term survival of the human race.

As we all know, a huge body from space crashed into the Yucatan region of Planet Earth 65,000,000 years ago effectively killing most life on Earth, including those rough tough dinosaurs.

The same fate awaits us today should Earth be clobbered by another huge body.

I think that human exploration and colonization of Mars is necessary to insure the survival of the human race, as well as serving as a motivating force to develop new and faster methods of propulsion that could eventually take Mankind to other solar systems in the search for planets very similar to Earth.

I forget where I read it, but someone from Lockheed's famed Skunk Works (?) once said we are just a few equations away from interstellar travel.

Ron Carlson

MarsRefresh · 2007-12-21 12:25:26

I think planetary scientists must be drooling over their computer models as we write. But this is really exciting. If the improbable happens and the asteroid hits a gresh peice of regolith then MRO can scan the ejecta for its composition and water quantity. Just to see how much water would be vaporized compared to the volume of the crater would be insightful.

cIclops · 2007-12-21 13:12:22

1 in 75 is quite a small chance, as more observations come in the orbit will be refined until it will be certain either to miss or hit Mars. The current data is here

Perhaps even more interestingly for us a new hazardous object has turned up on the risk list ... the only significant one right now.

RedStreak · 2007-12-22 10:55:38

Ron Carlson wrote:

I forget where I read it, but someone from Lockheed's famed Skunk Works (?) once said we are just a few equations away from interstellar travel.
The trickiest parts of those equations are:
1) Money
2) Political Backing
When you leave those factors out all that's left are pipe-dreams sadly.
But no offense meant to your friend at all, and I want to say welcome to New Mars.

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#1 2007-12-14 14:39:55

Re: Cool places on Mars to land

#2 2007-12-14 15:07:58

Re: Cool places on Mars to land

#3 2007-12-14 17:11:37

Re: Cool places on Mars to land

#4 2007-12-14 17:48:41

Re: Cool places on Mars to land

#5 2007-12-14 18:03:38

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#6 2007-12-14 20:18:33

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#7 2007-12-15 00:31:40

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#8 2007-12-20 03:44:54

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#9 2007-12-20 22:10:51

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#10 2007-12-20 22:18:36

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#11 2007-12-20 22:44:41

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#12 2007-12-21 12:25:26

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#13 2007-12-21 13:12:22

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#14 2007-12-22 10:55:38

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#15 2007-12-22 12:07:57

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#16 2007-12-27 01:36:31

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#18 2007-12-27 05:25:02

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