#Mars rovers

[lets-try-some-writing]

Wait wait wait wait wait

Titan!Mars is giving sentience to the drones?! So Opportunity, Curiosity, Sojourner and the others are all gonna be baby bots some day??

(Also if we're talking moons and planets being titans, there is a moon that literally named Titan - one of Jupiter's moons I think)

Yup they will. It will certainly take a hot minute to get there, but Mars is doing his very best to make it happen. They need protomatter and exposure to the Allspark to come to full awareness, but Mars is giving them all he can in the meantime. It is yet another reason he is so dead set on getting the Allspark back if no one else will. His citizens need it to come to full awareness. He is their father now. A father never abandons his children.

Mars liked to think that if given the chance, he would have the will to fight against the Unmaker and consequently, Earth. However, upon receiving his six gifted citizens, his determination was largely shelved. His citizens would be sad if their mother Titan were to be destroyed, and quite frankly, Mars didn't want to mess up the education he'd already given his little ones.

Let Earth, Moon, and Unicron duke it out verbally. They were all idiots anyway. Mars was comparatively very normal. All he was doing was giving his little ones sentience. Hardly worthy of note really.

Sojourner was old by the standards of his fledgling race. Mars had to be careful with him. Sojourner had to be gently imbued with the shards of a spark, and even then, Sojourner struggled to reach full sentience without his other half, Marie Curie. Often the new mind of Sojourner would wander to his companion still on Earth, and Mars could only hold him close and hope that maybe Earth would convince one of her children to send Marie Curie to him.

Spirit was an aggressive young mind and loyal to a fault. He was easy to bring to life. The care put into him by his human creators gave him the barest inklings of sentience, and that was more than enough for Mars to work with. Spirit remained within the section of Mars that the humans dubbed "Troy". The little thing was dead set on gathering information, just as he had been instructed so very long ago. Mars had and continues to support Spirit in his attempts to use his communication systems to reach NASA again with fresh data. Mars knows it is a risk on his end, but the ones who made his citizens are so loving. Mars is of the mind that they will be more interested in hearing from their wayward son than anything else.

Opportunity was almost eager to be given life. She endured many trials when she remained in contact with her makers, and the fact that she overcame them gave her the seeds of thought Mars needed to gift her the beginnings of a spark. Opportunity roams his surface with glee, and Mars fuels her travels with songs and gentle prodding. She too desires to one day regain connection to NASA to share her discoveries. Mars adores her desire to see and explore. She reminds him of Moon in a way. At least, the Moon when he was younger and filled with life, eager to please his young citizens.

Curiosity and Perseverance did not come to Mars at the same time, but they too arrived with the inklings of a fledgling mind. Mars accepted them with joy and did not impede them as they gleefully fulfilled their directives. He has slowly worked to give them sparks, but he will not directly interact with them until they inevitably lose connection with NASA. He wants them to know the love of their creators for as long as possible. Curiosity is more than happy to continue roving and fulfill her directive while also humming songs to Mars through fledgling EM bursts. Perseverance gleefully follows his older sister in her devotion to the task. Mars is very proud of them.

 Zhurong was different when he came to Mars. He was not from NASA, and that was new for Mars. Zhurong was a sweet mind though. He took longer to come to awareness, but Mars was glad to have him all the same. Being so young, Zhurong has yet to do much of note, but Mars encourages him whenever possible.

There were others too. Smaller minds send to Mars to observe and keep an optic on his surface. Phoenix, Viking's 1 and 2, InSight, Beagle 2, Mars 1, 3, and 6. They were all sent to him, but without any of the touch that gave the six life. Mars tends to them all the same. Maybe one day he will find a way to give them the touch that brings about thought and free will.

Mars loves his strange citizens, and he is hopeful that they may one day become Cybertronian given enough time and attention from him. Moon thinks he is weird for his obsession, as does Unicron.

Moon: Why do you care so much about the rovers? They aren't even proper citizens, much less Cybertronian in origin.

Mars: Shut your fragging mouth Moon. You don't get to talk when you ABANDONED your citizens back on Cybertron!

Moon: I DID NO SUCH THING YOU INSENSITIVE PRICK-

Unicron: Yes, destroy each other for my amusement.

Earth: Father, don't encourage them please. I don't want children's creations to die in the crossfire.

Earth is happy Mars loves her grandchildren, but she does worry about his interactions with Moon when they talk about citizens a a whole.

[chimychoo]

mars solarballs 👽.

Mars rovers.

[roversrovers]

Ingenuity retired on the 20th anniversary of Opportunity landing on Mars 🥲

two remarkable pieces of engineering that exceeded our expectations and yet still feel like they are gone too soon 🧡

[marlynnofmany]

For those of you who, like me, thought that Curiosity the Mars Rover was the size of a dog until you saw a picture with a human for scale, I just realized why! 

We were thinking of Sojourner, the granny of the family:

Successive generations have grown taller than their elders, no doubt thanks to good nutrition and healthy living.

Long live the happy family.

[g4laxy-drag0n]

Edit: if I may add something, I'm not referring to their ground control when I say Spirit and Oppy are controlled by Macbooks. I mean the actual computer brains inside the rovers - as well as those for most of the 1990s-2000s Mars missions - were the same computers that were used in Macbooks. Enjoy!

[promithiae]

Eeeeeee hehehehehehe

The seller never got back to me when I emailed them about printing the pictures so I had to do it myself, which involved a long argument with my printer. But behold! Mars rovers in my locket!

[adastra-sf]

Curiosity Rover postcard from Mars' Marker Band Valley

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its navigation cameras to capture panoramas at two times of day on April 8, 2023, at 9:20 AM and 3:40 PM local Mars time, then merged the two images together. Blue represents the morning panorama and yellow the afternoon.

Each of these new panoramas took about 7-1/2 minutes to capture and include five individual images stitched together. By capturing the panoramas at two different times of day, the scene shows dramatic shadows similar to stage lighting coming in from the left and right of center stage. Because it was winter (when dust is at its lowest in the Martian atmosphere) at the time, shadows are sharper and deeper.

(Some annotated details from the scene.)

Curiosity is ascending the foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5km) mountain found within Gale Crater. The crater rim is visible roughly 25 miles (40 km) away. And because skies were so clear, you can see a mountain beyond the crater rim, even though it’s 54 miles (87 kilometers) outside of Gale.

NASA source page: X

[pepperedart]

My mars gremlins,,,

[mendely]

desire to adopt Spirit and Opportunity through the roof

[ruffboijuliaburnsides]

bitches really be out here watching documentaries on the opportunity rover and the voyager mission and be bawling their eyes out.

it's me i'm bitches

[bensolodefensesquad]

Does anyone else ever think about when humans land on mars finally and how we'll be reunited with the rovers and landers who so bravely did their jobs until they could no longer???

Will we replace their batteries and let them live again or will we bury them with our other fallen heroes?

[jcmarchi]

Mars Sample Return a top scientific priority, Lunine testifies - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/mars-sample-return-a-top-scientific-priority-lunine-testifies-technology-org/

Mars Sample Return a top scientific priority, Lunine testifies - Technology Org

At the western end of Mars’ Jezero Crater, a river channel and pile of sediments resembling river deltas on Earth hold clues about how Mars evolved from a more Earth-like world to the barren, inhospitable surface seen today.

Since 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover has collected more than 20 samples of rocks and sediments from the crater floor, delta fan and hills above it – resources that could answer crucial questions about what happened to the red planet’s climate and geology and improve understanding of our own.

But those samples could be stranded on Mars if Congress fails to provide adequate funding for the space agency to design and build the Mars Sample Return mission, Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and chair of the Department of Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences, testifiedm before a congressional subcommittee reviewing NASA’s science programs.

“The benefit of succeeding in bringing back rock and soil from an ancient riverbed on a planet 140 million miles away is that it will tell the world that this nation has the imagination, will and courage to accomplish just about anything,” Lunine said in written testimony. “And that message is priceless. To not complete Mars Sample Return – to leave the samples stranded on Mars – would be … a national disgrace.”

Lunine was one of four experts invited to testify at the U.S. House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics hearing titled, “Advancing Scientific Discovery: Assessing the Status of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.” Watch a replay here.

Earlier this year, budget uncertainty led NASA to plan for the lower of two proposed funding levels for the mission and to lay off staff at its Jet Propulsion Lab in California. Current appropriations bills defer a decision on funding, which could range from $300 million to nearly $1 billion, while the agency reassesses the mission’s architecture.

Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said that after an independent review board’s “sobering analysis” of the mission’s costs and challenges last fall, the agency would complete its internal reassessment this spring.

“It’s our willingness to acknowledge these challenges and overcome them, to conduct science in ways that have barely been imagined, that makes us NASA,” Fox testified.

Lunine called Mars Sample Return the most ambitious robotic program the United States has ever attempted, requiring challenging new technology and involving multiple NASA centers and the European Space Agency.

But having served as a member of an independent review board that examined the mission last year, Lunine said he’s “supremely confident” that it can and will be done despite budget pressures requiring difficult choices.

“It can be done because American engineering prowess is up to the task,” he told lawmakers. “It will be done because as a nation we surely will not simply walk away from a daring, highly visible and scientifically important challenge.”

Successive National Academies of Sciences decadal surveys have identified the mission as the top priority in planetary science, Lunine said, to help answer the questions: Did life begin on Mars? How did Mars dry up? Exactly when did it dry up?

Only instruments in laboratories on Earth, instruments far more precise and powerful than those carried by the Mars rovers, can precisely analyze the collected rock and soil samples to determine their composition and age, Lunine said. In the same way, the samples Apollo astronauts returned from the moon established a definitive chronology for the earliest history of the Earth-moon system – the program’s most profound scientific achievement, Lunine said. More than a half-century later, moon samples continue to be studied by increasingly capable instruments.

“The samples returned from Mars in the coming decade will be analyzed not only by scientists active today, but by scientists who are not yet born, using laboratory techniques not yet invented,” Lunine said. “These precious records of early Mars will be a lasting scientific treasure and a legacy of American technological prowess.”

Source: Cornell University

Mars gifts – the best space gifts from the Red Planet, ranging from Mars-themed clothes to genuine, certified meteorites from Mars.

[roversrovers]

Happy Birthday, Curiosity!

Curiosity landed on Mars on August 5, 2012 and is "turning" 11 today!

On its first landiversary, engineers on the ground celebrated the occasion by programming Curiosity to "sing" Happy Birthday to itself! A truly once-in-a-lifetime declaration of humans' love for a Mars rover!

And the gestures of love and appreciation for the robot didn't end there! Last year, on Curiosity's 10th landing anniversary, Husqvarna programmed 100.000 of their lawnmower robots to sing Happy Birthday to Curiosity.

Powered by a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG), Curosity has been providing us with invaluable information about our red neighbor for 11 years now.

In her time on Mars, Curiosity has been climbing Mount Sharp, taking rock samples, pictures and more to find answers to some of the biggest questions we have about Mars. Most notably, she determined that liquid water and other chemicals necessary for supporting life were present on Mars in the past, and water is still present in the form of ice.

Happy Birthday Curiosity, and congratulations to everyone on Earth without whose tireless work, dedication, passion and imagination none of these achievements would be possible!

[lunaviathan]

Crying over the mars rovers

oh to be a little robot sent to another planet to learn and learn and sing yourself happy birthday until you can’t anymore

[reminderofapast]

Ever since I had to move, I go outside every night and look for Mars

I think about Curiosity, Perseverance, and Ingenuity and wonder what they think

Do they feel the same longing for home?

Do they also crave familiar soil beneath them?

Have they embraced not only change, but the uncertain future?

Have they made peace with their purpose?

Do they feel abandoned?

Does it hurt them that their lives are short but inevitably they will outlive their creators?

Are the stars just as beautiful up there?

Do they ever look up into the night and search for us?

.

.

.

Are they as lonely as I never say I am?

How do they mourn the earth? Their birthplace, their creator, the place they can never return?

How can I?

[sub-commander-ralathor]

I love how we make robots and AIs for beautiful things. we make them to explore and sing and make art and talk to us and learn. and we love them so much.

to every bot and ai ever: I love you and you're doing great.