Mars Rover Update

Today I decided to post an update about the Mars rovers.

NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers, launched toward Mars on June 10 and July 7, 2003, in search of answers about the history of water on Mars. They landed on Mars January 3 and January 24 PST, 2004 (January 4 and January 25 UTC, 2004).

Primary among the mission's scientific goals have been to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The spacecraft landed on opposite sides of Mars that appear to have been affected by liquid water in the past.

After the airbag-protected landing the robots settled onto the surface and opened, rolled out to take panoramic images. These images gave scientists the information they needed to select promising geological targets that tell part of the story of water in Mars' past. Then, the rovers drove to those locations to perform on-site scientific investigations.

Initially the expectations were to have the robots function for a matter of months and drive  up to 40 meters (about 44 yards) per day, for a total of up to one 1 kilometer (about three-quarters of a mile). Both goals have been far exceeded! 

Spirit's traverse map Spirit's total odometry is unchanged at 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles).  More than 1,300 commands were radiated to Spirit as part of the recovery effort in an attempt to elicit a response from the rover. No communication has been received from Spirit since Sol 2210 (March 22, 2010). The project concluded the Spirit recovery efforts on May 25, 2011.

Opportunity's traverse map through Sol 2989
Total odometry as of Sol 2989 (June 20, 2012), is 21.43 miles (34,491.99 meters). 
Opportunity has been exploring the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.

With Mars Odyssey still working to recover from their safe mode event, Communication with the rover has been limited to just two UHF relay passes per week from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. NASA scientists have been successful in controlling this robot and making it still do some driving.

On June 12, 2012, the rover drove a little over 56 feet (17 meters) to the north, approaching the boundary between the Cape York geologic unit and the Meridiani plains. On June 20th Opportunity bumped just over 16 feet (5 meters) north to straddle the contact unit between Cape York and Meridiani, and position a candidate target within the work volume of the robotic arm. Opportunity also performed two atmospheric argon measurements on June 13 and June 18, 2012, using the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer.  The rover continues to benefit from solar array dust cleaning events, which have greatly increased the daily energy production. As of Sol 2989 (June 20, 2012), solar array energy production was 526 watt-hours.

The Mars Exploration Rovers act as robot geologists while they are on the surface of Mars. You can explore the various parts of the rover by clicking on the image below.

In some senses, the rovers´ parts are similar to what any living creature would need to keep it "alive" and able to explore.  The rovers each have:

A body: a structure that protects the rovers´ "vital organ.s"

Brains: computers to process information.

Temperature controls: internal heaters, a layer of insulation, and more.

A "neck and head": a mast for the cameras to give the rovers a human-scale view.

Eyes and other "senses": cameras and instruments that give the rovers information about their environment.

Arm: a way to extend its reach.

Wheels and "legs": parts for mobility.

Energy: batteries and solar panels.

Communications: antennas for "speaking" and "listening."

Rover Facts

• Cruise vehicle dimensions: 2.65 meters (8.7 feet) diameter, 1.6 meters (5.2 feet) tall Rover dimensions: 1.5 meter (4.9 feet) high by 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) wide by 1.6 meter (5.2 feet) long
• Weight: 1,062 kilograms (2,341 pounds) total at launch, consisting of 174-kilogram (384- pound) rover, 365-kilogram (805-pound) lander, 198-kilogram (436-pound) backshell and parachute, 90-kilogram (198-pound) heat shield and 183-kilogram (403-pound) cruise stage, plus 52 kilograms (115 pounds) of propellant
• Power: Solar panel and lithium-ion battery system providing 140 watts on Mars surface
• Science instruments: Panoramic cameras, miniature thermal emission spectrometer, Mössbauer spectrometer, alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, microscopic imager, rock abrasion tool, magnet arrays

Mission Facts

• Launch vehicle: Delta II 7925
• Launch of Spirit: June 10, 2003, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
• Launch of Opportunity:  July 7, 2003
• Earth-Mars distance at launch: 103 million kilometers (64 million miles)
• Earth-Mars distance on landing day: 170.2 million kilometers (105.7 million miles)
• One-way speed-of-light time Mars-to-Earth on landing day: 9.46 minutes
• Total distance traveled Earth to Mars (approximate): 487 million kilometers (303 million miles)
• Near-surface atmospheric temperature at landing site: -100 C (-148 F) to 0 C (32 F)
• Primary mission: 90 Mars days, or "sols" (equivalent to 92 Earth days)
• Cost: Approximately $820 million total, consisting approximately of $645 million spacecraft development and science instruments; $100 million launch; $75 million mission operations and science processing

Here are a series of photos of the mission.  The photo below is the first picture of earth ever taken from another planet.

Here is a picture of Mars.

Some of the Rover photos....

In this photo, the sun is sinking just below the rim of Gusev Crater. It appears about 2/3 the size of the sun as seen from Earth during sunset, since Mars is about 48 million miles farther away from the sun.

Evening Break Wall Walk

Last night I attempted to have a beach fire east of town with a friend visiting from out of town. We knew that with warm temperatures and a south wind that the potential for stable flies was high. We were correct. The flies were horrible. Instead we headed to Sable Lake and cooked out at the overlook where the stiff south breeze kept the bugs away.

I decided to look on the internet to learn more about these annoying insects.

Here is the information published by the National Park Service about bitint insects in the Pictured Rocks Natonal Lakeshore area.

What's Biting You?
An outdoor adventure at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is an exhilarating experience but, at certain times of the year, our visitors can be distracted by the smallest inhabitants of the north woods: the biting flies.

Earliest to appear on the scene in mid-spring are the mosquitoes and black flies. The female mosquito, as with most biting flies, is the one doing the biting. She requires a blood meal in order to get enough protein for her eggs to develop properly. Most male biting flies feed on pollen or nectar from flowers. Male mosquitoes have feathery antennae and live about one week. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in calm or standing water, and the larvae are aquatic. Many diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes, and it is best to avoid their bites as much as possible.

Black fly larvae are also aquatic, but prefer to live in running water like streams or rivers. Black fly larvae attach themselves to rocks in the stream by a suction cup on their tail end, and filter out food particles from the water with their feathery fan-like structures around their mouths. After pupation, the adult black fly rides on a bubble of air to the waters surface and flies out of the water. The adult females are vicious biters, but luckily, North American black flies do not transmit disease to humans. Black fly attacks on people, cattle, horses and pigs tend to be concentrated around the ears and head. In addition to the blood loss, effects of the insect saliva can cause a variety of problems, with swelling and intense skin irritation most common.

In the streams black fly larvae attach themselves to rocks or other submerged materials and feed on organic particles they filter from the passing waters. Trailing vegetation or rotted aquatic plants also are attractive to black flies, providing sites for the larvae to attach for feeding. Breeding may also occur in rivulets formed by the flooding of fields.

The black fly life cycle can be rapid, taking about three weeks from egg laying to maturation of the adult. Only the female bites, the blood meal being used to provide protein for egg maturation. Adults live about two weeks. Populations can grow very rapidly. Two to four generations may be produced annually. Individual females may lay several hundred eggs.

Seldom seen or heard but sometimes felt is the No-See-Um, also called Punkies or Biting Midges. No-See-Ums resemble miniature, short-legged mosquitoes, and are usually less than 3 millimeters long. Only females of a few species bite humans. The majority bite other insects or eat nectar, but they also do bite humans. Their larvae are mostly aquatic and are scavengers or predators. No-See-Ums are less common than other biting flies in Pictured Rocks. At times they can have concentrated large populations, but they usually only last a day or so.

The stable fly is the biting fly at the Pictured Rocks beaches in mid to late summer. It is a relative of the house fly, but it bites. The stable fly is a blood-feeding pest known to attack almost any kind of warm-blooded animal. Its body is grey, with a distinctive checkerboard pattern on the abdomen. It is commonly referred to as the 'beach fly or black fly' and prefers to bite its victim's legs and ankles. Both the male and female stable fly bite, but they also feed on pollen. Unlike the other biting flies, the larvae of the stable fly are terrestrial, and live in and eat decaying vegetation. Stable flies are not known to transmit disease in humans, but are annoying enough to drive people away from beaches when they are numerous. It looks like the common house fly except that its mouthparts are adapted for biting and sucking blood. The stable fly feeds by inserting its proboscis (beak) through the skin and then sucking blood from its host. Females can live up to a month and may require several blood meals during this period in order to continue laying eggs. It is a daytime feeder, with peak biting occurring during the early morning and late afternoon.  

It is always best to play it safe and avoid being bitten by biting flies. Use protective clothing or insect repellant, and carry an allergy medicine or anti-histamine in case of an allergic reaction to a bite.

Here are a few photos I took out on the break wall last night. Unfortunately, clouds obscurred the sunset.

Beach Scenes and Changes in Grand Marais

Yesterday morning I conducted an agate rockhounding class for two grandsons of part-time Grand Marais residents. Drew and Evan seemed to enjoy the class.

Another family was enjoying the beach...

The comprehensive refurbishing of the Pickel Barrel is now done.  For those of you who visit Grand Marais, you are probably aware that four years ago another contracter supposedly refurbished the historic structure, but did not do it correctly.  So the Grand Marais Historical Society hired master craftsmen to try to repair and save the structure.  They built a wider top to deflect the rain, replaced rotten wood, and made other repairs.  The next tast will be to repaint the building.

The township has torn down the old fire/ambulance barn.  A few years ago voters turned down a milliage to build a new facility.  However, the township proposed and the voters passed an "operations" milliage that did not clearly state its purpose.  The funds from this tax increase is being used to build a new facility.

A video taken on the beach yesterday....



Agates Close Up, Bay Update, and More

I decided to pull out my USB microscope camera and play with a few rocks. Wow. Some of the detail is incredible. In fact I had a hard time narrowing it down so I just included  few extra photos.

This first photo is of one of the eyes in the museum's original mascot agate that was on the back cover of the first agate book, Understanding and Finding Agates.



And how about that Ocean Jasper ...







Here are some close ups of the Lake Superior moss agate that a found a few Mother's Days back...



Does the agate pocket look like Lake Superior?







Here are a couple of other shots of another moss agate ...





The next two shots are of a beach fulgerite.  This fulgerite formed when lightning hit a piece of driftwood on the beach east of Grand Marais.  The energy from the lightning bolt penetrates into the sand below the log and fuses it into instant rock.





Perhaps my favorite in this group are of the chalcedony roses that I picked up in the desert of Arizona this past January.











Drusy quartz with mineral staining...



An update of the bay showing that the break wall is growing.  However, the local TV news announced that the Army Corp of Engineers has halted the second bid to complete the project.  I just tried to find the bid listing on the Army Corp web page.  I did not see it.  Thus, I am not sure what happens to the project since the Army Corps also is withholding their $1.8 million.







Here is a map showing the difference between the original break wall and the location of the new break wall.

Check out these bike helmets.  Brothers Aiden and Jacob are showing them off.