Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

Filter Total Items: 7241

The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover Mastcam instruments: Preflight and in-flight calibration, validation, and data archiving

The NASA Curiosity rover Mast Camera (Mastcam) system is a pair of fixed-focal length, multispectral, color CCD imagers mounted ~2 m above the surface on the rover's remote sensing mast, along with associated electronics and an onboard calibration target. The left Mastcam (M-34) has a 34 mm focal length, an instantaneous field of view (IFOV) of 0.22 mrad, and a FOV of 20° × 15° over the full 1648 
Authors
James F. Bell, A. Godber, S. McNair, M.A. Caplinger, J.N. Maki, M. T. Lemmon, J. Van Beek, M.C. Malin, D. Wellington, K.M. Kinch, M.B. Madsen, C. Hardgrove, M.A. Ravine, E. Jensen, D. Harker, Ryan Anderson, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, R.V. Morris, E. Cisneros, R. G. Deen

Viscous relaxation of Ganymede's impact craters: Constraints on heat flux

Measurement of crater depths in Ganymede’s dark terrain have revealed substantial numbers of unusually shallow craters indicative of viscous relaxation [see companion paper: Singer, K.N., Schenk, P. M., Bland, M.T., McKinnon, W.B., (2017). Relaxed impact craters on Ganymede: Regional variations and high heat flow. Icarus, submitted]. These viscously relaxed craters provide insight into the thermal
Authors
Michael T. Bland, Kelsi N. Singer, William B. McKinnon, Paul M. Schenk

In situ detection of boron by ChemCam on Mars

We report the first in situ detection of boron on Mars. Boron has been detected in Gale crater at levels <0.05 wt % B by the NASA Curiosity rover ChemCam instrument in calcium‐sulfate‐filled fractures, which formed in a late‐stage groundwater circulating mainly in phyllosilicate‐rich bedrock interpreted as lacustrine in origin. We consider two main groundwater‐driven hypotheses to explain the pres
Authors
Patrick J. Gasda, Ethan B. Haldeman, Roger C. Wiens, William Rapin, Thomas F. Bristow, John C. Bridges, Susanne P. Schwenzer, Benton C. Clark, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, Jens Frydenvang, Nina L. Lanza, Sylvestre Maurice, Samuel M. Clegg, Dorothea M. Delapp, Veronica L. Sanford, Madeleine R. Bodine, Rhonda McInroy

Application and evaluation of a rapid response earthquake-triggered landslide model to the 25 April 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake, Nepal

The 25 April 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake produced strong ground motions across an approximately 250 km by 100 km swath in central Nepal. To assist disaster response activities, we modified an existing earthquake-triggered landslide model based on a Newmark sliding block analysis to estimate the extent and intensity of landsliding and landslide dam hazard. Landslide hazard maps were produced usin
Authors
Sean F. Gallen, Marin K. Clark, Jonathan W. Godt, Kevin Roback, Nathan A Niemi

Evolution of strain localization in variable-width three-dimensional unsaturated laboratory-scale cut slopes

To experimentally validate a recently developed theory for predicting the stability of cut slopes under unsaturated conditions, the authors measured increasing strain localization in unsaturated slope cuts prior to abrupt failure. Cut slope width and moisture content were controlled and varied in a laboratory, and a sliding door that extended the height of the free face of the slope was lowered un
Authors
Michael S. Morse, Ning Lu, Alexandra Wayllace, Jonathan W. Godt

The planetary data system

In the early 1980s, the Space Science Board (SSB) of the National Research Council was concerned about the poor and inconsistent treatment of scientific information returned from NASA’s space science missions. The SSB formed a panel [The Committee on Data Management and Computation (CODMAC)] to assess the situation and make recommendations to NASA for improvements. The CODMAC panel issued a report
Authors
Charles Acton, Susan Slavney, Raymond E. Arvidson, Lisa R. Gaddis, Mitchell Gordon, Susan Lavoie

Rock friction under variable normal stress

This study is to determine the detailed response of shear strength and other fault properties to changes in normal stress at room temperature using dry initially bare rock surfaces of granite at normal stresses between 5 and 7 MPa. Rapid normal stress changes result in gradual, approximately exponential changes in shear resistance with fault slip. The characteristic length of the exponential chang
Authors
Brian D. Kilgore, Nicholas M. Beeler, Julian C. Lozos, David Oglesby

Viscoelastic lower crust and mantle relaxation following the 14–16 April 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, earthquake sequence

The 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, earthquake sequence, culminating in the Mw=7.0 16 April 2016 main shock, occurred within an active tectonic belt of central Kyushu. GPS data from GEONET reveal transient crustal motions from several millimeters per year up to ∼3 cm/yr during the first 8.5 months following the sequence. The spatial pattern of horizontal postseismic motions is shaped by both shallow aftersl
Authors
Fred Pollitz, Tomokazu Kobayashi, Hiroshi Yarai, Bunichiro Shibazaki, Takumi Matsumoto

Results of hydrologic monitoring on landslide-prone coastal bluffs near Mukilteo, Washington

A hydrologic monitoring network was installed to investigate landslide hazards affecting the railway corridor along the eastern shore of Puget Sound between Seattle and Everett, near Mukilteo, Washington. During the summer of 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey installed monitoring equipment at four sites equipped with instrumentation to measure rainfall and air temperature every 15 minutes. Two of t
Authors
Joel B. Smith, Rex L. Baum, Benjamin B. Mirus, Abigail R. Michel, Ben Stark

Increasing rock-avalanche size and mobility in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska detected from 1984 to 2016 Landsat imagery

In the USA, climate change is expected to have an adverse impact on slope stability in Alaska. However, to date, there has been limited work done in Alaska to assess if changes in slope stability are occurring. To address this issue, we used 30-m Landsat imagery acquired from 1984 to 2016 to establish an inventory of 24 rock avalanches in a 5000-km2 area of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve i
Authors
Jeffrey A. Coe, Erin Bessette-Kirton, M. Geertsema

Increasing rock-avalanche size and mobility in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska detected from 1984 to 2016 Landsat imagery

In the USA, climate change is expected to have an adverse impact on slope stability in Alaska. However, to date, there has been limited work done in Alaska to assess if changes in slope stability are occurring. To address this issue, we used 30-m Landsat imagery acquired from 1984 to 2016 to establish an inventory of 24 rock avalanches in a 5000-km2 area of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve i
Authors
Jeffrey A. Coe, Erin Bessette-Kirton, Marten Geertsema
Was this page helpful?