MAVEN Orbital Science, Post Siding Spring |
MAVEN Orbital Science, Post Siding Spring |
Feb 19 2015, 09:19 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 866 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Santa Cruz, CA Member No.: 196 |
such a quiet mission, finally an update was released today: NASA’s MAVEN Spacecraft Completes First Deep Dip Campaign
and another item i didnt notice previously: NASA’s MAVEN Mission Identifies Links in Chain Leading to Atmospheric Loss Edit: doh!! wrong thread.. ADMIN: Moved to start a new topic of Orbital Science from the start of the deep dip campaign. |
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Mar 18 2015, 04:48 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 206 Joined: 14-April 06 From: Seattle, WA Member No.: 745 |
MAVEN has observed aurora and the mysterious dust cloud, and apparently the LPW has seen it since the beginning of operations.
http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/march/nasa-...mars/index.html MAVEN is on the case. |
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Mar 18 2015, 05:30 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
Well... if dust is observably being sputtered off of Mars, as these observations suggest, that sort of explains where the red dust covering parts of Phobos and Deimos came from. I had always thought that dust plumes from impacts, even over billions of years, didn't seem like they would provide enough material to cause the pigmentation on the moons we see today. If these solar-wind-generated sputtered air-and-dust plumes have been happening for millennia, and if some fraction of the plumes are accelerated by the solar wind interactions out to the distance of the moons, we then have a process for the material transfer that makes more sense, and explains what we see on the moons.
Also, this shows rather strongly how solar wind interactions with the upper atmosphere could well have sputtered off a relatively thick Martian atmosphere over billions of years, doesn't it? Consider that a lot more gas molecules would get accelerated to escape velocity by such interactions than dust particles, and that we can see how many dust particles have been boosted (enough to account for the red coloration of the moons), and you get a good gut-level appreciation of the long-term effectiveness of the solar wind's sputtering capabilities. -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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Mar 18 2015, 05:46 PM
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#4
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2113 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
Is this the same cloud detected from Earth based observations, announced last month?
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Mar 19 2015, 08:40 AM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
I don't think so. those were transient water and CO2 clouds, this is a (permanent? ) dust cloud
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Aug 31 2015, 08:02 PM
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#6
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
MAVEN data through May 15, 2015 are now available to the public. I'm not sure what's there; I'm curious what there is to play with from IUVS, which produced pictures like these.
-------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Nov 4 2015, 08:58 PM
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#7
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Member Group: Members Posts: 507 Joined: 10-September 08 Member No.: 4338 |
Press conference Thursday being reported by the Space media.
http://www.space.com/31000-mars-atmosphere...ts-preview.html |
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Nov 5 2015, 07:35 PM
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#8
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 51 Joined: 31-December 10 From: Earth Member No.: 5589 |
New results at http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/2015/1...ian-atmosphere/.
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Nov 5 2015, 08:54 PM
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#9
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Member Group: Members Posts: 507 Joined: 10-September 08 Member No.: 4338 |
I wonder if it is possible that the high-altitude dust is a temporary phenomenon resulting from the comet Siding Spring? The Science paper seems silent on this.
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Nov 6 2015, 07:25 PM
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#10
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
This morning, I was reading about how ice cores have been used to track the varying abundance of components of Earth's atmosphere, and was wondering about the viability of a mission to do this on Mars. There's plenty of ice in the high latitudes, and it must be chronologically sorted, although the absolute scale might be hard to work out, and highly nonlinear. But it seems like a potentially interesting mission. Tracking the isotopes in H2O and CO2 would be a couple of the more interesting investigations.
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Nov 6 2015, 08:44 PM
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#11
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
I wonder if it is possible that the high-altitude dust is a temporary phenomenon resulting from the comet Siding Spring? The Science paper seems silent on this. There was a question related to this at the press briefing, and the answer was that comets make only a minor contribution to the high-altitude dust; that interplanetary dust particles are the major contributor. -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Oct 17 2016, 08:25 PM
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#12
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1887 Joined: 20-November 04 From: Iowa Member No.: 110 |
MAVEN Gives Unprecedented Ultraviolet View of Mars
http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/2016/1...t-view-of-mars/ Short movie |
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Dec 9 2016, 12:06 AM
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#13
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10256 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
Here is an image of Phobos from Maven. The source is this press release from many months ago - I just noticed it had not been noted here.
http://mars.nasa.gov/news/whatsnew/index.c...amp;NewsID=1893 I just added some different processing of my own. I have inverted it from the published format because I think it is the northern hemisphere which is illuminated (Phobos having seasons just like those of Mars). The background is UV photons scattered by the gas molecules escaping from Mars. Phil EDIT: I have found that this image should be flipped left-right. The northern hemisphere is illuminated, and this view is from quite far south with the upper limb near the equator at about 90 degrees east. -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PDF: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Dec 9 2016, 05:47 AM
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#14
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8789 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Great catch!
I never get tired of images of Phobos or Deimos with Mars in the background in some way. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Mar 4 2017, 12:10 AM
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#15
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2113 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6764
Yikes, this would've been a tad more embarrassing than Mars Climate Orbiter! Close flyby to come on the 6th... |
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