No hagas mañana lo que puedes hacer hoy, y si consigues el tiempo de corte en un circuito como Dubai, mejor que mejor.    The Rasmus -Guilty

El chico se lo estaba buscando. Después de ingresar en la academia MCC y ser el primero de su promoción ha estado los últimos meses recorriendo el mundo para correr en los más de 50 circuitos establecidos por la FIA-MRO.

Después de muchas vueltas a los circuitos y muchos accidentes poniendo al límite tanto a su cuerpo como su Fórmula 1 ha completado todas las categorías obteniendo así la preciada SuperLicencia MRO.

Ayer mismo Firenze se mostraba así de pletórico: "Por fin! Nadie sabe lo duro que ha sido completar todos los circuitos. A todo piloto le gusta correr en los de F1, incluso los dos de rallys larguísimos merece la pena, pero hay circuitos en los que te juegas la vida. Deberían quitarlos del certamen y sustituirlos por otros de mayor calidad. Pero bueno ya los completé y me encuentro exhausto. No obstante, ha merecido la pena!!"

Su próximo objetivo cuenta que "es acercarme y superar todos los tiempos de los profesores del MCC. Esa es la base para poder hacerme un hueco en los campeonatos con garantías. Estoy harto de ver a gente que salta antes de tiempo y se arrastra por las categorías inferiores. Quiero triunfar. Por pasos."

Sin duda el chico parece tener  la cabeza bien amueblada. Le seguiremos de cerca, apunten su nombre: Firenze. Nosotros ya lo hemos hecho.

After I took an Astronomy subject in high school, I was plagued with terrible questions about the earth, the sun, or any heavenly bodies. I think that’s normal. But I was also preoccupied whether someday in the future all inhabitants in the earth can cruise in the nearby planet (Mars, probably) and stay there for a week or two. I would love that.

I watched an episode in NASA channel entitled Destination Tomorrow. It was interesting because space scientists are working to investigate suitable landing sites in Mars that are scientifically interesting and potential for proofs of interest. NASA developed the MRO, or the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (I dunno if I got the words right but it sounded just like that) to look for potential landing sites in case there would be success of human flights at Mars in the near future.

The MRO has high resolution cameras to produce high profile detailed pictures which will be evaluated to search for potential sites. It has also telescopic cameras to capture the planet’s surface features by photographing the planet. In this way, the scientists can relay and send information by communication platform for robotic missions and about the weather patterns in Mars. In this way the space scientists can also look for water. By its self surface radar, they would know the weather patterns, and any detailed information to expand the knowledge about the planet.

MRO would took seven months to journey to Mars and 27 months to orbit it.

The first is a program called "jmars". This java-based program distributed by Arizona State University lets you overlay all sorts of global datasets, from MOLA topography to THEMIS nighttime infrared maps to H2O abundance from the Odyssey gamma ray spectrometer. It also shows the location of high-resolution images from MOC, HiRISE and CTX, and lets you either load a low-resolution version of the images right in jmars, or click a link and web-browse to a higher-resolution version. I use this program all the time. Here's a screenshot of what I'm (supposed to be) working on right now. It shows a THEMIS day-IR map of the Meridiani region of Mars with CTX images overlaid on top and outlines of the locations of all the HiRISE (red) and MOC (pink) images of the area. (click for a bigger version)

I also discovered yesterday that you can generate a 3D view of Mars with jmars also! Check out this view of Valles Marineris (no vertical exaggeration).

The second tool that I often use is Google Earth. "But wait!" you say, "I thought we were talking about Mars!" Oh, we are. The trick is, you just drape earth in Mars data and everything works great! Here's a link to a website describing how to set up Google earth to display all sorts of Mars data. Follow the directions and soon you too can click and zoom on a globe that looks like this:

Have fun!

Universe Today has a great post up on the findings, so I won't repeat too much of Nancy's explanation.

In brief, the CRISM team has identified a whole new suite of minerals on Mars, in addition to a few already observed, that only form with copious amounts of water. While some of these minerals are associated with local deposits that look like sedimentary layers set down by surface water, others seem to be present across vast regions of the ancient southern highlands. In particular, the minerals tend to be associated with the ejecta, floors, and central peaks of craters in the ancient terrains. Because the impacts probably dug up the minerals from several kilometers down in the crust, the crust must have been altered by water to at least that depth. For example, the image below shows where CRISM has detected phyllosilicates (a hydrated clay mineral) in one region of the highlands. Because almost every crater has a phyllosilicate detection, the basement material has probably interacted with water throughout this region.

Mustard et al. (2008), Figure 4a

We tend to think of "Mars" as one place with a history that can be described by one storyline, even though Mars is a whole planet with as much surface area as dry land on Earth. What's really great about these findings is that they really bring home that the surface of Mars probably had just as many different environments as Earth does now. Mars scientists have used the composition of minerals and their geologic context to identify ancient hydrothermal springs, shallow seas, lakes, and floods on Mars. With all of these different environments, life very well may have been able to eke out an existence in one of them...

we have identified an area [for landing] that is very flat and relatively free of large boulders

Soon after Phoenix's landing, news was published that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE had captured a picture of Phoenix and its lander during descent.  Pretty cool, I thought - the chute, the cords, and the lander were clearly visible in that picture.  Still, nothing in that news article made me question the "flat" assumption.

But this morning, when I was browsing the Phoenix page on Wikipedia, I realized that the full chute picture showed that the landing region was anything but boring:

Phoenix didn't land in "Heimdall" crater - it landed 20km away.  But since this crater is 10km wide, I think NASA would've been justified in hyping the context of the parachute shot.

The M&A activity in the area will see companies acquiring small and niche players in the US and Europe to improve their front-end capabilities and consolidation in the domestic market, largely dominated by over 110 small-size companies in the revenue bracket of $2-$10 million.

The domestic market research outsourcing (MRO) and analytics industry, pegged at $300 million, is growing at a rate of 50 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Larger BPO firms including WNS, Genpact, TCS BPO, Wipro and Infosys BPO offers market research and analytics service to global corporations as a part of their KPO offerings.

Besides, pure play market research and analytics service firms including CrossTab, Ugam Solutions, Annik Systems and Dexterity are also growing at a good pace with the rise in demand for their services both from the US as well as Europe.

The trumpet of consolidation in the domestic market was already blown in 2006 when WNS acquired Bangalore-based Marketics for about $65 million, a deal that raised many eyebrows due to the fact that the valuation of the company was almost 16 times its revenue which was about $4 million at that time, with a headcount of 200 people.

Though many industry veterans complain that KPO firms are being overvalued, most of them are also keen on acquiring such companies. Offshore BPO services provider EXL Service which has acquired Inductis, a research and analytics company in 2006, is looking at couple of more acquisitions in this space to add to the capabilities.

Wipro BPO, which also provides data analysis and market search services, has already made its intention clear at the recent Nasscom BPO summit. Ashutosh Vaidya, Head, Wipro BPO, had said the company was considering suitable candidates for acquisitions.

Ugam Solutions, a pure-play MRO service provider, is actively looking for prospective candidates in the US for acquisition. Jointly owned by Avalon Consulting and KVS Group, Ugam Solutions is presently ninth out of the top 25 market research companies across the world.

The company which is estimated to be in the revenue range of $35-40 million, has already appointed a local investment bankers Avendus Advisors to help it in the acquisition process. The acquisition is expected to happen in the next 1-2 months.

"The analytics market in the US is highly fragmented. The company we are looking at in the US, is in the revenue range of $5-15 million and will bring us news skills like statistical modelling, advanced analytics and data mining. This will also help us in improving our front-end in the US as a hook into the new clients," said Sunil P Mirani, CEO of Ugam Solutions.

According to a recent study by ValueNotes, the competition in the offshore MRO space will be tougher in future with the entry of BPO players in the space. "MRO industry might witness some mergers and acquisitions post 2009.

While pure play vendors will continue to lead the MRO space, competition will intensify with the entry of large BPOs. End to end offerings will be the key to survival for pure-play MRO vendors," Neeraja Kandala, ValueNotes analysts was quoted as saying in the report.

The global survey research market is about $10 billion at present, of which 40 per cent of the works which are more operational in nature are outsourcable. The operational market research works include designing of survey questions, conduct the survey, write the report after analysing the survey, and its interpretation.

Analytics play a major role while conducting a behavioural data analysis which play a key role in containing customer churn.

ValueNotes estimates that India's revenues from off-shored MRO services stood at about $150 million in FY 2007 and expected to reach $800 million by FY 2012. The industry is expected to employ about 33,000 people by 2011-12 from the current level of about 9,000.

Apart from India, countries like Romania, Philippines, Costa Rica and China also provide market research and analytics outsourcing services

Source from: Business-Standard.com

WASHINGTON.- La sonda Phoenix ha encontrado posibles rastros de hielo en torno a la zona próxima al polo norte de Marte donde descendió, según informó el Laboratorio de Propulsión a Chorro (JPL).

Lo que parece ser hielo está en una imagen captada debajo de la nave por la cámara que tiene instalada el brazo robótico del Phoenix, cerca de una de sus tres patas, indicó el organismo de la NASA en un comunicado. "Podríamos estar viendo rocas, o podríamos estar viendo hielo en el lugar del descenso", indicó Ray Arvidson, científico de la Universidad de Washington encargado de las operaciones del brazo robótico.

Ese hielo pudo haber quedado al descubierto como resultado de la emisión de gases candentes de los cohetes que redujeron la velocidad del descenso de la nave, que llegó a Marte el pasado domingo. "Tendremos que recibir más datos, incluyendo colores, de la cámara en el brazo robótico. Pensamos que si se trata de hielo, éste se hará más brillante porque el aire atmosférico se condensará y se convertirá en escarcha sobre ese hielo", señaló.

"La confirmación total ocurrirá cuando comencemos a excavar y a analizar las capas (de suelo) cercanas", agregó el científico.

A expensas del problema en la sonda

Sin embargo, el análisis podría sufrir algunos problemas debido a un cortocircuito detectado el jueves durante las pruebas realizadas al instrumento que examina las muestras.

Un boletín de JPL indicó que se trata del Analizador Termal y de Gases, que incluye un medidor de calor así como un espectrómetro de masa para examinar los vapores producidos por el aumento de temperatura. "Hemos desarrollado una estrategia para comprender mejor este comportamiento y hemos identificado la forma de resolver este inconveniente", dijo William Boynton, científico de la Universidad de Arizona y uno de los encargados del instrumento.

Pese a ese problema, los científicos de la misión, cuyo objetivo es analizar el hielo marciano y buscar la presencia de materiales orgánicos, señalaron que ésta avanza sin mayores contratiempos. "Hemos evaluado el rendimiento de la nave en la superficie y hemos determinado que está lista para continuar", manifestó David Spencer, subdirector del proyecto.

Un problema de comunicaciones con la nave de enlace, que se había presentado el martes en las operaciones, fue resuelto el jueves cuando los ingenieros transmitieron comandos para destapar su brazo robótico. Una portavoz de JPL aclaró que el problema no fue de Phoenix sino del Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) que sirve como enlace de comunicaciones. "Hemos completado todas las tareas básicas de ingeniería y se han hecho todos los despliegues cruciales", indicó Barry Goldstein, director del proyecto.

"Nos encontramos ahora en una etapa de la misión en la que estamos revisando todos los instrumentos científicos" que lleva la sonda para analizar el hielo marciano y estudiar su suelo en busca de materiales orgánicos, agregó.

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First, we have Mercury.  NASA's MESSENGER probe has made its first flyby, and will have 2 more before it goes into orbit around Mercury.  I'm looking forward to seeing the science from this mission.  It'll be nice to finally see a complete view of the planet.

Next, there's Venus.  ESA's Venus Express is currently orbiting the planet, studying the atmosphere.  It'll also give some important information about whether the planet is volcanically active.

I won't talk about Earth probes.  But the Moon has a couple orbiting it.  JAXA's Kaguya (SELENE) is currently orbiting the Moon.  I remember when it returned HD video of the Earth rising over the Moon's horizon.  And then China's CNSA Chang'e 1 orbiter is making a 3D map of the Moon, as well as studying geology.

Mars has the largest number of active probes.  I'll do them in chronological order of arrival at Mars.  First, we have NASA's Mars Odyssey, which has been active since 2001.  It's been mapping Mars, as well as acting as a relay for the two rovers.  Then there's ESA's Mars Express, which has been mapping, studying the atmosphere, and using radar to measure the planet's permafrost.  Next, we have the two Mars Exploration Rovers from NASA, Spirit and Opportunity.  Spirit has been exploring Gusev Crater, while Opportunity has been exploring an area in Meridiani Planum, and has gone into Victoria Crater.  Both rovers have been operating since 2004.  Then there's NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been returning unbelievably high resolution images of the surface of Mars.  The pictures are incredible, and have returned some very important discoveries.  Finally is NASA's Phoenix, which recently landed in Mars' arctic plains.  Its mission has only just begun, so there will be a lot of posts on this blog about Phoenix.

On to Vesta and Ceres.  Vesta is an asteroid and Ceres is a dwarf planet.  NASA's Dawn is headed toward Vesta first, then will go to Ceres.  I'm looking forward to the science returned from this mission.

Saturn has a single probe orbiting it, Cassini.  It's a collaboration of NASA, ESA and ASI (Italy).  It carried the Huygens probe, which landed on Titan.  Cassini has returned incredible science and pictures from Saturn and its moons, and is still going strong.  Titan, Enceladus and Hyperion have all been very interesting.

The former planet, current dwarf planet Pluto finally has a probe of its own.  NASA's New Horizons is on its way to Pluto, and will arrive in 2015.  It'll be a flyby, but we'll be able to see what Pluto and Charon look like, finally.  We will also see the more recently discovered moons Nix and Hydra.  I can't wait!

There's a lot of exciting science being done right now in the Solar System.  But the future holds even more discoveries.  I'll make another post about future missions to the planets.

Note: A quick google search tells me that there is dispute about the genitive of Phoenix. Some use Phoenix' and others use Phoenix's.

Un fallo en una de las radios a bordo de la Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, que se apagó por un motivo que no ha sido determinado, impidió a los controladores de la Phoenix enviarle el martes los comandos necesarios para que comenzara a desplegar su brazo robot, un proceso que dura dos días: Radio glitch stalls Mars lander’s work.

De todos modos, aprovechando que la Mars Odyssey también se puede comunicar con la Phoenix utilizando su radio UHF, el miércoles se enviaron los comandos pertinentes a través de ella y se espera que hoy mismo lleguen imágenes que confirmen que el brazo está desplegándose: Phoenix arm begins deployment, Mars lander begins its arm exercises.

Una vez desplegado los controladores empezarán a practicar la recogida de muestras del suelo y para la semana que viene esperan estar ya analizando muestras con los instrumentos de a bordo.

Dada la complejidad de las misiones espaciales siempre hay que contar con algún tipo de problema y retraso, pero en el caso de la Phoenix el tiempo es precioso, ya que como se puede ver en el vídeo Mars Landing Challenge -- Big Science Ahead en cuanto llegue el invierno marciano la sonda dejará de recibir energía suficiente para funcionar y lo más probable es que no sobreviva al invierno, aunque lleva instrucciones en su memoria para llamar a casa si así fuera.

Lo que sí ha conseguido hacer la MRO, en cualquier caso, es fotografiar la Phoenix en la superficie de Marte, tal y como se puede ver en esta imagen:

Phoenix Lander Hardware: EDL +22 (PSP_008591_2485), La sonda Phoenix en la superficie de Marte - NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

El recuadro de arriba a la izquierda se ve la sonda, con sus dos paneles solares hacia la parte de abajo de la imagen; el recuadro de abajo a la izquierda muestra la cubierta superior y el paracaídas; en el de la derecha está el escudo térmico.

Pero sin duda la imagen más espectacular de estos días es una actualización de la fotografía de la sonda descendiendo sobre Marte en la que se la veía colgando de su paracaídas puesta en contexto, en la que se ve a la Phoenix con el cráter Heimdall de fondo:

Backdrop: Phoenix descendiendo en Marte - NASA / JPL / U. Arizona

En esta imagen la Phoenix está a una altura de entre 10 y 8 kilómetros sobre la superficie de Marte, y aunque por la perspectiva parece que va a caer en el cráter, en realidad está unos 20 kilómetros más cerca de la cámara que este.

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Enjoy from Youtube.

Incredibly, as it parachuted down towards the surface, its picture was taken by a satellite orbiting Mars, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)! From an amazing  distance of 750 kilometers (470 miles), it snapped this photograph of Phoenix parachuting towards Mars. This is the first time one probe has photographed another landing on a planet.

See full-sized version. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

To see how this fits in to the landing, take a look at this cool animation of Phoenix landing, produced by MAAS Digital and NASA.

The Lander will soon be testing its robotic arm; first by unlatching its wrist and then flexing its elbow. This is critical to the success of the mission as the arm will be scooping soil samples of ice for analysis.

 Image: NASA/ JPL/ Caltech/ Univ of Arizona

This image shows the Phoenix craft parachute during its descent on May. It landed near the Heimdall crater at at distance of 12 miles in front of the crater. NASA is using both the MRO and another vehicle orbiting Mars, Odyssey, to communicate with the Phoenix Lander. Commands have been sent for the Lander to take pictures of the area around it and to begin to move its robotic arm.

During the next three months, the arm will dig in the soil near the lander and scoop samples of soil and ice to instruments on the lander deck. Following the commands this morning, its movements will begin with unlatching the wrist, then moving the arm upwards in a stair-step manner. These movements are schedule for Wednesday, May 28.

Overall, the Lander team is quite pleased with the landing of the craft and the position where it is situated on the surface of Mars.

The image below was taken today and relayed with other information to the MRO this evening, which transmitted the image and data to earth from its orbit around Mars.

I kolejne tym razem wykonane już po lądowaniu:

Na samej górze widać lądownik z rozłożonym panelami baterii słonecznych i osmalonym przez silniki rakietowe gruntem wokoło. Na południowy-wschód od lądownika widnieje osłona termiczna (Heat Shield) i ślad po jej uderzeniu w marsjańską powierzchnię. Dalej na południe mamy kapsułę z dobrze widoczną płachtą spadochronu.

Jasny obiekt (zobacz tutaj) na południe od lądownika został zidentyfikowany na ostatniej konferencji prasowej jako spadochronem. Z powyższego zdjęcia wynika zatem, że drugi jasny obiekt, tym razem na północ od lądownika, nie jest ani kapsułą ze spadochronem, ani osłoną termiczną, a więc był już na Marsie przed lądowaniem Phoenixa. Lód, jasna skała ... ?

Podano także informacje, że ramię koparki przeznaczone do pobieraniu próbek gruntu (może kopać do głębokości pół metra) i umieszczania ich w mini-laboratrium na pokładzie lądownika, jest gotowe do użycia. Niestety polecenia uniesienia ramienia wysłane z Ziemi utknęły na MRO, który miał pośredniczyć w transmisji - trzeba będzie więc skorzystać z Mars Odyssey. Operacje z użyciem wysięgnika zaplanowano na środę.

Phoenix przesłał informacje o pogodzie na Marsie - jak dotąd najniższa temperatura to -80 st. Celsjusza (nad ranem), maksimum to -30 stopni (po południu). Ciśnienie powietrza wynosi 8,5 milibara - mniej niż jedna setna ciśnienia ziemskiego, a w miejscu lądowania wieje umiarkowany, północno-wschodni wietrzyk o prędkości 20 km/h.

... trwają przygotowania do przyjęcia nowego gościa. Phoenix nie będzie sam - obecnie Czerwoną Planetę okrążają trzy działające orbitery, a na jej powierzchni nadal pracują dwa łaziki (MER-y - Mars Exploration Rover) Spirit i Opportunity. Wszystkie orbitery dostosowały swoje trajektorie wokół planety w taki sposób aby w momencie przybycia Phoenixa znaleźć się nad miejscem jego lądowania. Mars Oddysey będzie przekazywać sygnały radiowe z lądownika na Ziemię (ma w tym doświadczenie, sonda pośredniczyła w sporej części transmisji z MER-ów), natomiast Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter oraz europejski Mars Express posłużą jako backup: nagrają sygnały z Phoenixa i przekażą potem całe pliki na Ziemię, aby zagwarantować, że żadne dane nie zostały utracone. Nawet łaziki MER wzięły udział w przygotowaniach, służąc za testowe źródło transmisji z powierzchni Marsa. Więcej tutaj.

Nadawanie sygnałów podczas procedury lądowania to efekt doświadczeń zebranych podczas katastrofy Mars Polar Landera w 1999 r. Wtedy lądownik zamilkł (planowo) przed wejściem w atmosferę i miał odezwać się po udanym lądowaniu, czego jak wiadomo już nie uczynił. I właściwie nie do końca wiadomo co się z nim stało. Transmisja podczas lądowania ma zapewnić stały strumień informacji o stanie aparatu.

The movie is courtesy of the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft.  This is a low-resolution camera that scans Mars as the MRO orbits the planet, producing a global map at a pixel resolution of 1 to 10 km. This map provides a daily weather snapshot on Mars, gathering data on seasonal and annual variations, and maps the existence of water vapor and ozone in the Martian atmosphere.

For example, the weather report for the week of May 12, 2008 through May 18, 2008 is as follows:

Martian weather this past week continued to be fairly typical for northern spring. Afternoon water ice clouds concentrated over the major shield volcanoes, in the equatorial region, and west of Argyre. While Hellas continued to be clear and relatively free of dust, another dust storm developed at the seasonal north polar cap edge north of Tempe and lofted a diffuse cloud of dust onto the perennial cap for several days. This storm occurred northeast of the Phoenix site, where Phoenix intends to land on May 25. Although the storm occurred somewhat near the landing site, it did not affect weather conditions at the site. The two MER rovers (at Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum) continued to experience dust storm-free skies with some partial cloud (condensate) cover throughout the week. Some of these condensate clouds reached heights of 69-83 km altitude (mesosphere).

There is also a reference map provided so that you can pinpoint the location of the places named in the weather report.

I find the Mars weather information interesting to compare with our weather on this planet. In place of rain or other precipitation, the active ingredient in Martian weather is dust.

I watched an episode in NASA channel entitled Destination Tomorrow. It was interesting because space scientists are working to investigate suitable landing sites in Mars that are scientifically interesting and potential for proofs of interest. NASA developed the MRO, or the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (I dunno if I got the words right but it sounded just like that) to look for potential landing sites in case there would be success of human flights at Mars in the near future.

The MRO has high resolution cameras to produce high profile detailed pictures which will be evaluated to search for potential sites. It has also telescopic cameras to capture the planet’s surface features by photographing the planet. In this way, the scientists can relay and send information by communication platform for robotic missions and about the weather patterns in Mars. In this way the space scientists can also look for water. By its self surface radar, they would know the weather patterns, and any detailed information to expand the knowledge about the planet.

MRO would took seven months to journey to Mars and 27 months to orbit it.