NASA Selects Scientists for Mars Rover Research Projects
Patches of Martian sandstone visible in the lower-left and upper portions of this March 9, 2016, view from the Mast Camera of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover have a knobbly texture due to nodules apparently more resistant to erosion than the host rock in which some are still embedded.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The nodule in the center of this image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows individual grains of sand and (on the left) laminations from the sandstone deposit in which the nodule formed.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
This view shows nodules exposed in sandstone that is part of the Stimson geological unit on Mount Sharp, Mars. The nodules can be seen to consist of grains of sand cemented together. Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) took this image on March 10, 2016.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA has selected 28 researchers as participating scientists for the Curiosity Mars rover mission, including six newcomers to the rover's science team.
The six new additions work in Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Tennessee. Eighty-nine scientists around the world submitted research proposals for using data from Curiosity and becoming participating scientists on the Mars Science Laboratory Project, which built and operates the rover. The 28 selected by NASA are part of a science team that also includes about 120 other members, mainly the principal investigators and co-investigators for the rover's 10 science instruments, plus about 320 science-team collaborators, such as the investigators’ associates and students.
An initial group of Mars Science Laboratory participating scientists was chosen before Curiosity's 2012 landing on Mars, and several of those scientists were selected again in the latest round. Participating scientists on the mission play active roles in the day-to-day science operations of Curiosity, involving heavy interaction with rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL manages the mission for NASA.
The six participating scientists who are new to the mission are: Barbara Cohen, of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama; Christopher Fedo of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Raina Gough of the University of Colorado, Boulder; Briony Horgan of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana; Christopher House of Pennsylvania State University, University Park; and Mark Salvatore of the University of Michigan, Dearborn.
Seven other newly selected participating scientists have participated in the Curiosity mission previously in other roles: Christopher Edwards, U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona; Abigail Fraeman, JPL; Scott Guzewich, Universities Space Research Association, Greenbelt, Maryland; Craig Hardgrove, Arizona State University, Tempe; Amy McAdam, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; Melissa Rice, Western Washington University, Bellingham; and Kathryn Stack Morgan, JPL.
This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from where it landed in 2012 to its location in early March 2016, approaching "Naukluft Plateau." As the rover continues up Mount Sharp, its science team has been refreshed by a second round of NASA participating-scientist selections.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
During Curiosity's prime mission, which was completed in 2014, the project met its main goal by finding evidence that ancient Mars offered environmental conditions with all the requirements for supporting microbial life, if any ever existed on Mars. In Curiosity's first extended mission, researchers are using the rover on the lower portion of a layered mountain to study how Mars' ancient environment changed from wet conditions favorable for microbial life to harsher, drier conditions. For more information about Curiosity, visit:
2016-068
Last Updated: March 11, 2016
Editor: Tony Greicius
Fifteen researchers who had been selected previously as Mars Science Laboratory participating scientists were selected again in this round: Raymond Arvidson, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri; John Bridges, University of Leicester, United Kingdom; Bethany Ehlmann, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; Jennifer Eigenbrode, NASA Goddard; Kenneth Farley, Caltech; John Grant, Smithsonian Institution, Washington; Jeffrey Johnson, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland; Richard Léveillé, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Kevin Lewis, Johns Hopkins University; Scott McLennan, State University of New York, Stony Brook; Ralph Milliken, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; John Moores, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; David Rubin, University of California, Santa Cruz; Mariek Schmidt, Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada; Rebecca Williams, Planetary Science Institute, Madison, Wisconsin.
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has begun an up-close investigation of dark sand dunes up to two stories tall. The dunes are on the rover's trek up the lower portion of a layered Martian mountain.
A view of the rippled surface of what's been informally named "High Dune" is online at:
A wheel track exposing material beneath the surface of a sand sheet nearby is at:
The dunes close to Curiosity's current location are part of "Bagnold Dunes," a band along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. Observations of this dune field from orbit show that edges of individual dunes move as much as 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year.
The rover's planned investigations include scooping a sample of the dune material for analysis with laboratory instruments inside Curiosity.
Curiosity has been working on Mars since early August 2012. It reached the base of Mount Sharp in 2014 after fruitfully investigating outcrops closer to its landing site and then trekking to the mountain. The main mission objective now is to examine successively higher layers of Mount Sharp.
For more information about Curiosity, visit:
Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov
2015-367
Last Updated: Dec. 10, 2015
Editor: Tony Greicius
The rippled surface of the first Martian sand dune ever studied up close fills this Nov. 27, 2015, view of "High Dune" from the Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity rover. This site is part of the "Bagnold Dunes" field of active dark dunes along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
A wheel track left by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover exposes underlying material in a shallow sand sheet in this Dec. 2, 2015, view from Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam). The site is close to a large sand dune of similarly dark sand grains.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
This view shows grains of sand where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover was driven into a shallow sand sheet near a large dune. The scene covers an area 1.3 inches wide, imaged by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager on Dec. 3, 2015. Sunlight is coming from the left.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
This Dec. 5, 2015, view of the undisturbed surface of a Martian sand dune called "High Dune" shows coarse grains remaining on the surface after wind removal of smaller particles. The image covers an area 1.4 inches across. It was taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
el dispensador dice:
arenas rojas,
ilusiones que se deshojan,
mejillas que se sonrojan,
recuerdos que pesan,
imágenes que no aflojan...
hay una memoria propia,
ecos de otras historias,
huellas de otras sombras,
hechos que nadie nombra...
algunos regresos asombran,
algunas partidas dan lugar a bromas,
algunos disfrutan el hueco que asoma,
hasta que la consciencia atropella la realidad que abruma,
y aquella otra esquivada memoria...
de pronto el karma ya no retumba,
se ha perdido la gracia,
y el destino no es cuna,
de repente la mañana está llena de brumas,
de repente la tormenta es arena sin Luna...
ten cuidado con lo que la segunda intención acuna...
lo que parece bueno en el horizonte que despunta,
puede volverse, así como así, en tu contra...
y aquello que prometían circunstancias que arruman,
terminan siendo abismos sin marca y sin runa.
MARZO 12, 2016.-
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