Nasa Shocked as Mars JPL Rover Comes Upon a Mystery Rock.

 

 

Strange Rock Appeared from Nowhere.

 

 

 

 

From Independent Newspaper

 

A mysterious rock which appeared in front of the Opportunity rover is “like nothing we’ve ever seen before”, according to Mars exploration scientists at Nasa.

Experts said they were “completely confused” by both the origins and makeup of the object, which is currently being investigated by Opportunity’s various measuring instruments.

Astronomers noticed the new rock had “appeared” without any explanation on an outcrop which had been empty just days earlier. The rover has been stuck photographing the same region of Mars for more than a month due to bad weather, with scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California monitoring the images it sends.

Nasa issued a Mars status report entitled “encountering a surprise”, and lead Mars Exploration rover scientist Steve Squyres told a JPL event it seems the planet literally “keeps throwing new things at us”.

He said the images, from 12 Martian days apart, were from no more than a couple of weeks ago. “We saw this rock just sitting here. It looks white around the edge in the middle and there’s a low spot in the centre that’s dark red – it looks like a jelly doughnut.

“And it appeared, just plain appeared at that spot – and we haven’t ever driven over that spot.”

Squyres said his team had two theories on how the rock got there – that there’s “a smoking hole in the ground somewhere nearby” and it was caused by a meteor, or that it was “somehow flicked out of the ground by a wheel” as the rover went by.

“We had driven a metre or two away from here, and I think the idea that somehow we mysteriously flicked it with a wheel is the best explanation,” Squyres said.

Yet the story got even stranger when Opportunity investigated further. Squyres explained: “We are as we speak situated with the rover’s instruments deployed making measurements of this rock.

“We’ve taken pictures of both the doughnut and jelly parts, and the got the first data on the composition of the jelly yesterday.

“It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” he said. “It’s very high in sulphur, it’s very high in magnesium, it’s got twice as much manganese as we’ve ever seen in anything on Mars.

“I don’t know what any of this means. We’re completely confused, and everyone in the team is arguing and fighting (over what it means).

“That’s the beauty of this mission… what I’ve realised is that we will never be finished. There will always be something tantalising, something wonderful just beyond our reach that we didn’t quite get to – and that’s the nature of exploration.”

Squyres was speaking at an event marking the 10th anniversary of the arrival of Opportunity and Spirit on the surface of Mars.

While Spirit lost contact with Earth and was later declared “dead” in 2010, Opportunity has now roamed the planet far in excess of what was originally planned as a three-month mission. Nasa said that with its maximum speed of just 0.05mph, as of “Sol 3547” (15 January 2014) Opportunity had covered just over 24 miles (38km). NASA: Space in pictures

Extra-terrestrial Life Discovered in Earth's Stratosphere.

Extra-terrestrial life has been discovered by Brit students at Sheffield University. Not bug eyed green monsters but microscopic from meteor showers. The scientific investigators have isolated the microbes from weather balloons high in the stratosphere and have quarantined them from infection by Earth microbes. They seem convinced the micro-organisms are alien and from meteor showers that broke up upon hitting Earth atmosphere. 

ExoMars - Europe's Double Mars Mission

After arguments concerning finance for Europe’s plan to send two expeditions to Mars; plans are finally back on track and looking positive for both missions. One is for a satellite to explore the surface topography by camera and search for trace gases in the planet’s atmosphere. These tests will be for methane mainly, but also other credible gases helpful for carbon life in the Martian sky. This is due to launch in 2016.

There is also another plan for a land rover or mobile robot upon the surface of Mars in 2018. Both the European missions have been named ExoMars and the funding for this has now been agreed and the work schedule for both launches begins in earnest and a new mood of enthusiasm. All believe that ExoMars (joint missions) will happen. The contracts of agreement were signed on 17^th June 2013 at an agreed cost of 216 million Euros. The main contractor for this work is; Thales Alenia Space – TAS.

The biggest chunk of these funds will be spent upon the first satellite mission known as Trace Gas Orbiter – TGO. This totals 146 million Euros and will launch in January of 2016. After this, all the rest of the schedule will be for the descent module of project TAS to be completed for the second 2018 mission. This will prove Europe’s combined ability to land a robotic functional vehicle on Mars

One of the main sources of help for ExoMars was the Russian space agency (Roscosmos.) The Russians came to ExoMars aid because the U.S. had to step down due to budgetary problems and other commitments within their space agency NASA.