Is this a Science Dump, or is it an obituary. Both? Maybe? Anyway, with the recent passing of our dear robot friend Opportunity I decided we should pay our respects with a Science Dump for her. Let’s get started.

Mars Exploration Rover-B (MER-B), better known to us as Opportunity, or Oppy, was a Mars rover part of the Mars Exploration program from NASA to explore Mars and to further our knowledge of the planet. She launched on July 7, 2003 in a Delta II rocket. The little rover landed in Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, shortly after her twin, Spirit (2004-2010), landed on the other side of the planet. The original plan for Oppy was a 90 sol mission (about 92 Earth days). She ended up operational for 5,352 sols just shy of 15 years! 

Opportunity’s objectives on Mars were:

Find and examine rocks and soil that may hold clues to past water activity on the planet.

Determine the composition of minerals, rocks, and soils around its landing site.

Determine the geological processes that shaped the local terrain and influenced the chemistry (things like water/wind erosion, sedimentation, cratering, etc.).

Search for iron-containing minerals, identify and quantify relative amounts of specific mineral types that contain water or were formed in water.

Characterize the mineralogy and textures of rocks and soils and determine the processes that created them.

Search for geological clues to the environmental conditions that existed when liquid water was present.

In 2016, Oppy achieved its steepest slope going up to 32 degrees. That was so steep, that dust had gone onto the rover and it started to slide backward as it went up. It’s highest elevation it went up was at the summit of “Cape Tribulation” at 135 meters (443 feet). Opportunity drove close to 28 miles on Mars, making it the most miles driven on Mars yet!

Unfortunately, a sudden dust storm wiped out communications with the little rover. The last message we received from her was on June 10, 2018. Over 830 rescue commands were sent to Oppy in hopes of her returning our call. To keep morale up in the mission control center, they would play “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” in an effort to wake her up, but to no avail. On February 13, 2019, she was declared dead and her mission complete. According to a journalist, Oppy’s last message was along the lines of “My battery is low and it’s getting dark”. 

It is sad to see such a wonderful machine die but we have to remember she shattered every expectation and did above and beyond to further our knowledge of Mars. She can now rest in Martian peace.

Guess who’s back and betta than eva. It’s yo girl R, let’s go. 

MARS! Mars is pretty cool. I mean it’s no Saturn or anything but it’s the closet to Earth and it’s hella similar to Earth in many ways. So I decided I’m gonna do a Science Dump about Mars in honor of the recent ESA discovery in their Mars Express shingdig. Let’s dig in shaaaaaall we?

MARS FACTS

Distance from the Sun: 141.6 million miles

Distance from the Earth: 54.6 million kilometers

Average orbital speed: 24.007 km/s (86,430 km/h = 53,700 mph)

Mean radius: 3,389.5 +/- 0.2 km (2,106 +/- 0.1 miles)

Mass: 6.4171x10^23 kg (0.107 Earths)

Surface Gravity: 3.711 m/s^2

Escape Velocity: 5.027 km/s (18,100 km/h or 11,250 mph)

Axial tilt:25.19 degrees

Surface temp: min: 130K = -143C = 1226F max: 308K = 35C = 95F

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, right behind Earth. It is also the second smallest planet, behind Mercury. Often called the Red Planet, Mars gets its distinct and famous reddish appearance from the abundance of iron oxide. It has a thin atmosphere, so asteroids constantly make contact, creating crater features all over the planet. One feature, Borealis basin, is thought to be a cite of a long ago impact, covering about 40% of the planet. Just like Earth, Mars has mountains, valleys, deserts, polar ice caps, and even a volcano! Olympus Mons is the largest volcano and the second highest known mountain in the solar system! Mars also has one of the largest canyons called Valles Marineris. Phobos and Deimos is Mars’ only two moons. The moons themselves are actually pretty interesting. Both were discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall and were named for the Greek Mythological twin characters, Phobos, the god of fear and panic, and Deimos, the god of terror and dread. In mythology, Phobos and Deimos joined their father, Ares, into battle. To the Romans, Ares was also called, wait for it....... MARS. Interesting right?!..........................

Well what about the atmosphere of Mars? What is that like? Let’s take a look. The atmosphere of Mars is very thin, much thinner than Earth’s. It consists of 95% of carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 2% milk I mean argon, and just trace amounts of oxygen, carbon monoxide, and water vapor. That’s almost completely opposite of Earth’s (78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, and 0.05% carbon dioxide and other gasses). Not an ideal living situation for us humans.

What about the water? Ah YES! The Water! Almost all the water on Mars exists as ice. But scientists believed, up until recently, that liquid water was so plentiful, that the planet actually had widespread flooding. Evidence of liquid water from the past exists in the channels and dried up river crevasses that scar the entire planet. But recently, the ESA’s Mars Express detected liquid water hidden under the plant’s south pole. Well, how did they do that if the water is below the surface? Straight from the ESA themselves, they said, “Ground-penetrating radar uses the method of sending radar pulses towards the surface and timing how long it takes for them to be reflected back to the spacecraft and with what strength”. So basically, by using this method, they were able to determine that the south polar region of Mars is made up of many layers of ice and dust. Below that there was a particularly bright radar reflection which, under further analysis, was determined to most likely be a stable body of liquid water. The detection looks a little bit like this

Pretty neat, right?

Now the last time I did a Science Dump on a planet, I added the sounds of Saturn which are very eerie and creepy. Now I give to you the Sounds of Mars.

Sounds of Mars 

This does sound creepy, doesn’t it. The sounds mostly come from the winds just like the sounds of Earth come from winds and the hustle and bustle of human activities. Similarly, Mars has rovers to add to it’s own hustle and bustle!

Speaking of Rovers! Has anyone heard about Mars Rover Opportunity? Funny story, it’s been 62 days since Opportunity’s black out as a result of a Martian dust storm, and scientists and engineers are getting antsy and nervous. The dust storm in May was “a dust storm to end all dust storms” which took over the entire planet and even blocked all sunlight. Opportunity hasn’t given any signal since June 10th, which has NASA very worried. To boost morale, however, NASA engineers resurfaced an old tradition. Every morning, mission staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab hoped to inspire the rover to turn back on by playing Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” in the control room! They did something similar 15 years ago when the rover first landed on Mars, but when the 90 day mission turned to be much longer, the tradition faded. Now, 5,166 days later, they begin each morning hoping to wake up Opportunity and get back to the work grind!

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go 

Well that’s it for this edition of Science Dump!! If you have any questions feel free to send me a message or send an ask! 

Stay Nerdy!

A megalodon tooth stuck in a whale vertebrae. Possibly the most badass fossil in existence.