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Muck;2231056; said:
I've seen the LEGO rover. I meant something remote control with a working mechanical arm that kids could drive around the back yard and pick up rocks (or dog poop) and drop them into a sample collector.

Shit, Muck. Can't I just be happy about the LEGO one for a day before you shit all over it?
 
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On Sol 84 (Oct. 31, 2012), the Curiosity rover used the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to capture the set of thumbnail images stitched together to create this full-color self-portrait.

This self-portrait documents the state of the rover and allows mission engineers to track changes over time, such as dust accumulation and wheel wear. Due to its location on the end of the robotic arm, only MAHLI is able to image some parts of the rover, including port-side wheels.

The mosaic shows the rover at "Rocknest," the spot in Gale Crater where the mission's first scoop sampling took place. Scoop scars can be seen in the regolith in front of the rover. A portion of Mount Sharp appears on the right side. Mountains in the background to the left are the northern wall of Gale Crater.

When the rover returns the full-resolution MAHLI frames of the scene, the team plans to generate a more detailed portrait of Curiosity in its Martian neighborhood.

You can download the HiRes version HERE.

When you zoom in on the full version there are some amazing details.

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NASA's InSight lander has touched down on Mars

FW_Odm5R


After seven months of traveling through space, the NASA InSight mission has landed on Mars. A few minutes after landing, InSight sent the official "beep" to NASA to signal that it was alive and well, including a photo of the Martian surface where it landed.

Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory exploded into celebratory applause and cheers after the touchdown was confirmed. The landing was watched around the world and even broadcast live on the Nasdaq Stock Market tower in New York City's Times Square.

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NASA celebrates the InSight landing on Mars.

"Today, we successfully landed on Mars for the eighth time in human history," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said. "InSight will study the interior of Mars and will teach us valuable science as we prepare to send astronauts to the Moon and later to Mars. This accomplishment represents the ingenuity of America and our international partners, and it serves as a testament to the dedication and perseverance of our team. The best of NASA is yet to come, and it is coming soon."

Entire article: https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/world/nasa-insight-mars-landing-today/index.html
 
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https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/mars-rover-opportunity-nasa-1

A Dust Storm Has Killed NASA’s Longest-Lived Mars Rover
The Opportunity rover landed on the red planet with its twin, Spirit, in 2004.

Dan Vergano
Posted on February 13, 2019, at 2:03 p.m. ET

NASA’s Opportunity rover, originally meant to survive for three months, was declared dead by space agency officials on Wednesday, killed by a massive dust storm after 14 years of roaming Mars.

"I declare the Opportunity mission as complete," said NASA's Thomas Zurbuchen at a briefing on the rover.

Opportunity landed on Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, rolling out of an airbag onto rusty dirt about three weeks after the arrival of its twin rover, Spirit. Each about the size of a golf cart, and costing a total of $820 million, the twin rovers jump-started a sagging space agency, triggered tears at mission control and visits to JPL from politicians, and sparked the public’s imagination of exploring the red planet.

Investigating craters and traces of waterborne rock beds, Opportunity lasted more than 5,000 Mars days, called “sols,” or about 5,200 Earth days, before its mission ended. The rovers roamed slowly — Opportunity had a top speed of 0.1 miles per hour, and covered just 28 miles in its lifetime — and uncovered past signs of watery geology in the walls of craters, pursuing a NASA plan to “follow the water” on the planet.

The rovers were solar-powered, and NASA never expected them to live through a Martian winter. They survived by parking on a tilt during winter months to direct more sunlight onto their solar panels. And surprisingly powerful Martian winds reliably cleared the panels of dust.

Spirit’s last communication with Earth came in 2010, after it became trapped in the Gusev crater. In June 2018, NASA announced that Opportunity had entered “sleep” mode after a massive dust storm had blotted out its sunlight, draining the rover’s batteries and sending it into a “low-power fault” status that required days to ride out.

Despite initial confidence the rover would ride out the storm, NASA officials reported in October that the rover had not revived to independently send a signal after the storm ended, initiating a campaign to sent a wake-up call to Opportunity. The last attempt came yesterday, leading to today’s declaration of the end of the mission.

"This is a hard day, and it is a harder day for me because I was there at the beginning," rover project manager John Callas of NASA's JPL, said at the briefing. He speculated that a heater had continued to run during the dust storm, wearing out the rover's battery power. "The time has come to say goodbye," said Callas. "We've done phenomenal things."

Cont'd ...
 
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