Read, reblog, and resonate!
Surface - Blog Posts
I didn't want to kill them but I needed determination
SAVE -> CONTINUE
Hunting for Organic Molecules on Mars
Did Mars once have life? To help answer that question, an international team of scientists created an incredibly powerful miniature chemistry laboratory, set to ride on the next Mars rover.
The instrument, called the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer Mass Spectrometer (MOMA-MS), will form a key part of the ExoMars Rover, a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos. A mass spectrometer is crucial to send to Mars because it reveals the elements that can be found there. A Martian mass spectrometer takes a sample, typically of powdered rock, and distinguishes the different elements in the sample based on their mass.
After 8 years of designing, building, and testing, NASA scientists and engineers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center said goodbye to their tiny chemistry lab and shipped it to Italy in a big pink box. Building a tiny instrument capable of conducting chemical analysis is difficult in any setting, but designing one that has to launch on a huge rocket, fly through the vacuum of space, and then operate on a planet with entirely different pressure and temperature systems? That’s herculean. And once on Mars, MOMA has a very important job to do. NASA Goddard Center Director Chris Scolese said, “This is the first intended life-detecting instrument that we have sent to Mars since Viking.”
The MOMA instrument will be capable of detecting a wide variety of organic molecules. Organic compounds are commonly associated with life, although they can be created by non-biological processes as well. Organic molecules contain carbon and hydrogen, and can include oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements.
To find these molecules on Mars, the MOMA team had to take instruments that would normally occupy a couple of workbenches in a chemistry lab and shrink them down to roughly the size of a toaster oven so they would be practical to install on a rover.
MOMA-MS, the mass spectrometer on the ExoMars rover, will build on the accomplishments from the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), an instrument suite on the Curiosity rover that includes a mass spectrometer. SAM collects and analyzes samples from just below the surface of Mars while ExoMars will be the first to explore deep beneath the surface, with a drill capable of taking samples from as deep as two meters (over six feet). This is important because Mars’s thin atmosphere and spotty magnetic field offer little protection from space radiation, which can gradually destroy organic molecules exposed on the surface. However, Martian sediment is an effective shield, and the team expects to find greater abundances of organic molecules in samples from beneath the surface.
On completion of the instrument, MOMA Project Scientist Will Brinckerhoff praised his colleagues, telling them, “You have had the right balance of skepticism, optimism, and ambition. Seeing this come together has made me want to do my best.”
In addition to the launch of the ESA and Roscosmos ExoMars Rover, in 2020, NASA plans to launch the Mars 2020 Rover, to search for signs of past microbial life. We are all looking forward to seeing what these two missions will find when they arrive on our neighboring planet.
Learn more about MOMA HERE.
Learn more about ExoMars HERE.
Follow @NASASolarSystem on Twitter for more about our missions to other planets.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
Mars Perseverance Rover Landed
Mars Perseverance rover landed on the surface of Mars.
https://www.instagram.com/spaceexploration_genz/
https://www.vsual.co/shop/space-exploration-gen-z
https://www.redbubble.com/people/astro3antica/shop
When Poets Dreamed of Angels #2, 11 August 2 017 © Patrícia Raquel Pereira : (David Sylvian’s song on the title)
Harold Feinstein Birds Flying, 1963 Gelatin silver print
and speak to me from the depths of this long night as if we were anchored here together, tell me everything, chain by chain, link by link and step by step,
Pablo Neruda, from section “XII,” of excerpts from Heights of Macchu Picchu, transl.Tomás Q. Morín, Plume (August 2017)
Midnight sun at Lake Luossajärvi. Kiruna, Lappland, Sweden. Original postcard, tinted. 1940-1959. Swedish National Heritage Board.
pfp :P made this on my new Surface, tbh kind of liking it better than the iPad. my first drawing of my oc Irene from a western story i’m writing and yes i have an unhealthy obsession with rdr2
Modern Dining Room - Dining Room Mid-sized modern white floor and concrete floor in the great room great room concept with white walls, a concrete fireplace, and two sides to it
How to grow a wildflower meadow in your garden You can grow a wildflower patch in your garden it works best on poor soil Sow the flower seeds and water in Check for weeds and water occasionally until they establish Let them selfseed around at the end for flowers every year
Chinese Pork Adobo
155 Frases necesarias para una conversacin en ingls
Crochet Bag Chart
How to grow a wildflower meadow in your garden You can grow a wildflower patch in your garden it works best on poor soil Sow the flower seeds and water in Check for weeds and water occasionally until they establish Let them selfseed around at the end for flowers every year
Breakfast and Brunch - Ham and Cheese Quiche A Swiss cheese, spinach and mushroom layer is topped with a thick egg mixture, a layer of ham and a sprinkling of Cheddar. This robust pie is tucked into an oven and baked for an hour. It 's perfect for lunch or brunch.
It is mine 💜✌
Papyrus said . . .
"BE USEFUL, CAN YOU NOT?,"