Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known
Founder: Joseph Barone
Contributors: crookedindifference, bumerangue, propagandery, rocketmagic, rostenbach
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Why So Curious?
Britney Spears Tweets at Mars Rover, Curiosity Prefers Anthrax
A couple of days ago, Britney Spears tweeted at Curiosity — NASA’s radioisotope-powered Martian space rover — “So @MarsCuriosity… does Mars look the same as it did in 2000?” She then linked to her video for “Oops!… I Did It Again,” which takes place on, of course, Mars. The $2.5 billion piece of electronics was actually kind enough to reply, “Hey Brit Brit. Mars is still looking good. Maybe someday an astronaut will bring me a gift, too. Drill bits crossed ;).” Adorable! But the rover might not be as keen on “Brit Brit” as it lets on.
As revealed in an AMA session with the “engineers and scientists on the Mars Curiosity Rover Mission” here (via Business Insider), the rover listens to a variety of classic rock and metal (even Anthrax), but no Britney Spears. Apparently, the scientists operating the rover like to send it themed wake-up songs, which have ranged from the Beatles to showtunes to Wagner. Check out the full Martian soundtrack below.
Sol 2: The Beatles, “Good Morning Good Morning”
Sol 3: Singin’ in the Rain, “Good Morning”
Sol 5: Richard Wagner, “The Ride of the Valkyries,” and the R10 [software upgrade] victory song: Theme From “Mission: Impossible”
Sol 6: Anthrax’s “Got the Time” and 30 Seconds to Mars’ “Echelon”
Sol 7: The Doors, “Break on Through”, and George Harrison’s “Got My Mind Set on You”
Sol 8: John Williams, Star Wars Theme
Sol 9: Simon and Garfunkel, “Wake Up Little Susie”
Sol 10: Frank Sinatra, “Come Fly With Me”
Mars Greely Haven 360º panorama
By Opportunity rover.
Touchdown: “Mars Rover Landing,” is an immersive experience for the Xbox 360 home entertainment console that allows users to take control of their own spacecraft and face the extreme challenges of landing a rover on Mars.
Source: Our Solar System Facebook page.
Why NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover Landing Will Be Seven Minutes of Absolute Terror
On August 5, NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover will touch down on the surface of the Red Planet. Or that’s what we all hope, because it will be the craziest landing in the history of space exploration.
Endeavour crater on Mars by the Opportunity rover.
Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Animation
This 11-minute animation depicts key events of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, which will launch in late 2011 and land a rover, Curiosity, on Mars in August 2012.
Opportunity rover on Mars by NASA.
Mars Science Laboratory + Curiosity Rover: Interview with NASA JPL's Ashwin Vasavada
This week, Boing Boing visited NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a peek inside the clean room where NASA’s next Mars rover, Curiosity, and other components of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft (MSL) have been built for launch in late 2011 from Florida. Our big photo gallery with first-ever media access for “hands-on” images is here. Spacecraft assembly and testing specialists showed Boing Boing the rover and the other spacecraft components, including the descent stage “sky crane.” Shipment from the clean room to Florida is scheduled to begin within the next two months, with launch scheduled for late 2011 and landing on Mars in mid-2012.
New Mars Missions to Focus on Search for Life
After more than four decades of humans sending robotic missions to the Red Planet, Mars science is entering a new phase, coinciding with the launch of NASA’s Curiosity rover planned for later this year, according to experts who spoke at a panel discussion last week.
“We are going to make this transition from following the water to seeking signs of life,” Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA, told the audience at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Above, an artist’s concept illustrates what the Mars rover Curiosity will look like on the Red Planet.
NASA’s Next Mars Rover to Zap Rocks With Laser
A rock-zapping laser instrument on NASA’s next Mars rover has roots in a demonstration that Roger Wiens saw 13 years ago in a colleague’s room at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on the rover Curiosity can hit rocks with a laser powerful enough to excite a pinhead-size spot into a glowing, ionized gas. ChemCam then observes the flash through a telescope and analyzes the spectrum of light to identify the chemical elements in the target.
Mars Rover to Celebrate New Year’s Eve at Big Crater
NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has its plans for New Year’s Eve all sorted out — it will be poking around a football-field-size crater called Santa Maria.
Opportunity made it to Santa Maria, which is about 295 feet (90 meters) wide, on Dec. 16. It will spend a few more weeks examining rocks exposed at the crater, checking out minerals that likely formed in the presence of water billions of years ago, researchers said.
Mars Movie: I’m Dreaming of a Blue Sunset
This stunning video of a Martian sunset was captured by the Mars Rover Opportunity. Although most movies code the Martian color scheme as red, the sunset shines blue. Find out why.
NASA Spacecraft Provides Travel Tips for Mars Rover
NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover is getting important tips from an orbiting spacecraft as it explores areas that might hold clues about past Martian environments.
Researchers are using a mineral-mapping instrument aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to help the rover investigate a large ancient crater called Endeavour. The orbiter’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) is providing maps of minerals at Endeavour’s rim that are helping the team choose which area to explore first and where to go from there. As Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter orbits more than 241 kilometers high (150 miles), the CRISM instrument provides mapping information for mineral exposures on the surface as small as a tennis court.
