Curiosity Rover on Mars

[AndyDufresne]

Launch: 26 November 2011

Landing: 5-6 August 2012

• 10:31 pm Pacific, 5 August
• 11:31 pm Mountain, 5 August
• 12:31 am Central, 6 August
• 01:31 am Eastern, 6 August
• 05:31 am Universal, 6 August

154 Million miles away from Earth, in just a couple of days the Curiosity Rover will hit Mars' atmosphere traveling at near 13,000 mph. 7 minutes later, NASA hopes it'll decelerate to a safe and functional landing. When it gets there, it'll take around 10-15 minutes for the signal to travel back to Earth at light speed before we'll know how well the landing went.

If you plan on being up late---or early---check out some of the Live Coverage:

• NASA TV (via the web or satellite tv)
• UStream

And for the interactive bits:

Picture Describing EDL

(Entry, Descent, Landing)

Sci Show You Tube Video showing how EDL should go

(Entry, Descent, Landing)

Size Comparison to past Rovers

Source

Left to right: Spirit/Opporunity, Sojourner, Curiosity.



Curi­osity is nearly twice as long as Spirit/Oppor­tunity and has more than five times the mass; at 2.1 metres in height it is taller than most of the people that built it.




Left to right: The wheels of Sojourner, Spirit/Oppor­tunity and Curi­osity.




Both Sojourner and Spirit/Oppor­tunity were powered by solar cells but Curi­osity is powered by a radioiso­tope ther­mo­elec­tric gen­er­ator (RTG).

From NASA:
During the 23 months after landing, Curiosity will analyze dozens of samples drilled from rocks or scooped from the ground as it explores with greater range than any previous Mars rover. Curiosity will carry the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on Mars’ surface, a payload more than 10 times as massive as those of earlier Mars rovers. Its assignment: Investigate whether conditions have been favorable for microbial life and for preserving clues in the rocks about possible past life.

======================================================
For more, check out these:

• Mars Rover Curiosity Set to See Red Planet As Never Before (Scientific American Article)
• A Drop-In Looking for Signs of Company (NY Times Article)
• Boldly Opening a New Window Onto Mars (NY Times OP-ED)
• JPL-NASA's Curiosity Landing Homepage
• Possible News Briefings Schedule

======================================================


--Andy

[Haggis_McMutton]

Nice.

Was wondering if anyone had made a thread about this.

[Maugena]

will.i.am* is being talked to right now. Lol.

[Maugena]

Just walked back in time to see the moments right before it landed as well as the two pictures.
Yay!

[InkL0sed]

Anything NASA/Mars related, Andy's got it covered.

[AndyDufresne]

Anything NASA/Mars related, Andy's got it covered.

Curiosity lands safely, phewfta. EDL went as exactly as planned, and the coordination between Earth's Deep Space Network and NASA's 2 orbiters (Mars Odyssey Orbiter and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) passing over the landing site at exactly the same time as EDL allowed some initial landing photos to be instantly received:



A wheel of the rover.




The shadow of the rover.

===============

More images will downloaded by NASA in the coming hours, days, and weeks.

From NY Times article:

"NASA will spend the first weeks checking out Curiosity before embarking on the first drive. The rover will not scoop its first sample of Martian soil until mid-September at the earliest, and the first drilling into rock is not expected until October or November. "




--Andy

[AndyDufresne]

Here is an update from today's news conference:

The MRO managed to snap a picture of EDL as it passed over head. There was about a 40% chance that things wouldn't line up, but everything lined up pretty perfectly. The second image is pretty darn cool as well.

Curiosity Landing, as seen from Above

"Curiosity and its parachute are in the center of the white box. The rover is descending toward the etched plains just north of the sand dunes that fringe "Mt. Sharp." From the perspective of the orbiter, the parachute and Curiosity are flying at an angle relative to the surface, so the landing site does not appear directly below the rover. "


"The parachute appears fully inflated and performing perfectly. Details in the parachute, such as the band gap at the edges and the central hole, are clearly seen. The cords connecting the parachute to the back shell cannot be seen, although they were seen in the image of NASA's Phoenix lander descending, perhaps due to the difference in lighting angles. The bright spot on the back shell containing Curiosity might be a specular reflection off of a shiny area. Curiosity was released from the back shell sometime after this image was acquired. "

Here is a sense of where Curiosity landed:

Landing Location

"This is the landing ellipse that was the target, to be best near eventual science targets. The ellipse is about 12 miles long and 4 miles wide (20 kilometers by 7 kilometers)." The dot in the circle is just the center. The next image will show where the Rover thinks it it landed, based on its telemetry. The MRO flying overhead in the next week or two will help determine independently in case of any telemetry bias.


"The green diamond shows approximately where NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars, a region about 2 kilometers northeast of its target in the center of the estimated landing region (blue ellipse). The location of the diamond is based on Earth-based navigation data taken prior to Curiosity's entry into the Martian atmosphere, as well as data taken by the rover's navigation instruments during descent."


'Gale Crater' is where everything is taking place:

Here is an update of one of the previous images. They were taken with what are called 'Hazard Cams'---essentially cameras point at the wheels and other areas to help with hazard avoidance. They have a fish-eye lens, and here is an updated version with the fish-eye fixed. The topographic materials you see on the horizon are some dunes at the base of the mountain that the Rover will eventually explore.

Photo update

During Sol 1 (think of Sol's like 'Martian days'), the science team will start to un-stow antennas for communication and one of the main cameras that will eventually provide panoramas and color photos.

Source


--Andy

[jonesthecurl]

Wow.

[isaiah40]

This just in from Curiousity!!!

[KoolBak]

Excellent thread....

[AndyDufresne]

Update from today's news conference:

Photo update of the previous hazard cam image showing the Rover's shadow. You can also more easily see a nice geographic feature on the horizon.

photo update

low resolution color photo of descent

Curiosity's Heat Shield in View
This color thumbnail image was obtained by NASA's Curiosity rover during its descent to the surface of Mars on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The image was obtained by the Mars Descent Imager instrument known as MARDI and shows the 15-foot (4.5-meter) diameter heat shield when it was about 50 feet (16 meters) from the spacecraft. It was obtained two and one-half minutes before touching down on the surface of Mars and about three seconds after heat shield separation. It is among the first color images Curiosity sent back from Mars. The resolution of all of the MARDI frames is reduced by a factor of eight in order for them to be promptly received on Earth during this early phase of the mission. Full resolution (1,600 by 1,200 pixel) images will be returned to Earth over the next several months as Curiosity begins its scientific exploration of Mars.

The original image from MARDI has been geometrically corrected to look flat.

You can also view a series of snapshots of the descent as seen by the Rover during entry, descent, and landing: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogal ... =149974611

Hardware Items, Scene of Martian Landing

The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA's Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image about 24 hours after landing. The large, reduced-scale image points out the strewn hardware: the heat shield was the first piece to hit the ground, followed by the back shell attached to the parachute, then the rover itself touched down, and finally, after cables were cut, the sky crane flew away to the northwest and crashed. Relatively dark areas in all four spots are from disturbances of the bright dust on Mars, revealing the darker material below the surface dust.

Around the rover, this disturbance was from the sky crane thrusters, and forms a bilaterally symmetrical pattern. The darkened radial jets from the sky crane are downrange from the point of oblique impact, much like the oblique impacts of asteroids. In fact, they make an arrow pointing to Curiosity.

Color Photo and Context of a Horizon Snapshot

This picture of the Martian landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover puts a color view obtained by the rover in the context of a computer simulation derived from images acquired from orbiting spacecraft. The view looks north, showing a distant ridge that is the north wall and rim of Gale Crater.

There is a dust cover that will be eventually removed, making the image fuzzy.

--Andy

[BigBallinStalin]

IT"S A FAKE!! CONSPIRE!! CONSPIRE! CONSPIRE!!!!

[Nola_Lifer]

Only took about a year to get to mars. Pretty impressive.

[Baron Von PWN]

Only took about a year to get to mars. Pretty impressive.

I wonder how long it would take to send a manned crew. Obviously a larger rocket would be required. not to mention other problems.

[Army of GOD]

It would be infinitely astounding scientifically if we found evidence of possible life/past life but I think it would be cooler to send another man to the Moon with a live camera feed.

Or, you know, it would be cool to be the next man on the Moon. Luckily I'm tall enough but from what I read most of the original guys on the moon had experience in the Air Force which I can't be arsed to do, na'mean?

[2dimes]

We're on it bro.

[karel]

what a waste of money

[KoolBak]

OK....we should cancel all efforts!!

The Russians space system is a waste of money....they can't even get a simple booster rocket into orbit any more....poor ruskies

[Haggis_McMutton]

what a waste of money

yeah, we could have used that money for confetti for one of the presidential candidate's speeches.

[puppydog85]

Andy (or anyone else),

Pardon my ignorance but why black and white? How much did they spend on those things? What about an auto-focus? Or is there some reason that makes that really hard to get on mars (like costing 3B instead of 1B or whatever they spent)?

[AndyDufresne]

Andy (or anyone else),

Pardon my ignorance but why black and white? How much did they spend on those things? What about an auto-focus? Or is there some reason that makes that really hard to get on mars (like costing 3B instead of 1B or whatever they spent)?

The images you've been seeing initially aren't from the main color imaging camera and video. They are primarily from 'Hazard Cams' which are more geared for simply keeping the Rover safe and evaluating where it is in the environment. Think of them kind of like the rear view and side mirrors in a car, and not the windshield which gives you a bigger and more detailed view. The main camera I think is (or will be soon) up an running, and at the point color photos with high resolution will be made available by the Rover.

Additionally, the Rover first usually sends small thumbnails (since they are small in data size and can be sent more quickly), and then slightly better resolution, and then full resolution big photos.

I'll post some more photo and video updates perhaps later today after this afternoon's news conference!


--Andy

[puppydog85]

Ah! All is now clear. At least in my mind, not in the pictures.

[Haggis_McMutton]

[Baron Von PWN]

OK....we should cancel all efforts!!

The Russians space system is a waste of money....they can't even get a simple booster rocket into orbit any more....poor ruskies

lol wut?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/wor ... cmpid=rss1

yeah they are having some problems with some rockets failing, but the soyuz rockets have been the main method of ferrying supplies to the space station for the past while.

[jonesthecurl]

Anyway, at least all the cats on Mars are on the "endangered" list now.