{"id":39425,"date":"2014-12-30T01:11:47","date_gmt":"2014-12-29T17:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/curiosity-confirms-organics-on-mars-opportunitys-10-year-anniversary\/"},"modified":"2014-12-30T01:11:47","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T17:11:47","slug":"curiosity-confirms-organics-on-mars-opportunitys-10-year-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/curiosity-confirms-organics-on-mars-opportunitys-10-year-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Curiosity confirms organics on Mars; Opportunity\u2019s 10 year anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mars dominated planetary research headlines in 2014 as an international fleet of orbiters and NASA\u2019s two rovers returned unparalleled scientific research on the Red Planet. In 2014, scientists marked Opportunity\u2019s 10-year anniversary on Mars, watched the near miss of comet Siding Spring, and announced Curiosity\u2019s groundbreaking confirmation of the presence of organics on the surface Mars.<\/p>\n

Opportunity \u2013 10 years and counting<\/p>\n

On 25 January 2004, the Opportunity rover entered the Martian atmosphere, descended on parachute, and then air-bag-dropped onto the surface of Mars, rolling into an impact crater on an otherwise flat plain.<\/p>\n

It was the start of a 90 Martian day mission.<\/p>\n

Ten years later and 117 months after the mission was supposed to end, NASA and the international space community celebrated the Opportunity\u2019s continued operations and success on the surface of Mars.<\/p>\n

\"\"In the 10 years that Opportunity has worked on the surface of Mars, her story and the story of her operators has been one of success in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.<\/p>\n

Opportunity has not only surpassed all wildly extreme estimates regarding her longevity, but she has also survived five harsh Martian winters, come through an almost certain death when dust storms enveloped the Red Planet in 2007 (which prevented much needed sunlight from reaching her dirty and dust-covered solar panels).<\/p>\n

Opportunity has also managed to get stuck in and then be removed from a perilous sand dune that almost caused her permanent immobility in June 2005. She has circumnavigated, entered, and then backed out of Endeavour crater over a two-year period.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the rover has been the fortunate recipient of relatively regular wind cleanings of her solar panels \u2013 allowing sunlight to continue to power her systems at 96 percent of maximum as of 13 May 2014 (up from 46 percent of maximum on 5 December 2013).<\/p>\n

\"\"In fact, that is exactly how Opportunity began 2014, with a wind-cleaning event of her solar panels on 1 January 2014.<\/p>\n

Operating on the ridge of Endeavour crater to tilt herself toward the Sun for optimal power acquisition in the Martian winter, Opportunity marked its 10th anniversary on the Red Planet, and NASA used that anniversary to announce a new mission objective for Opportunity and its cousin rover, Curiosity.<\/p>\n

On 24 January 2014, NASA announced that all ongoing studies on Mars by the two rovers would be geared toward the search for evidence of ancient life in the form of autotrophic (organisms that use light energy or inorganic chemical reactions to produce complex organic compounds from simple substances present in their surroundings), chemotrophic (organisms that obtain energy by the oxidation of electron donors in their environments), or chemolithoautotrophic (organisms capable of using inorganic reduced compounds as a source of energy) microorganisms.<\/p>\n

The rovers would also now actively search for ancient water flows or deposits and organic carbon on the surface of the Red Planet.<\/p>\n

*Click here for more Mars Opportunity Articles*<\/p>\n

For Opportunity, just as she began the year, the rover was the recipient of two major solar panel cleaning events in March. Opportunity started the year producing 371 Watt-hours of energy per day. By 1 April, Watt-hours production had increased to 661.<\/p>\n

A further cleaning event coupled with the gradual transition away from winter (longer sunlight hours), brought total Watt-hour production to 764 Watt-hours per day by 27 May 2014.<\/p>\n

As winter subsided and power generation increased, Opportunity continued roving around the western edge of Endeavour crater.<\/p>\n

\"\"The more Opportunity moved, the closer the rover moved toward a record-setting milestone \u2013 a record achieved on 27 July 2014.<\/p>\n

Following a day\u2019s drive of 157 feet on 27 July, Opportunity\u2019s total distance driven on the surface of Mars reached 40.25 kilometers (25.01 miles).<\/p>\n

With that odometer reading confirmed and verified by an international team, Opportunity became the record holder for longest distance driven on a world other than Earth.<\/p>\n

The U.S.S.R.\u2019s Lunokhod 2 rover had previously held this record from its four-month lunar mission in 1973.<\/p>\n

While initial estimates from the Lunokhod 2 mission, obtained by counting wheel rotation of the rover, reveled a distance traveled of 37 km (23 miles), some debate about the total distance driven by Lunokhod 2 arose following the arrival of NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in lunar orbit in June 2009.<\/p>\n

\"2014-12-29Lunar surface images from NASA\u2019s LRO led scientists at Moscow State University to reassess the distance and assign a total odometer reading of 42.1-42.2 km (26.2 miles) to Lunokhod 2.<\/p>\n

This led to an international effort to determine the total distance for Lunokhod 2 and to determine an accurate way of determining comparable and consistent methods for odometer readings of Lunokhod 2 and Opportunity.<\/p>\n

Once those methods were determined, Lunokhod 2\u2019s final odometer reading was agreed to: 39 km (24 km).<\/p>\n

Thus, on 27 July 2014, when Opportunity\u2019s odometer struck 40 km, the rover exceeded Lunokhod 2\u2019s record and became the vehicle to hold the longest off-world driving record.<\/p>\n

Marking the occasion, Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas, of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory stated, \u201cOpportunity has driven farther than any other wheeled vehicle on another world.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cThis is so remarkable considering Opportunity was intended to drive about one kilometer and was never designed for distance. But what is really important is not how many miles the rover has racked up, but how much exploration and discovery we have accomplished over that distance.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recognition of Opportunity\u2019s achievement, and of the science that Lunokhod 2 obtained in 1973, NASA\u2019s Opportunity team named a nearby 20-foot diameter crater (located on the outer slope on the rim of Endeavour crater) Lunokhod 2.<\/p>\n

As the rover team took time to mark this driving achievement, they also continued to set their sights on what Opportunity still had to accomplish in the realm of science and driving.<\/p>\n

As the Martian winter subsided, Opportunity\u2019s team begun directing the rover toward her next exploration target: Marathon Valley.<\/p>\n

\"2014-12-29The name of the Valley stems from the cumulative driving distance it will take Opportunity to reach this location: 26.2 miles \u2013 the distance of a marathon.<\/p>\n

With her new target destination confirmed, Opportunity continued her leisurely rover toward Marathon Valley throughout August.<\/p>\n

This journey was interrupted 12 times, however, by computer resets (each taking one to two days from which to recover).<\/p>\n

With this increase in computer resets, Opportunity\u2019s team began steps to have the rover reformat its flash memory.<\/p>\n

A similar reformat had been preformed on Opportunity\u2019s twin rover, Spirit, in 2009 following a series of amnesia events on that rover.<\/p>\n

Opportunity successfully completed her flash memory reformat on 4 September 2014 (Sol 3,773). It was the first flash memory reformat for Opportunity in her 10.5 years on Mars.<\/p>\n

\"2014-12-29With her memory fixed, Opportunity resumed her trek toward Marathon Valley before stopping in mid-October to prepare for ground-based observations of Comet Siding Spring\u2019s close flyby of Mars.<\/p>\n

On 19 October, Siding Spring made its closet approach to Mars at a distance of just 139,300 km (86,500 miles).<\/p>\n

While NASA\u2019s, ESA\u2019s, and India\u2019s fleet of orbiters at Mars (the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, MAVEN, Mars Express, and MOM) observed the close passage of the comet and then took shelter behind the planet when Mars passed through Siding Spring\u2019s tail and ejecta plume just hours after close encounter, Opportunity, as well as Curiosity, continued performing scientific observations of the flyby to determine any ground effects from the encounter.<\/p>\n

At the time of closest approach, sunrise was eminent at Opportunity\u2019s location, and the sky had begun to brighten. Nonetheless, Opportunity did capture several photos of Siding Spring using its panoramic camera.<\/p>\n

\"2014-12-29Speaking about the flyby, Opportunity science team member Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University said, \u201cIt\u2019s excitingly fortunate that this comet came so close to Mars to give us a chance to study it with the instruments we\u2019re using to study Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe views from Mars rovers, in particular, give us a human perspective because [the rovers\u2019 cameras] are about as sensitive to light as our eyes would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following this event, Opportunity and its teams continued the trek toward Marathon Valley.<\/p>\n

However, the computer resets and amnesia events that plagued the rover in August \u2013 and that were supposed to be fixed by the 4 September computer reformat of the flash memory \u2013 returned in a persistent fashion.<\/p>\n

During the first week of December, Opportunity\u2019s team once again reformatted the rover\u2019s memory. It was hoped, again, that this would solve the issue, but it did not.<\/p>\n

\"\"With the failure of the reformat, Opportunity\u2019s team decided to take the step of shifting all working modes of the rover away from any use of flash data-storage systems.<\/p>\n

As NASA reported on 11 December, flash memory retains information even when power is shut off during the rover\u2019s overnight power-conserving \u201csleep\u201d time. In the no-flash mode, the rover can continue normal operations of science observations and driving, but it cannot store data during the overnight sleep.<\/p>\n

Therefore, all data gathered each Martian day is stored in volatile memory, which on Opportunity is random-access memory, or RAM. The data stored in volatile memory is then relayed Earthward at the end of Opportunity\u2019s day so that it is not lost when the rover goes to sleep at night.<\/p>\n

Currently, Opportunity\u2019s team is developing a set of commands to restore usability of the flash memory through an extensive overhaul that is more structured and intrusive than just reformatting.<\/p>\n

While this might sound serious, NASA has said that the incidents of Opportunity\u2019s flash memory not accepting data for storage have occurred in only one of the seven banks of flash microchip circuitry on the rover.<\/p>\n

\"Z4\"Thus, the team plans to send commands for the rover to avoid that entire bank while still making use of the six working banks of flash microchip circuitry.<\/p>\n

In the small chance that this doesn\u2019t work, Opportunity can continue functioning, and the mission can continue in a relatively uninterrupted fashion, using the current configuration \u2013 using RAM with daily downloads of data to Earth before sleep.<\/p>\n

As Opportunity prepares to enter 2015 and the start of its 11th operational year on Mars, the rover is expected to reach Marathon Valley in early 2015.<\/p>\n

Once the 11 year-old rover arrives at Marathon Valley, it will begin investigating clay mineral deposits that have been detected by NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbit.<\/p>\n

Curiosity: Confirmation of organic matter on Mars<\/p>\n

For Curiosity, 2014 proved to be another banner year at the Red Planet, with the rover observing two asteroids, the Transit of Mercury, the passage of comet Siding Spring, and participating in the discovery of the first confirmation of organic matter, Martian organics, on the surface of Mars.<\/p>\n

As the year began, Curiosity\u2019s team was busy collecting photographs and information regarding the roving science laboratory\u2019s surrounding terrain in an effort to find a smoother driving route for Curiosity.<\/p>\n

\"2014-12-29Specifically, the teams were trying to find a more favorable route that would avoid terrain with sharp rocks considered likely to poke holes in the rover\u2019s aluminum wheels.<\/p>\n

In the final three months of 2013, punctures and rips on Curiosity\u2019s aluminum wheels from interactions with sharp rocks in Gale crater had accelerated \u2013 leaving the rover team to drive Curiosity with added precautions and thorough and frequent checks of the condition of the rover\u2019s wheels.<\/p>\n

Normally, the decision to preserve the integrity of the wheels on Curiosity would be a priority. However, in this case, the need to preserve Curiosity\u2019s wheels on a more favorable driving path came up against the obstacle of sand dunes.<\/p>\n

In fact, the only way to reach the more favorable driving route identified by Curiosity\u2019s team was to take the rover over a sand dune.<\/p>\n

\"2014-12-29Whenever Curiosity traverses a sand dune, there is always the possibility that the rover could become mired in the sand. Thus, accurately understanding the surrounding terrain and the composition of the sand dune was critical in making the decision of whether or not to send Curiosity over the dune.<\/p>\n

The dune in question was about 3 feet high and spanned the gap of two scarps that marked the gateway to the southwestern route over relatively smooth ground.<\/p>\n

As discussions about whether or not to send Curiosity over the dune took place, the rover, on 31 January, the 529th Martian day of Curiosity\u2019s tenure on Mars, took its first-ever photographs of the Earth from Mars.<\/p>\n

\"2014-12-29The photograph was captured 80 minutes after sunset on 31 January while Earth and its moon were approximately 99 million miles (160 million km) from Mars.<\/p>\n

The photograph\u2019s resolution was high enough to capture not only Earth as the brightest point of light in the Martian twilight sky, but also a clearly visible moon as well.<\/p>\n

After this photograph was taken, and after weeks of examination of the surrounding terrain, the decision was made to drive Curiosity over the sand dune, which the rover successfully completed without incident on 6 February.<\/p>\n

By mid February, with Curiosity on smooth terrain, the Rover team took the opportunity to test the reverse drive feasibility of the rover.<\/p>\n

Reverse driving of Curiosity is designed to help lessen damage to the rover\u2019s wheels when driven over terrain studded with sharp rocks.<\/p>\n

\"2014-12-29According to Curiosity Project Manager Jim Erickson of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, \u201cWe wanted to have backwards driving in our validated toolkit because there will be parts of our route that will be more challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

With reverse driving validated on Curiosity, the rover continued toward its science waypoint destination approximately two-thirds of a mile (1.1 km) ahead of the rover\u2019s location by mid-February.<\/p>\n

This waypoint destination, known as the Kimberly, was chosen for the geological region where four types of terrain with different rock textures intersect.<\/p>\n

By the end of March, Curiosity was close enough to the Kimberly to observe some of the characteristics of the region in greater detail than could be discerned based on orbital images.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe orbital images didn\u2019t tell us what those rocks are, but now that Curiosity is getting closer, we\u2019re seeing a preview,\u201d said Curiosity Deputy Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe contrasting textures and durabilities of sandstones in this area are fascinating. While superficially similar, the rocks likely formed and evolved quite differently from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2014-06-24At the same time that Curiosity began distance observations of its waypoint science destination, mission controllers announced that the more desirable and smooth route the rover had been on since February was bearing fruit toward lessening the damage to Curiosity\u2019s wheels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wheel damage rate appears to have leveled off thanks to a combination of route selection and careful driving,\u201d said JPL\u2019s Richard Rainen, mechanical engineering team leader for Curiosity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re optimistic that we\u2019re doing OK now, though we know there will be challenging terrain to cross in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

In total, the rate of appearance of new holes on the rover\u2019s wheels had dropped to less than one-tenth that of a few months prior when the rover was on more rockier terrain.<\/p>\n

\"2014-12-29With this good news in hand, Curiosity arrived at its waypoint science destination of the Kimberly on 2 April 2014.<\/p>\n

Having traveled a total of 3.8 miles (6.1 km) since landing inside Gale Crater in August 2012, Curiosity was now at its second prominent science destination (the first being Yellowknife Bay \u2013 where Curiosity had discovered the signature of an ancient lakebed environment providing chemical ingredients and energy necessary for life).<\/p>\n

For the Kimberly, \u201cThis is the spot on the map we\u2019ve been headed for, on a little rise that gives us a great view for context imaging of the outcrops at the Kimberley,\u201d said Melissa Rice of the California Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n

See Also<\/h4>\n