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Space News: Opportunity runs the first Martian marathon
With all the fanfare about Mars rover Curiosity landing on the Red Planet in August 2012, it’s easy to forget that there’s already a rover on Mars – an older, smaller cousin set to accomplish a feat unprecedented in the history of Solar System exploration.
Mars rover Opportunity is on track to complete the first extraterrestrial marathon.
A marathon is 26.2 miles. When Opportunity landed on Mars in 2004, NASA’s goal was to have the rover travel a meager 600 meters.
However, no one knew what kind of “runner” Opportunity would turn out to be. As of July 2012, Opportunity has traveled almost 22 miles – only 4.2 miles short of a full marathon.
Runner-author Hal Higdon once said, “The marathon never ceases to be a race of joy, a race of wonder.” That goes double for a marathon on another world where every mile promises a new discovery.
Opportunity’s prime mission is to search for signs of ancient water.
Today the Red Planet is a bone-dry desert with a breathtakingly thin atmosphere, conditions deadly to almost every known form of life on Earth.
Billions of years ago, however, things might have been different. Many researchers believe that Mars was warmer, wetter, and friendlier to Martian life. Opportunity’s job is to search for clues to that ancient time.
Just getting to the starting line was epic. “This particular marathoner had to fly about 283 million miles across space before being unceremoniously drop-bounced on the Martian surface,” said Ray Arvidson, Mars Exploration Rover Mission deputy principal investigator.
Like many long-distance runners, Opportunity likes to “take it slow.” On a typical drive day, the rover travels only 50 to 100 meters. This gives the rover time to pause and look for the unknown.
It also allows Opportunity to take plenty of photos along the way. Recently the rover sent home its 100,000th image, a stunning panorama.
Opportunity first uncovered signs of water in deposits near the landing site in Eagle Crater. There were rocks that seemed to have formed in an ancient shallow lake.
Over the next four years, Opportunity scavenged ever larger and deeper craters, finding more evidence of wet periods. Indications were, however, that the ancient lake water might have been too acidic for life.
The metallic marathoner soon set its sights on Endeavour Crater – an enormous pit 14 miles wide and hundreds of meters deep.
Endeavour’s depth would offer a look farther back into the history of Mars, to a time when the water was possibly less acidic.
The marathon route crossing Mars’ Meridiani plain to Endeavor was a daring trek —with no aid stations anywhere.
Raging dust storms reduced the rover’s solar power so much that Opportunity almost entered the “sleep of death”; soft, sandy, wind-blown ripples trapped the rover’s wheels, and there was an injury: A failure in Opportunity’s right front steering actuator made running forward tricky. Ever resourceful, the rover ran part of its race backwards.
“The course took Opportunity over sedimentary bedrock made of magnesium, iron, and calcium sulfate minerals – further indications of water billions of years ago,” says Arvidson.
When the marathoner reached Endeavour Crater in August 2011, things got interesting.
“Endeavor is surrounded by fractured sedimentary rock, and the cracks are filled with gypsum. Gypsum forms when ground water comes up and fills cracks in the ground, depositing hydrated calcium sulfate. This is the best evidence we’ve ever found for liquid water on Mars.”
The gypsum veins were likely formed in conditions more pH-neutral and possibly more hospitable to life: Jackpot!
But this marathoner isn’t done. Opportunity is doing so well that 26.2 miles might not be the finish line after all.
“We have no plans to stop running,” says Arvidson.
Extraterrestrial ultra-marathon anyone?
Dauna Coulter works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
‘Forrest Fire’ grows to 550 acres in Yolo County
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – A fire that began burning in Yolo County Saturday morning was reported to be threatening several homes by nightfall.
Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit reported that the Forrest Fire – located off Forrest Avenue and Highway 16 at Guinda, south of Rumsey Canyon – began shortly after 10 a.m. Saturday.
The latest report on the fire, released after 9 p.m., said that it had burned 550 acres and was 15 percent contained. Those numbers were rolled back slightly from higher estimates of containment and acreage Cal Fire issued previously.
Helicopters, air tankers and firefighters on the ground had fought the fire throughout the day, according to radio reports.
More than 400 personnel were assigned to the incident, along with 22 engines, 16 fire crews, six air tankers, five helicopters and 10 bulldozers.
Cal Fire said the fire burned up the Blue Ridge outside the community of Guinda during the afternoon.
By Saturday evening, the winds in the area had shifted and several homes were threatened, the agency reported.
During the course of Saturday four injuries were reported and several commercial vehicles were destroyed, according to Cal Fire.
A cause has so far not been reported.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Firefighters battling wildland fire burning near Guinda; hundreds of acres burned in hours
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Firefighters are at work on another wildland fire in the region, this time in Yolo County.
Cal Fire reported that the “Forrest Fire” began late Saturday morning off for Forrest Avenue and Highway 16 in Guinda, south of Rumsey Canyon in neighboring Yolo County.
The incident has grown rapidly in size. At about 5:15 p.m., Cal Fire reported that the fire had scorched 600 acres and was 25 percent contained.
Radio traffic indicated additional helicopters were heading into the area to assist with fighting the fire, with an air tanker being sent from Santa Rosa.
No cause has been given yet, although initial reports indicated multiple vehicles were involved and power lines were down.
Several Lake County residents have reported seeing smoke from the fire in the direction of the Morgan Valley area.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Friday afternoon crash results in major injuries
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – A crash near Clearlake Oaks that occurred Friday afternoon along Highway 20 sent one person with major injuries to a regional trauma center.
The wreck, involving a black Ford Mustang and a big rig, occurred shortly after 4 p.m.
The mustang’s driver was reportedly pinned in the vehicle and had to be extricated by firefighters, according to reports from the scene.
The highway was shut down until shortly after 5 p.m. as firefighters and paramedics worked at the crash site.
There also was an estimated 40 gallons of diesel spilled that required Lake County Environmental Health to responf, according to radio reports.
REACH 6 air ambulance set down at a landing zone in Clearlake Oaks and flew the Mustang’s driver to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for treatment of major injuries, officials reported.
At about 4:45 p.m. a second crash was reported at Highway 20 and Henderson Drive, when a vehicle went off the hill and into a driveway. A Cal Fire medic unit had to be sent from Hidden Valley Lake due to a shortage of ambulance on the Northshore at that point.
Additional details about the crash victims were not immediately available Friday night.
