Mars Archives - Keith Shields

Good-bye Opportunity

About three weeks ago I wrote about the Curiosity Rover that has been functioning on Mars for six and a half years. Today we say farewell to the Opportunity Rover (2004 – 2018) which was formally pronounced dead at a news conference yesterday. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate, said, “I’m standing…

A Robotic Spacecraft Dies

This week was supposed to be a week of good news for the Schiaparelli lander. It was expected that by this time, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) would be relaying information from Schiaparelli to Earth and science experiments would be about to begin on the surface of Mars. The European Space Agency (ESA) did have…

Schiaparelli

(Click on this thumbnail picture for a larger image.) This week in solar system navigation, the Schiaparelli Lander was given the necessary software to allow it to land on Mars. Descent and soft touchdown on Mars will be guided by the commands that were uploaded on October 7th. The fact that such commands can be…

ExoMars

ExoMars is a “Programme to investigate the Martian environment and to demonstrate new technologies paving the way for future Mars sample return missions.”[1] The European Space Agency successfully launched their two craft on March 14 on a Russian Proton M rocket and has received signals indicating that the launch was successful. The two craft will…

The Dance of the Planets

(Photo credit: Universe Today) I have continued to enjoy the movements of Venus, Jupiter, and Mars. This particular conjunction of planets has now inspired my imagination for several weeks. Each morning I look to the east around five or six am to see if it is clear enough to see this amazing display. The relative…

Venus, Mars, Regulus, and Jupiter Are Alright Tonight

Starship 21ZNA9 A good friend of mine Studies the stars Venus and Mars Are alright tonight “Venus and Mars” lyrics by Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney; published by MPL Communications, Inc. This morning, as I went for my before-sunrise-run, I was greeted by three planets and a bright star, in the eastern sky. The four…

Venetian Dreams

The popular press has, in recent years, written much about the planet Mars, but very little about Venus. This is to be expected since Mars is the planet of greatest focus for the major space programs of the world. Four planetary rovers have traversed various portions of the Martian surface,1 orbital spacecraft have mapped the…

Dare Mighty Things

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of US (1858 – 1919) “Dare mighty…