Mars Photo of the Day - Sept 7 2011

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Today's Mars Photo is from Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity as it leaves behind the grouping of Tisdale rocks around Odyssey Crater. This comes after Opportunity spent a few days examining the various ejecta and determined that the rocks were unlike any others examined on Mars. Opportunity is now headed off to Cape York as it continues its search for the clay minerals discovered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that indicate Mars may have once been habitable to life. 

The photo links to the original.

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A Rock on Mars Unlike Any Other

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Today NASA held a teleconference on the current status of Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity and its new mission. Opportunity has traveled much further, and lasted much longer than anyone could have hoped (see below for its path). Its original mission was to last about three months, but it has lasted more than 30 times longer.

Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's  path is marked in yellow. The path is marked with numbers which represent the sol when Opportunity was at the labeled location.
Source: NASA

The Mars rover recently reached Endeavour Crater, which Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE and CRISM cameras determined has clay minerals along the rim that are of different from any previously examined by Mars rovers.

In recent days Opportunity has been examining Tisdale-2, a rock unlike any ever encountered by a Mars rover.

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Mars Photo of the Day - Aug 30 2011

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Today's Mars Photo is of Tisdale-1 as taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on Sol 2694. The right side of Tisdale-1 seems to be very smooth, though broken up by the veins that scar the entire rock. This implies a high level of heat (likely from impact by the meteorite that created Endeavour Crater) may have fused different rocks together, thus making this a composite rock like the other Tisdales, which is likely why it is in that category in the first place. The veins on the surface throughout imply some form of erosion that took place after the formation of the rock, but by what we can only speculate.

Click the image to see the enlarged version from NASA.

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Mars Photo of the Day - Aug 29 2011

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Today's Mars Photo is of Tisdale-5, a rock in close proximity to the original Tisdale. This rock is one of the more oddly shaped rocks in the area and seems to have been eroded significantly over the past millions (or billions) of years. We are left to wonder why the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's team decided to group many rocks under the name Tisdale, but it is likely because the team believes the rocks have similar composition. This photo came directly from The Road to Endeavour blog and the full size image can be seen just by clicking on the image below.

I failed to post a photo yesterday (Aug 28 2011) because I got caught up in Hurricane Irene and my power and Internet are out. I found a hot spot to post today's Mars Photo of the Day. Hopefully I'll be able to post more regarding developments toward Mars travel and exploration when my Internet is restored tomorrow. Thanks for your patience!

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Mars Photo of the Day - Aug 26 2011

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Today's Mars Photo was taken by Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's navigation camera on Sol 2695 (two days ago). It shows an area along the rim of Endeavour Crater that likely contains material ejected on the impact that created the crater. Whether Opportunity will examine the rocks in this image is uncertain, but the Mars rover will likely spend a while on Tisdale (The rock from which this photo was likely taken). To see the original image simply click below.

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Mars Photo of the Day - Aug 25 2011

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Today's Mars Photo was taken by Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's Microscopic Imager on Sol 2694 (~ two days ago). This shows a portion of Tisdale that seems to lend credence to the speculation that the rock is a conglomerate that was fused together by the impact that created Endeavour Crater. While this is not verified it seems the most likely scenario. To see the original image simply click below.

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Mars Photo of the Day - Aug 22 2011

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Today's Mars Photo is of Tisdale rock again, but this time the image shows just how close NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is to the rock. The photo was taken yesterday (Sol 2692). The Mars rover has likely begun performing tests as it attempts to learn more about the mysterious rock.

Photo of Tisdale Taken by MER Opportunity's Front HazCam on Sol 2692

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Mars Photo of the Day - Aug 19 2011

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Today's Mars photo is of the slab of rock that Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is set to begin examining. This rock has been given the name Tisdale and many expect that Opportunity will spend at least the next few days there, examining the rock itself and the surrounding area. Tisdale has been a target for the MER team since Opportunity first rolled up to Odyssey Crater.

Tisdale as taken from NASA's Panoramic camera on Sol 2688
Click the photo to go to see all of NASA's photos of Tisdale from Sol 2688.

See a rendering of Tisdale from Road to Endeavour

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