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MissJenn

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    NASA’s Mars Rover Perseverance is trackable via Geocaching! (TB5EFXK)

    in Trackables

    Posted

    We began today with the very exciting log posted by "mikbalt" as the very first geocacher who discovered the Mars Perseverance Rover trackable item via NASA's raw images gallery. "mikbalt" is Dr. Francis McCubbin whom you may recall as being instrumental in this entire saga.

     

    Here is his eloquent Discovery log: https://coord.info/TL1CAJ8QD

     

    In all the excitement and volume of discoveries/logging today, you may have been hoping to see this and missed it. Enjoy his prose. Savor those thoughts. Let’s go exploring . . .

     

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    NASA’s Mars Rover Perseverance is trackable via Geocaching! (TB5EFXK)

    in Trackables

    Posted

     

    HURRAY! The much-anticipated moment has arrived and geocaching is officially interplanetary.

    Thanks to Perseverance for taking #geocachingtomars.

     

    Here is a link to NASA’s raw images. https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/

    Can you find the actual, correct image in that large gallery? Be sure to filter for pictures taken by SHERLOC & WATSON.  

     

    Once you find the correct image, consider clicking the LIKE button so you can add this image to your favorites. Come back at the beginning of the week to see the public's favorite. Maybe our favorite image can make it to the Image of the Week gallery.

     

    Mars Perseverance Rover: trackable page

    https://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=4638861

     

    Geocaching HQ created a script that took almost 17,000 accounts off the watchlist after the first log was posted so that email inboxes would not be unnecessarily flooded. You are certainly welcome to add this trackable back to your Watchlist if you wish. 

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    NASA’s Mars Rover Perseverance is trackable via Geocaching! (TB5EFXK)

    in Trackables

    Posted

    UPDATE: We shared via a newsletter that the trackable could be unlocked on March 10. We have since learned that this date has most likely changed.

    NASA surface operations comes with many challenges and are well beyond the influence of Geocaching HQ. The exact date of the camera calibration remains undetermined. Please realize that I am as excited as you all are: perhaps the most excited person out of everyone. OK, maybe the 3rd most excited person out of everyone. Thank you for being a part of this journey!

     

    A few people keeping an eye on these NASA images are joking that someone appears to have left the lens cap on the camera. That funny comment is sort of true. There IS a motorized dust cap and the SHERLOC - WATSON images online now were taken with that dust cover on.  

     

    Screen Shot 2021-03-09 at 10.34.29 AM.png

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    NASA’s Mars Rover Perseverance is trackable via Geocaching! (TB5EFXK)

    in Trackables

    Posted

    For those not on Facebook, Perseverance has provided these updates. Pictures and much more at https://www.facebook.com/NASAPersevere. 

     

    March 3:

    Quote

    This week I’ve been doing lots of health checkouts, getting ready to get to work. I’ve checked many tasks off my list, including instrument tests, imaging, and getting my arm moving. Warming up for a marathon of science.

     

    March 5: 

    Quote

    A quick test of my steering, and things are looking good as I get ready to roll. My team and I are keen to get moving. One step at a time.

     

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    NASA’s Mars Rover Perseverance is trackable via Geocaching! (TB5EFXK)

    in Trackables

    Posted

    The anticipation is DELICIOUS!

     
    Since there are recent newcomers to this forum discussion, here are some existing resources:
     
    1 - You can listen to Podcast Episode 48: Geocaching on Mars – Interview with Dr. Francis McCubbin.
     
    2 - A written interview with Dr. McCubbin is also available in Spanish, French, German, Dutch, and English:  https://www.geocaching.com/blog/page/2/?s=mccubbin
     
    3 - The trackable page has been edited:
    How can I log this trackable if I’m not also going to Mars?
    If you’re not blasting off anytime soon, don’t worry. You’ll still be able to log the Mars Rover in the first half of March. The tracking code is on the WATSON camera’s calibration target. After Perseverance lands on Mars and NASA is ready, that camera will take a picture of the tracking code itself and send that picture back to Earth. You can log the Rover by finding the code in that picture. 
     
    4. Please note that Geocaching HQ is giving explicit permission as the owner to log this trackable virtually. Normally, logging trackables that you have not personally seen is strongly discouraged. It is up to the trackable owner to state if they allow this. Read more about virtual logs in our Help Center.
     
    5. For so much more on NASA's Mars missions, including news about not just Perseverance but also about Curiosity, Insight, and the orbiters: https://mars.nasa.gov/

     

     
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    NASA’s Mars Rover Perseverance is trackable via Geocaching! (TB5EFXK)

    in Trackables

    Posted

    19 hours ago, Teuto-Yachter said:

    I just realized that Perseverance herself is a sort of robot cacher. If I got it right, she is to place all those drill cores in certain positions on Mars, for another robot cacher in a few years to come and find them.;)

     

    Excellent observation. That is EXACTLY one of the early inspirational moments of this project. 

     

    Here is a quote from the blog post where Dr. Francis McCubbin explains this a bit more:
     

    Quote

     

    HQ: As a geocacher and scientist, could you describe why this project is so exciting?

     

    Dr. McCubbin: Mars sample return has been a high scientific priority for decades, and the fact that we are finally implementing a plan to complete it is immensely exciting from a scientific perspective. These samples are going to tell us so much about Mars, its past, and possibly whether Mars ever harbored life. When I learned that the strategy for collecting and returning samples included a rover that was going to cache samples on the surface for another rover to find, the geocacher in me was stirred with childlike glee that the rovers would be doing something that resembles geocaching on Mars. 

     

    Being asked to actually help incorporate an element of geocaching on the Perseverance rover and getting to work with Geocaching HQ as a NASA scientist is exciting beyond what words can express. I can hardly wait for those first images of the calibration target from the WATSON imager to be sent back to Earth so we can see the word “geocaching” on something that is literally sitting on the surface of Mars. Geocaching has officially expanded its impact beyond the orbit of the global positioning satellites from which it emerged.

     

     

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    Icons on GeoTour page not displaying

    in Website

    Posted

    Indeed. I noticed those missing icons on the same week that you noticed it, and our devs have begun to look at the issue. (I am just seeing your forum post today.)

     

    Please know we are aware of the issue. Happily, you can see all the icons when using the Geocaching mobile app. 

    If any of you readers are on a mobile app as you read this response from me, this link ought to bring you to that part of the app: coord.info/GT499

     

    Enjoy Oregon's Central Coast GeoTour!

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    NASA’s Mars Rover Perseverance is trackable via Geocaching! (TB5EFXK)

    in Trackables

    Posted

    Thanks to the Mars 2020 SHERLOC instrument team at Johnson Space Center, the newest mission to Mars - the rover named Perseverance - is trackable via Geocaching, truly taking geocaching out of this world!

     

    https://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tb=TB5EFXK

     

    How cool is that?

     

    How can I log this trackable if I’m not also going to Mars?

    If you’re not blasting off anytime soon, don’t worry! You’ll still be able to log the Mars Rover starting around February 2021. Since the tracking code is on the WATSON camera’s calibration target, once Perseverance lands on Mars, the camera will take a picture of the tracking code itself and send that picture back to Earth. You can log the Rover by finding the code in that picture.

     

    Watch the launch using this link. 

    The Launch Window is July 30 - August 15, 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

     

    Landing: February 18, 2021 in the Jezero Crater, Mars

     

    The Mars Perseverance rover mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The Mars Perseverance mission addresses high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key questions about the potential for life on Mars. 

     

    Perseverance has four main science goals:

    • Determine whether life ever arose on Mars
    • Characterize the climate of Mars
    • Prepare for human exploration
    • Characterize the geology of Mars - GEOCACHERS, TAKE NOTE!  Perseverance will be collecting geology samples and other materials, setting those aside in a special location, and then retrieving them later on: that is the original definition of “caching” something. (For example, sometimes outdoorsy people will **cache** a container of supplies in a remote forest cabin; they leave it there for months and retrieve/use it later when they return.) 

    For so more information on Perseverance, please consult this Fact Sheet provided by NASA.

     

     

    Mars Rover Perseverance TB5EFXK.png

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