Mysteries of Mars

Curiosity"s smaller cousin has been trundling around on the Red Planet now for almost a decade.Opportunity first arrived on Mars a few weeks after its twin "Spirit" back in January 2004. Despite its mission being expected to last no more than 3 months, Opportunity is now about to enter its 10th year of operation on Mars. Spirit, by contrast, became immobile in 2009 and allcommunications with it ceased in 2010.Through dust storms and freezing winters, Opportunity has traveled more than 22 miles and returned over 100,000 photographs during its adventures.

As things stand there is no reason to believe that it won"t continue to operate for several more years to come. Even though it’s a federal holiday on Monday, at least one government employee will still be working: the NASA roverOpportunity. The little robot, about to start its 10th year of exploring on Mars.  

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Scientists believe that the components for life have been present on Mars for millions of years.The revelation has come from new data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Express spacecrafts pertaining to materials present within a large crater on the planet"s surface. Rocks and materials thrown up by the impact appear to contain minerals that are believed to have been affected by water, a discovery that suggests life couldhave existed below the Martian surface.""All the ingredients were there for life, but only small single-cell organisms could have survived in those conditions," said study lead author Dr Joseph Michalski.

"But I would now be more surprised if there was never any life on Mars, than I would be if we did one day discover that simple life lived in that environment." Research published in the journal "Nature Geoscience" suggests that the components required to sustain simplemicroorganisms could have been present on Mars for much of its history.  

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NASA"s car-sized Mars rover will soon be trying out its on-board drilling tool for the first time.The rover is approaching a flat rock with pale veins that scientists believe could hold vital clues to the planet"s past. The drill is the last of Curiosity"s tools to be tried out on Mars and potentially one of the most hazardous. If all goes well however the drill will produce powder from the target rock thatwill be placed inside the rover"s on-board science laboratory for closer examination and study."Drilling into a rock to collect a sample will be this mission"s most challenging activity since the landing.

It has never been done on Mars," said project manager Richard Cook. "The drill hardware interacts energetically with Martian material we don"t control. We won"t be surprised if some steps in the process don"t go exactly as planned the first time through." NASA"s Mars rover Curiosity is driving toward a flat rock with pale veins that may hold clues to a wet history on the Red Planet.  

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An experiment designed to simulate the conditions of a long-haul Mars trip has revealed several problems.The Mars500 project saw 6 individuals spend more than 17 months locked within a special simulated spacecraft with the work cycle and responsibilities typical of a potential manned mission to Mars. Results from the experiment have revealed that such a mission would be far tougher on the crew than conventional trips in to spaceand that isolation and sleep deprivation represented key issues that the astronauts would need to be able to cope with on a long voyage."Two crew members coped really well with this prolonged confinement and isolation," said Professor Mathias Basner who was involved in the sleep study.

"But four of them had a problem where you would think you don"t want to send someone like this on the mission or if you do, you want to know that this subject is vulnerable and train him or herproperly." Some of the first results from a simulation of a mission to Mars show that some of the crew experienced isolation and mild depression.  

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