Curiosity Drills Windjana Martian Rock

 Curiosity rover drills a rock sample for analysis. Photo Credit: NASA/JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is set to drill into a rock for the third time on the red planet to collect a sample for analysis. Over the weekend, the rover used a wire-bristle-brush to clear away dust from a slab of sandstone that has been given the name "Windjana," after a gorge in Western Australia. The rover will drill into the area “in order to understand the chemistry of the fluids that bound these grains together to form the rock,” said Melissa Rice of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, a Curiosity science team member. In the coming days, the rover will conduct a preparatory “mini-drill” operation to check the area for readiness, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. The hammering drill on Curiosity collects powdered sample material from rocks and then delivers portions to laboratory instruments onboard. The first two Martian rock samples inspected this way, which were taken last year about 2.5 miles from the rover’s current location, yielded evidence of an ancient lakebed environment with conditions favorable for microbial life billions of years ago, NASA says

Asteroid Impact Glass May Reveal Ancient Life on Mars

In a new study, scientists have analyzed ancient materials preserved astonishingly in glass generated by an asteroid's collision with the Earth.

According to BBC News, the scientists published their new study in the journal Geology. The samples were found in the Pampas in Argentina and represent a new way of looking into the environmental history of other planets, Mars in particular.

NASA Plans Mars Human Exploration in 2030s

William H. Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations, likened the steps the agency is taking to the Mercury and Gemini programs, both of which were building blocks toward putting men on the Moon with the Apollo missions.

Wednesday, before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation subcommittee, Gerstenmaier said NASA is taking steps to “that will allow us to make sustained progress toward a human presence on the surface of Mars.” "There is real hardware in manufacture for the path to Mars," Gerstenmaier told senators. In 2017, for example, the agency plans an unmanned test of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle, which will be used to take astronauts to Mars. These initial steps toward Mars are comprised of “Earth-reliant” missions, such as the International Space Station, landing on an asteroid in lunar orbit, and finally, a “Mars-ready” mission. During the first stage, NASA, along with international partners and private entities, will conduct research on how to keep space crews safe and productive on long duration spaceflights. The joint effort will also explore how to transport cargo and crew affordably into low Earth orbit. The second major stepping stone was approved by House subcommittee yesterday. That mission calls for NASA to redirect an asteroid into lunar orbit, land astronauts on the asteroid, and return them safely to Earth. “We're going to grab a piece of the solar system, we're going to deflect it around the moon and insert it into a distant retrograde orbit around the moon where our crews can go visit," said Gerstenmaier. The mission he said would develop skills and techniques needed to “push the human presence into the solar system.”

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Photo of Mars Light on Martian Mountain : "Curiosity takes cosmic ray hit"

Doug Ellison from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a man who would very much like to find evidence of life on Mars considering what it would do for JPL's budget,  tweeted that the image appears to be the result of Curiosity taking a cosmic ray hit, rather than a sign of little green men.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has a Mission to Mars with ExoMars in 2018 Planned.

Image from yesterday's opening of the Mars yard in Stevenage, UK. The Mars yard will be used put the #ExoMars rover through its paces ahead of its mission to the Red Planet in 2018.

Mars Gully Formed 3 Years Ago

A substantial new gully channel has been discovered on Mars in images captured by the $40 million High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera mounted on the NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The most interesting fact is that the gully channel was not present on Martian land three years ago, which scientists concluded has been formed in past three years. According to NASA, Mars gully is commonly found in the mid-latitudes of Mars by carbon dioxide frost, especially in Southern highlands. Scientists claimed that such sort of events generally take place during winters with little presence of liquid water. NASA officials added that although gully on Mars looks like river channels here on earth, they are not actually formed out of flowing water. They added that carbon dioxide plays key role in formation of many gullies on Martian surface. The MRO has been orbiting the Mars since 2006 and has been fitted with 10-feet dish antennas and number of scientific instruments like spectrometer for exploring the Martian surface. Some other Martian features, known as Recurring Slope Lineae (RSL), have also been spotted by MRO which did not seem associated with liquid. Researchers said if water does flow across the surface of present-day Mars from time to time, the planet would be a likelier bet to host life as we know it.

Mars Rover Curiosity is driving backwards to prove it can be done if needed.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover caught its own shadow in this image taken just after completing a backward drive of 329 feet (100.3 meters) on the 547th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Feb. 18, 2014). NASA/JPL-Caltech

The 1-ton Curiosity rover covered 329 feet (100 meters) in reverse on Tuesday (Feb. 18). The maneuver — carried out over relatively smooth and benign ground — was designed to test out a strategy for reducing wear on the robot's six metal wheels, which have accumulated dings and holes at an increasing rate over the last few months, NASA officials said."We wanted to have backwards driving in our validated toolkit because there will be parts of our route that will be more challenging," Curiosity project manager Jim Erickson, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement.