194,687 research outputs found
Mars climate engineering using orbiting solar reflectors
No full textThe manned mission is seen as a first step towards a Mars surface exploration base-station and, later, establishing permanent settlement. The location and use of Mars's natural resources is vital to enable cost-effective long-duration human exploration and exploitation missions as well as subsequent human colonization. Planet resources include various crust-lodged materials, a low-pressure natural atmosphere, assorted forms of utilizable energy, lower gravity than Earth's, and ground placement advantages relative to human operability and living standards. Power resources may include using solar and wind energy, importation of nuclear reactors and the harvesting of geothermal potential. In fact, a new branch of human civilization could be established permanently on Mars in the next century. But, meantime, an inventory and proper social assessment of Mars's prospective energy and material resources is required. This book investigates the possibilities and limitations of various systems supplying manned bases on Mars with energy and other vital resources. The book collects together recent proposals and innovative options and solutions. It is a useful source of condensed information for specialists involved in current and impending Mars-related activities and a good starting point for young researchers
Calibrating mars orbiter laser altimeter pulse widths at mars science laboratory candidate landing sites
No full textAccurate estimates of surface roughness allow quantitative comparisons between planetary terrains. These comparisons enable us to improve our understanding of commonly occurring surface processes, and develop a more complete analysis of candidate landing and roving sites. A (secondary) science goal of the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter was to map surface roughness within the laser footprint using the backscatter pulse-widths of individual pulses, at finer scales than can be derived from the elevation profiles. On arrival at the surface, these pulses are thought to have diverged to between 70 and 170 m, corresponding to surface roughness estimates at 35 and 70 m baselines respectively; however, the true baseline and relationship remains unknown. This work compares the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter pulse-widths to surface roughness estimates at various baselines from high-resolution digital terrain models at the final four candidate landing sites of Mars Science Laboratory. The objective was to determine the true baseline at which surface roughness can be estimated, and the relationship between surface roughness and the pulse-widths, to improve the reliability of current global surface roughness estimates from pulse-width maps. The results seem to indicate that pulse-widths from individual shots are an unreliable indicator of surface roughness, and instead, the pulse-widths should be downsampled to indicate regional roughness, with the Slope-Corrected pulse-width dataset performing best. Where Rough Patches are spatially large compared to the footprint of the pulse, pulse-widths can be used as an indicator of surface roughness at baselines of 150 to 300 m; where these patches are spatially small, as observed at Mawrth Vallis, pulse-widths show no correlation to surface roughness. This suggests that a more complex relationship exists, with varying correlations observed, which appear dependent on the distribution of roughness across the sites
Port of Mars R Analysis Pipeline
No full textR analysis pipeline for Port of Mars "Mars Madness" 2021/2022 tournamentsIf you use this software, please cite it using the metadata from this file
Jarosite stability on Mars
No full textJarosite, a potassium (sodium) iron sulphate hydrated mineral, has recently been identified on the martian surface by the Opportunity rover. Using recent thermochemical data [Drouet and Navrotsky, 2003, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 67, 2063–2076; Forray et al., 2005, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, in press], we calculate the equilibrium decomposition curve of jarosite and show that it is thermodynamically stable under most present martian pressures and temperatures. Its stability makes jarosite potentially useful to retain textural, chemical, and isotopic evidence of past history, including possible biological activity, on Mars
Mars et al, IBS multi-omics
No full textmetagenomics taxa tables, source data for metabolomics, human transcriptome and cytokine measurement
Influence of mineralogy on the preservation of amino acids under simulated Mars conditions
No full textpublisher: Elsevier articletitle: Influence of mineralogy on the preservation of amino acids under simulated Mars conditions journaltitle: Icarus articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2016.05.029 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.NHM Repositor
Identifying and Interpreting Stratification in Sedimentary Rocks on Mars: Insight from Rover and Orbital Observations and Terrestrial Field Analogs
No full textSedimentary rocks on Mars provide insight into past aqueous and atmospheric processes, climate regimes, and potential habitability. The stratigraphic architecture of sedimentary rocks on Mars is similar to that of Earth, indicating that the processes that govern deposition and erosion on Mars can be reasonably inferred through reference to analogous terrestrial systems. This dissertation aims to understand Martian surface processes through the use of (1) ground-based observations from the Mars Exploration Rovers, (2) orbital data from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and (3) the use of terrestrial field analogs to understand bedforms and sediment transport on Mars. Chapters 1 and 2 trace the history of aqueous activity at Meridiani Planum, through the reconstruction of eolian bedforms at Victoria crater, and the identification of a potential mudstone facies at Santa Maria crater. Chapter 3 uses Terrestrial Laser Scanning to study cross-bedding in pyroclastic surge deposits on Earth in order to understand sediment transport in these events and to establish criteria for their identification on Mars. The final chapter analyzes stratal geometries in the Martian North Polar Layered Deposits using tools for sequence stratigraphic analysis, to better constrain past surface processes and past climate conditions on Mars
Rootless cones on Mars indicating the presence of shallow equatorial ground ice in recent times
No full textHigh resolution Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images have revealed the existence of clusters of small cones in the Cerberus plains, Marte Valles, and Amazonis Planitia, Mars. These cones are similar in both morphology and planar dimensions to the larger of Icelandic rootless cones, which form due to explosive interactions between surficial lavas and near-surface groundwater. Impact crater size-frequency relationships indicate that surfaces upon which the cones sit are no older than 10 Ma. If martian cones form in the same manner as terrestrial rootless cones, then equatorial ground ice or ground water must have been present near the surface in geologically recent times
Erosion rate and previous extent of interior layered deposits on Mars revealed by obstructed landslides
No full textWe describe interior layered deposits on Mars that have obstructed landslides before undergoing retreat by as much as 2 km. These landslides differ from typical Martian examples in that their toe height increases by as much as 500 m in a distinctive frontal scarp that mimics the shape of the layered deposits. By using crater statistics to constrain the formation ages of the individual landslides to between ca. 200 and 400 Ma, we conclude that the retreat of the interior layered deposits was rapid, requiring erosion rates of between 1200 and 2300 nm yr–1. We suggest that the interior layered deposits are either extremely friable, if eroded strictly by wind, or composed of a material whose degradation has been enhanced by ice sublimation. These erosion rates also confirm that the interior layered deposits have been in a state of net degradation over the past 400 m.y., suggesting that the process that caused net deposition in the past has ceased or slowed substantially on Mars relative to erosion. Our results imply that interior layered deposits with a similar morphology across Mars, including the mound in Gale Crater, have probably undergone similar rapid erosion and retreat, suggesting that their total modern volume underrepresents the depositional record and thus sedimentary history of Mars
Immunological detection of small organic molecules in the presence of perchlorates: relevance to the life marker chip and life detection on Mars.
No full textThe proposed ExoMars mission, due to launch in 2018, aims to look for evidence
of extant and extinct life in martian rocks and regolith. Previous attempts to
detect organic molecules of biological or abiotic origin on Mars have been
unsuccessful, which may be attributable to destruction of these molecules by
perchlorate salts during pyrolysis sample extraction techniques. Organic
molecules can also be extracted and measured with solvent-based systems. The
ExoMars payload includes the Life Marker Chip (LMC) instrument, capable of
detecting biomarker molecules of extant and extinct Earth-like life in liquid
extracts of martian samples with an antibody microarray assay. The aim of the
work reported here was to investigate whether the presence of perchlorate salts,
at levels similar to those at the NASA Phoenix landing site, would compromise
the LMC extraction and detection method. To test this, we implemented an LMC-
representative sample extraction process with an LMC-representative antibody
assay and used these to extract and analyze a model sample that consisted of a
Mars analog sample matrix (JSC Mars-1) spiked with a representative organic
molecular target (pyrene, an example of abiotic meteoritic infall targets) in
the presence of perchlorate salts. We found no significant change in immunoassay
function when using pyrene standards with added perchlorate salts. When model
samples spiked with perchlorate salts were subjected to an LMC-representative
liquid extraction, immunoassays functioned in a liquid extract and detected
extracted pyrene. For the same model sample matrix without perchlorate salts, we
observed anomalous assay signals that coincided with yellow coloration of the
extracts. This unexpected observation is being studied further. This initial
study indicates that the presence of perchlorate salts, at levels similar to
those detected at the NASA Phoenix landing site, is unlikely to prevent the LMC
from extracting and detecting organic molecules from martian samples
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