Curiosity: Mars Science Laboratory

Марсоход Curiosity остановил работу из-за аварии

Марсоход Curiosity остановил свою работу после короткого замыкания. Неполадки с ровером были обнаружены в прошедшие выходные, и только сейчас НАСА сообщило о них. В настоящее время инженеры агентства занимаются выяснением причин неисправности. На ее устранение может уйти до нескольких дней. // lenta.ru

 

На ее устранение может уйти до нескольких дней. Специалисты агентства отмечают, что причин для беспокойства за будущее миссии нет.

 

Testing to Diagnose Power Event in Mars Rover

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is expected to remain stationary for several days for engineering analysis following an onboard fault-protection action on Feb. 27. // www.nasa.gov

 

Curiosity на Марсе: гипс и нитраты

NASA Rover Findings Point to a More Earth-like Martian Past

Chemicals found in Martian rocks by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover suggest the Red Planet once had more oxygen in its atmosphere than it does now. // www.jpl.nasa.gov

 

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Chemicals found in Martian rocks by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover suggest the Red Planet once had more oxygen in its atmosphere than it does now.

Researchers found high levels of manganese oxides by using a laser-firing instrument on the rover. This hint of more oxygen in Mars' early atmosphere adds to other Curiosity findings — such as evidence about ancient lakes — revealing how Earth-like our neighboring planet once was.

This research also adds important context to other clues about atmospheric oxygen in Mars' past. The manganese oxides were found in mineral veins within a geological setting the Curiosity mission has placed in a timeline of ancient environmental conditions. From that context, the higher oxygen level can be linked to a time when groundwater was present in the rover's Gale Crater study area.

"The only ways on Earth that we know how to make these manganese materials involve atmospheric oxygen or microbes," said Nina Lanza, a planetary scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. "Now we're seeing manganese oxides on Mars, and we're wondering how the heck these could have formed?"

Microbes seem far-fetched at this point, but the other alternative — that the Martian atmosphere contained more oxygen in the past than it does now — seems possible, Lanza said. "These high manganese materials can't form without lots of liquid water and strongly oxidizing conditions. Here on Earth, we had lots of water but no widespread deposits of manganese oxides until after the oxygen levels in our atmosphere rose."
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