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Rock Abrasion Tool
The Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) is a grinding and brushing installation on NASA’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers, ''Spirit'' (MER-A) and ''Opportunity'' (MER-B), which landed on Mars in January 2004. It was designed, developed and continues to be operated by Honeybee Robotics LTD, a developer of specialized robots, automated technologies and related systems. The RAT was the first machine to gain access to the interior of rocks on another planet. The RAT has a mass of , is in diameter and long, about the size of a soda can. It uses a diamond dust and resin wheel spinning at 3000 rpm to drill a 45 mm diameter by 5 mm deep bore hole in martian rocks. The RAT then uses two brushes to sweep dust from the bore holes for closer scientific inspection. Its average power consumption is 30 watts. There are five other instruments aboard both rovers, these are the Pancam (a camera), Mini-TES (an infrared spectrometer) for sensing targets at a distance, a microscopic imager, a Möss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opportunity Rover
''Opportunity'', also known as MER-B (Mars Exploration Rover – B) or MER-1, is a robotic rover that was active on Mars from 2004 until 2018. ''Opportunity'' was operational on Mars for sols (). Launched on July 7, 2003, as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover program, it landed in Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, three weeks after its twin, ''Spirit'' (MER-A), touched down on the other side of the planet. With a planned 90- sol duration of activity (slightly less than 92.5 Earth days), ''Spirit'' functioned until it got stuck in 2009 and ceased communications in 2010, while ''Opportunity'' was able to stay operational for sols after landing, maintaining its power and key systems through continual recharging of its batteries using solar power, and hibernating during events such as dust storms to save power. This careful operation allowed ''Opportunity'' to operate for 57 times its designed lifespan, exceeding the initial plan by (in Earth time). By June 10, 2018, when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rat Post Grind
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' (pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot rats) and ''Dipodomys'' (kangaroo rats). Rats are typically distinguished from mice by their size. Usually the common name of a large muroid rodent will include the word "rat", while a smaller muroid's name will include "mouse". The common terms ''rat'' and ''mouse'' are not taxonomically specific. There are 56 known species of rats in the world. Species and description The best-known rat species are the black rat (''Rattus rattus'') and the brown rat (''Rattus norvegicus''). This group, generally known as the Old World rats or true rats, originated in Asia. Rats are bigger than most Old World mice, which are their relatives, but seldom weigh over in the wild. The term ''rat'' is also used in the names of other small mammals that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), to give the U.S. space development effort a distinctly civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. NASA has since led most American space exploration, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968-1972 Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. NASA supports the International Space Station and oversees the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System for the crewed lunar Artemis program, Commercial Crew spacecraft, and the planned Lunar Gateway space station. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program, which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars Exploration Rovers
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, ''Spirit'' and ''Opportunity'', exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rovers to explore the Martian surface and geology; both landed on Mars at separate locations in January 2004. Both rovers far outlived their planned missions of 90 Martian solar days: MER-A ''Spirit'' was active until March 22, 2010, while MER-B ''Opportunity'' was active until June 10, 2018. Objectives The mission's scientific objective was to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, which includes three previous successful landers: the two Viking program landers in 1976 and Mars Pathfinder probe in 1997. The total cost of building, launching, landing and operating the rovers on the surface for the initial 90- sol primary mission was US$820 million. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spirit Rover
Spirit or spirits may refer to: Liquor and other volatile liquids * Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks * Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol * Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, such as ** Ethanol, also known as drinking alcohol ** Gasoline (or petrol), a clear petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel ** Petroleum ether, liquid hydrocarbon mixtures used chiefly as non-polar solvents ** White spirit or mineral spirits, a common organic solvent used in painting and decorating Spirituality and mood * Spirituality, pertaining to the soul or spirit *Spirit (vital essence), the non-corporeal essence of a being or entity **Vitalism, a belief in some fundamental, non-physical essence which differentiates organisms from inanimate, material objects **''Pneuma'', an ancient Greek word for 'breath' or 'wind', but also 'spirit' or 'soul' ** Soul, the spiritual part of a living being, often regard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere (less than 1% that of Earth's), and has a crust primarily composed of elements similar to Earth's crust, as well as a core made of iron and nickel. Mars has surface features such as impact craters, valleys, dunes and polar ice caps. It has two small and irregularly shaped moons, Phobos (moon), Phobos and Deimos (moon), Deimos. Some of the most notable surface features on Mars include Olympus Mons, the largest volcano and List of tallest mountains in the Solar System, highest known mountain in the Solar System and Valles Marineris, one of the largest canyons in the Solar System. The North Polar Basin (Mars), Borealis basin in the Northern Hemisphere covers approximately 40% of the planet and may be a la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honeybee Robotics
Honeybee Robotics Spacecraft Mechanisms Corporation is a small spacecraft technology and robotics company Erik Baard,Alligators Below City? Try Robo-Inchworms ''The New York Times'' BUSINESS: DIARY; November 10, 2002 headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, with offices in Altadena, California and Longmont, Colorado. It was established in 1983 by Stephen Gorevan and Chris Chapman. In June 2017, Honeybee Robotics was acquired by Ensign-Bickford Industries. In January 2022, Honeybee was sold to Blue Origin. Products Honeybee has particular expertise in developing and operating small mechanical tools used on Mars missions. Some of the robotic devices it has developed and successfully demonstrated on Mars include: * The Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) instruments used on both Mars Exploration Rovers * The Icy Soil Acquisition Device (ISAD), sometimes called the "Phoenix Scoop", a soil scoop and a precision ice-sampling tool successfully demonstrated on the 2008 Mars Phoenix Lander mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mössbauer Spectroscopy
Mössbauer spectroscopy is a spectroscopic technique based on the Mössbauer effect. This effect, discovered by Rudolf Mössbauer (sometimes written "Moessbauer", German: "Mößbauer") in 1958, consists of the nearly recoil-free emission and absorption of nuclear gamma rays in solids. The consequent nuclear spectroscopy method is exquisitely sensitive to small changes in the chemical environment of certain nuclei. Typically, three types of nuclear interactions may be observed: the isomer shift due to differences in nearby electron densities (also called the chemical shift in older literature), quadrupole splitting due to atomic-scale electric field gradients; and magnetic Zeeman splitting due to non-nuclear magnetic fields. Due to the high energy and extremely narrow line widths of nuclear gamma rays, Mössbauer spectroscopy is a highly sensitive technique in terms of energy (and hence frequency) resolution, capable of detecting changes of just a few parts in 1011. It is a me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer
:''APXS is also an abbreviation for APache eXtenSion tool, an extension for Apache web servers.'' An alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) is a spectrometer that analyses the chemical element composition of a sample from scattered alpha particles and fluorescent X-rays after a sample is irradiated with alpha particles and X-rays from radioactive sources. This method of analysing the elemental composition of a sample is most often used on space missions, which require low weight, small size, and minimal power consumption. Other methods (e.g. mass spectrometry) are faster, and do not require the use of radioactive materials, but require larger equipment with greater power requirements. A variation is the alpha proton X-ray spectrometer, such as on the Pathfinder mission, which also detects protons. Over the years several modified versions of this type of instrument such as APS (without X-ray spectrometer) or APXS have been flown: Surveyor 5-7, Mars Pathfinder, Mars 96, Mars ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adirondack (Mars)
Adirondack is the nickname for Mars Exploration Rover ''Spirit'''s first target rock. Scientists chose Adirondack to be ''Spirit''s first target rock after considering another, called Sashimi, that would have been a shorter, straight-ahead drive. ''Spirit'' traversed the sandy martian terrain at Gusev Crater to arrive in front of this football-sized rock on January 18, 2004, just three days after it successfully rolled off the lander. Scientists named the angular rock after the Adirondack mountain range in New York. The name "Adirondacks" is an Anglicized version of the Mohawk ''ratirontaks'', meaning "they eat trees", a derogatory name which the Mohawk historically applied to the Algonquian-speaking tribes of the Adirondack Mountains; when food was scarce, the Algonquians would eat the buds and bark of trees. The rock was selected as ''Spirit''s first target because its dust-free, flat surface was ideally suited for grinding. Clean surfaces also are better for examining a r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA and managed by the nearby California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The laboratory's primary function is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating the NASA Deep Space Network. Among the laboratory's major active projects are the Mars 2020 mission, which includes the ''Perseverance'' rover and the '' Ingenuity'' Mars helicopter; the Mars Science Laboratory mission, including the ''Curiosity'' rover; the InSight lander (''Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport''); the ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter''; the ''Juno'' spacecraft orbiting Jupiter; the ''SMAP'' satellite for earth surface s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Trade Center Site
The World Trade Center site, often referred to as "Ground zero#World Trade Center, Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Vesey Street (Manhattan), Vesey Street to the north, the West Side Highway to the west, Liberty Street (Manhattan), Liberty Street to the south, and Church Street (Manhattan), Church Street to the east. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) owns the site's land (except for 7 World Trade Center). The original World Trade Center (1973–2001), World Trade Center complex stood on the site until it was destroyed in the September 11 attacks. The Port Authority, Silverstein Properties, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) have overseen the reconstruction of the site as part of the World Trade Center (2001–present), new World Trade Center, following a master plan by Daniel Libeskind, Studio Daniel Libeski ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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