For more information about curiosity rover check the Wikipedia article here
Billions of years ago, Mars had a much richer atmosphere than it has today, which is rather an understatement considering how thin it is. Some scientists hypothesize that once Mars was capable of holding liquid water at its surface, with recent evidence adding weight to these claims. Recent measurements made by Curiosity‘s instruments highlight a [...]
Wed, Apr 3, 2013
Life on Mars The sedimentary processes on Mars have generally been governed by wind, not water – but is this the case where the Curiosity rover is searching for life at the moment. If this is the case (and Curiosity will either confirm or infirm this when it reaches Mount Sharp next year), then odds [...]
Tue, Mar 19, 2013
The Curiosity rover is in a bit of trouble and is currently facing it’s longest period of inactivity since its touchdown on Mars. At the beginning of March, the rover experience fatal memory errors in one of its two side computers, presumably due to radiation exposure, which forced scientists on Earth to put the rover into [...]
Mon, Mar 18, 2013
The Curiosity rover on Mars sent a pair of mosaics assembled from dozens of telephoto images that show Mount Sharp in all its splendor. Mount Sharp (also called Aeolis Mons) is 5.5 km high; mount Everest, which is over 8.8 km above sea level, is only 4.6 km base-to-peak. Lower slopes of Mount Sharp remain [...]
Tue, Mar 12, 2013
The space agency just recently tweeted that it will hold a public briefing centered around the rover Curiosity to inform the public on what’s going on with the mission. The conference will be streamed live today at 1 PM ET, or in less than an hour from the time of writing. You can also watch [...]
Tue, Mar 12, 2013
The beginning of the month was a troublesome one for humanity’s Magellan on Mars – the Curiosity rover – and its team of engineers behind it after a major malfunction forced one of its computers to enter into safe mode. Luckily, the NASA engineers have thought of almost every possible glitch and also had this [...]
Mon, Mar 4, 2013
NASA’s Curiosity rover has been put into “safe mode” after some files which it relies on running have defected. Exactly what damaged the files on the robot’s flash memory is not known. “We’re still early on in the process,” said project manager Richard Cook.”We have probably several days, maybe a week of activities to get [...]
Thu, Feb 21, 2013
Despite some initial worry, Curiosity’s drill worked out just fine, and now, the rover has revealed historic images that confirm it has obtained the first samples from the inside of another planet. No other rover or device has drilled to another planet and collected a sample from its interior. “Seeing the powder from the drill [...]
Tue, Feb 5, 2013
Recently, Curiosity rover made its most complex maneuver since it landed on Mars after it drilled a promising rock, offering scientists with invaluable geological information otherwise inaccessible. This is the first time a robot has carried out a drilling operation on another planet, and the last important check in Curiosity’s scientific arsenal, signaling all the [...]
Mon, Jan 21, 2013
Exobiologists have found what they believe to be the clearest evidence that Mars supported life – though it may not seem obvious at a first glance. The research published in Nature Geoscience shows all the needed ingredients for life in a huge crater that goes up to 5km below the planet’s surface. The McLaughlin crater, [...]
Wed, Jan 16, 2013
The first sample from underground Mars will come from a rockbed that showcases unexpected mineral veins of gypsum. A Martian candy store Astronomers and geologists are now in the equivalent of a Martian candy store of scientific objectives: the lowest point of Gale crater, called Yellowknife Bay is literally teeming with minerals that could only [...]
Mon, Jan 7, 2013
There seems to be consisting evidence supplied both by past and recent rover missions – like the ever sturdy Opportunity, the eager newcomer Curiosity – and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – a spacecraft currently hovering over Mars – that our neighboring red planet was once most likely covered by oceans and lakes and was layered by a thick [...]
Fri, Dec 14, 2012
Are you curious to see where Curiosity has traveled? You can now follow its progress on the Red Planet using this website – it offers scale which puts things into perspective as well, which is quite a great thing. So far, Curiosity has traveled 600 meters, which is about a 9 minute walk at an [...]
Tue, Dec 11, 2012
The Mars Curiosity rover is preparing to use its drilling tool for the first time, however as preparations for the operation are being carefully made, NASA engineers are frightened that a potential malfunction of the boring drill might cause an entire electrical disaster. This might mean that the entire rover could get irrecoverably fried. The issue lies [...]
Tue, Dec 4, 2012
The much discussed soil analysis samples taken by Curiosity have finally been made public by NASA at the recent American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco. The findings are indeed exciting, as scientists have read the presence of organic compounds – critical prerequisites for the both the present and past existence of life. However, scientists have yet to be [...]
Wed, Nov 28, 2012
Last week we were all filled with enthusiasm at sight of recent rumors that had Curiosity on the brink of a monumental find worthy of “history books”, no less. Since a soil sample was being analyzed at the moment, people began speculating that something organic in nature may have been found. I personally didn’t have [...]
Wed, Nov 21, 2012
NASA officials are flooded with media requests from journalists recently looking to find out exactly what all the fuss is all about. Oh, haven’t you heard? Well I’m getting ahead of myself. Well, apparently scientists onboard the Curiosity rover mission have come across data that’s right “for the history books.” A monumental find, nothing less, [...]
Mon, Nov 19, 2012
In a new monumental find, Curiosity data readings suggest that radiation levels on the surface of Mars are very much similar to those in sub-orbital Earth. This means that astronauts or marsonauts can indeed set foot on the red planet, albeit for a limited amount of time. The findings came after the Curiosity rover, still [...]
Mon, Nov 5, 2012
Curiosity took a break from its usual rock sampling activities and instead focused on the air, trying to figure out how Mars lost the biggest part of its atmosphere, leaving it with 100 times less than what Earth has. Researchers believe in the distant past, Mars was a pretty different sight from what we [...]
Wed, Oct 31, 2012
After Curiosity had a bite of Martian turf at the site of Rocknest a few days earlier, soil analysis results have finally come in. According to scientists at NASA, the Martian sand in the rover’s vicinity is very much akin to volcanic soils found on Earth such as those of Hawaii. Though Mars is far from being [...]
Thu, Oct 18, 2012
It’s dinner time, and you know what there’s on the menu? Rocks! Martian rocks, to be more precise. After what seemed at times to be an excruciating series of baby steps, the rover has finally managed to extract the first samples and place it in CheMin – one of the two miniature laboratories located inside [...]
Mon, Oct 8, 2012
It may look like an ordinary cup of sand, but for NASA scientists this is a milestone almost as important as the rover’s landing on Mars itself. Yesterday, Curiosity finally scooped a patch of martian soil and shook it for refinement, a moment which was being observed with anxiety from back on Earth. “There was a [...]
Fri, Oct 5, 2012
The Curiosity rover is preparing to scoop in the Martian soil for the first time. The vehicle has driven up to a pile of sandy material that mission scientists have dubbed “Rocknest”. Using its clam-shaped tool, Curiosity will start digging in the ground, the first thing to do being to eliminate any previous earthly contamination. [...]
Fri, Sep 28, 2012
Although Curiosity landed recently on Mars, the rover is already proving its usefulness, beaming back all sort of interesting information; this time, Curiosity has snapped photos of rocky outcroppings which seem to be stream beds where water once flew on the Red Planet. The rock is quite eroded and it consists of rounded gravel consolidated [...]
Wed, Sep 26, 2012
Though a barren, life-intimidating landscape, Mars still has the most resembling weather to Earth compared to the other planets in our solar system. Recent measurements beamed by the Curiosity rover, which touched down on the martian surface a few weeks ago, have confirmed the scientists’ theories of extreme pressure swings. According to observations, pressure variations can be [...]
Wed, Sep 19, 2012
As once can see above, Curiosity recently caught glimpse of a partial solar eclipse from the surface of Mars and wired back some eye candy for us Earthlings to rejoice. You might find the fact that there’s only a small black dot partially covering the sun a bit disappointing. Instead, maybe we should look at [...]
Mon, Sep 17, 2012
In the past couple of months, all Mars-related attention has been almost unanimously shifted towars the Curiosity rover. Not to discredit any of its achievements thus far, which are just appetizers for marvelous fings to come off Curiosity, but the Opportunity rover has been trailing the Martian surface for the past eight years now, long [...]
Mon, Aug 20, 2012
The Curiosity rover, which successfully landed on Mars and is currently stationary has successfully tested its ChemCam laser for the first time since the descent to the Red Planet. Curiosity on Mars The most important task Curiosity will undertake is figuring out whether Mars is or ever was able to support life – and in [...]
Wed, Aug 8, 2012
Ok, enough of the low-res, black and white photos from Curiosity. NASA just released the first high-resolution, nearly dust free, photograph taken by the Curiosity rover on Mars. The image was taken by the rovers’ Navigation Cameras (NavCams), which are capable of photographing at 1megapixel, depicting a flat Martian landscape with the looming rim of [...]
Wed, Aug 8, 2012
Strap on your 3-D glasses, folks. Curiosity is back on ZME Science, this time in full 3-D. We just got ahold of two extraordinary three-dimensional photos, taken by the car-sized rover on Mars by combining images from the robot’s navigation cameras, which operate in pairs to provide stereo views of the Martian surface.
Wed, Aug 8, 2012
Hope you’re all not too bored by the influx of Curiosity we’ve been feeding these past few days. We believe this to be one of the most significant scientific events of the year, topped maybe just by the discovery of the Higgs boson, and as such the rover’s landing on martian soil deserves at least [...]
Mon, Aug 6, 2012
Yes, Curiosity has landed! And like we’ve reported earlier, right after the rover landed on the martian surface, it beamed back its first images to Earth to confirm the successful touchdown. The images took 14 minutes to reach scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, where the whole Mars rover operation is being coordinated. [...]
Mon, Aug 6, 2012
At precisely 10:32 p.m. Pacific time (1:32 a.m. EDT/0530 GMT), today, August 6, NASA’s Curiosity Rover touched down on martian soil flawlessly, finally putting an end to tight nerves and angst which enveloped the agency’s staff, and space exploration enthusiasts from around the globe alike. The landing marks a new milestone for NASA and human space [...]
Thu, Aug 2, 2012
I have to admit this one caught me off-guard: Mount Sharp, the destination for the new Mars Rover is at the center of a minor naming confusion: its official name isn’t actually Mount Sharp. As of today only three days remain until the much expected land, and I was just reading some details about Curiosity [...]
Thu, Jun 14, 2012
The most sophisticated rover developed by NASA to date, the Mars Curiosity rover, is set to land on the red planet in August. During its one year mission, the rover’s main objective is that of investigating for signs that might hint towards the presence of life, past or present, on Mars. Scientists have unanimously agreed [...]
Fri, May 4, 2012
Several studies performed in the last decade have shown Mars used to be warmer and wetter, but scientists still haven’t figured out exactly why we are seeing these clues and how our red neighbor used to look like ages ago. Now, a new study concluded that Mars was much, much wetter than previously believed and [...]
Tue, Apr 17, 2012
NASA is equivalent to innovation and cutting edge technology, and this was made possible by the creative flow of whole generations of brilliant scientists. The same philosophy is in place today, as well, and even though the agency has been faced with drastic budget cuts in the past few years, it has kept an open [...]
Mon, Apr 16, 2012
When the administration gives you budget cut lemons, make a different scientific lemonade – that’s pretty much what NASA is trying to do in light of these decisions. Less money, more problems Citing lack of funds, the Obama administration is cutting healthy chunks of the NASA budget, placing a big question mark on many important [...]
Sun, Feb 5, 2012
For the past three years, scientists have been analyzing data fed back by the 2008 NASA Phoenix mission to Mars, which touch landed on the planet’s northern poles. Even though there was ice, soil analysis showed that the planet has been suffering from a massive, 600 million years long drought, providing inhospitable life supporting conditions on its [...]
Mon, Dec 5, 2011
Every NASA spacecraft sent to missions on other space bodies, like other planets, asteroids or moons, needs to adhere to a strict internal protoocl which needs to ensure that no biological contamination is brought in from Earth. This is a vital preparatory step before the launch of a spacecraft, especially if the later in cause [...]
Fri, Nov 25, 2011
On November 26, after countless delays, budget overruns and buckets of sweat, humankind’s most capable machine of landing on and traveling through the red planet will finally touch base and launch towards its ambitious destination. The Curiosity rover‘s lift off is currently scheduled for 10:02 a.m. EST, this Saturday. Also known as the Mars Science Laboratory [...]
Mon, Nov 21, 2011
After a two year delay, almost a decade of planning, and several budget overruns, NASA’s proudest rover, Curiosity, is finally good to go. The car sized vehicle is twice as big and holds twice as much instruments as its predecessors, including a drill that will allow it to bore deep into the red planet’s rocks. [...]
Tue, Nov 15, 2011
In a week filled with bad news for space exploration, astronomers finally have something to be happy about: the Mars Curiosity rover is ready to head towards the Red Planet, as NASA makes the final preparations for a launch scheduled for November 25. The rover is currently waiting patiently ontop an Atlas V rocket, just [...]
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Wed, Apr 10, 2013
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