Mars Rover/Mission Thread: Following Our Curiosity

[Squirrels.Gone.Wild]

Will.I.Am? Poor Mars.

[Tom-The-Great]

so much cool stuff in this thread.. thanks Sharpshooter for keeping us all up to date on it..

[Sharpshooter]

so much cool stuff in this thread.. thanks Sharpshooter for keeping us all up to date on it..

[avelanch]

i originally started trying to get news about this online, but i stopped doing that because everything worth reading/seeing gets posted here anyway. keep it up everyone!

[Hobble]

Well, at least it wasn't Fergie being broadcasted...

A very apt song, but pretty average lyrics like usual.

"They sky might be high. But baby it ain't really that high. Mars might be far. But baby it ain't really that far."

It peeves me when artists like this rhyme a word with the same word in the next line. Try to be a bit more creative.

But anyways... GO CURIOSITY! GO NASA! GO MARS!

[wtpasc]

nice to see the color higher quality pics now. exciting stuff, keep it coming - 5* thread!

[Heretic]

I am for space exploration, but would like people to discuss why we are doing it.

Face it, it costs a lot of money - money that could be used by medical science for cures, or for programs to help third world countries become self sufficient ( growing crops for food for example).

With that said, here's the big question:

How will the mars mission(s) benefit mankind?

Inspiration is the first one to come to my mind.

This could help unite mankind once and for all, maybe bring and end to all the fighting we wage against each other.

[Sharpshooter]

I am for space exploration, but would like people to discuss why we are doing it.

Face it, it costs a lot of money - money that could be used by medical science for cures, or for programs to help third world countries become self sufficient ( growing crops for food for example).

With that said, here's the big question:

How will the mars mission(s) benefit mankind?

Inspiration is the first one to come to my mind.

This could help unite mankind once and for all, maybe bring and end to all the fighting we wage against each other.

[sean couturier]

Mars fever: Parties planned across the globe to see if Nasa's Curiosity rover survives 'seven minutes of terror'

• Rover scheduled to land at 5:31AM (GMT) on Monday morning

• Scientists say they are 'cautiously optimistic'

• Times Square will show Nasa coverage, while Google will webcast it

• Mission will search for signs of life on the red planet's surface using a scoop to dig into the soil

By Mark Prigg

PUBLISHED: 11:21 GMT, 2 August 2012 | UPDATED: 14:26 GMT, 2 August 2012

It is one of the most daring space missions ever attempted.

Early on monday morning the Curiosity rover will, if all goes according to plan, enter the martian atmosphere and begin a series of hugely complex manoeuvres to bring it gently onto the surface.

They include a radical floating 'sky crane' as part of a descent dubbed the 'seven minutes of terror'.

Scroll down for video

Insatiable Curiosity: The rover captivating the globe in a bid to find life on the red planet

But the plucky rover won't be alone - across the globe, thousands are expected to watch online and on TV as it approaches the red planet.

Nasa has even done a deal to show it in Times Square, while space fans elsewhere are planning parties.

'In the city that never sleeps, the historic Times Square will be the place for New Yorkers to participate in this historic landing,' John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science missions, said.

When you think of all the big news events in history, you think of Times Square, and I can think of no better venue to celebrate this news-making event on Mars.'

The landing will be shown on the big screen in Times Square

The Curiosity rover has taken the public's imagination by storm, in one of the most daring space missions ever attempted.

The rover, Curiosity, is designed to search for clues about possible past life in a crater that might once have been filled with water.

The £1.59 billion six-wheeled machine is twice as long and five times as heavy as the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity which landed on Mars in 2004.

Two British scientists are members of the team which will direct the rover and analyse the data it collects.

WHERE TO WATCH

The Times Square broadcast begins at 11:30 p.m. EDT Sunday night and runs until 4 a.m. EDT Monday morning (Aug. 6).

The exact time of landing is scheduled for 1:31 a.m. Aug. 6 EDT (0531 GMT), though it will be late Monday night at the rover's California-based mission control room.

Nasa has a full list of US events to watch the landing here.

Dr John Bridges, from the University of Leicester Space Research Centre, one of the British scientists working on the Mars Science Laboratory mission, said: 'I’m cautiously optimistic.

'Space exploration is not for the faint hearted.

'The previous rover landing used inflatable bouncing bags. Curiosity’s just too heavy for that, so they developed the sky crane technique.'

Curiosity’s target is Gale Crater, near the Martian equator, where there are geological signs of past water.

The plan is to land close to Mount Sharp, a 5.5-kilometre peak in the centre of the crater with clay deposits around its base.

If all goes well the radio signal confirming that Curiosity has landed will arrive on Earth after a 14-minute journey through space at 06.31, UK time.

For one Martian year - 98 Earth weeks - Curiosity will explore its surroundings using its robot arm and a formidable array of scientific instruments to analyse samples drilled from rocks or scooped from the ground.

It also carries a laser capable of zapping rocks up to 30 feet away, vaporising tiny amounts of material in a flash of light that can be analysed to reveal chemical data.

As well carrying a stereo camera to take panoramic shots, Curiosity will be equipped with a magnifying imager that can reveal details smaller than the width of a human hair.

Geologist Professor Sanjeev Gupta, from Imperial College London, the other British scientist involved in the mission, said: 'Nasa chose Gale Crater as the landing site because it has a number of really exciting geological features that we are hoping to explore.

Target: The known as Gale crater area where Nasa's Curiosity rover will land on August 5

'These include a canyon and what appears to be a lake bed on the floor of the crater, as well as a channel and a delta, which we think may have been carved by water.

HOW CURIOSITY WILL LAND

After entering the Martian atmosphere at 13,200mph, the capsule containing Curiosity will be slowed by friction and then a supersonic parachute.

An 'upper stage' resembling a flying bedstead will then be deployed, firing retro rockets to brake its descent.

As it hovers over the landing site, the upper stage will transform itself into a 'sky crane' and lower Curiosity to the surface on the end of a tether.

It will then break away, and deliberately crash.

'We will use the rover’s cameras, including one which is like a powerful magnifying glass, to study the geology up close.'

Dr Bridges and Prof Gupta will be based at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, during the mission.

They will be among hundreds of scientists who will work together round the clock analysing data beamed back from Curiosity, planning experiments and guiding the rover’s excursions.

Dr Bridges said a key goal is to study the clay sediments at the foot of Mount Sharp. Scientists believe they are a reminder of a time, three to four billion years ago, when there was abundant water on the surface of Mars.

'The clay layers may represent what we loosely call a warm and wet period in Martian history,' said Dr Bridges.

'On the top of the mountain the rock was deposited under dry conditions, so there was a great environmental change.

'There’s this idea that Mars was warm and wet long ago, but we don’t know how long there were standing bodies of water on Mars, whether they were short lived or lasted hundreds of millions of years.

'That’s important to the question of whether life ever existed there.

Although we’ve made enormous strides in understanding Mars over the last 10 or 20 years, there’s still a lot we don’t know.'

An Atlas V rocket carrying Curiosity blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in November.

The journey to Mars crossed 352 million miles of space.

Nasa's Curiosity rover, which is set to land on the red planet of surface - if it survives a descent known as 'seven minutes of terror'

Hey brother, do you notice the name of the name of the mountain it is landing at the base of

[Buddhas Hand]

NASA Curiosity Rover Begins Eastbound Trek on Martian surface

Soil clinging to the right middle and rear wheels of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity can be seen in this image taken by the Curiosity's Navigation Camera after the rover's third drive on Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

› Full image and caption › Latest images › Curiosity gallery › Curiosity videos

On Aug. 28, 2012, during the 22nd Martian day, or sol, after landing on Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover drove about 52 feet (16 meters) eastward, the longest drive of the mission so far. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

› Full image and caption

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has set off from its landing vicinity on a trek to a science destination about a quarter mile (400 meters) away, where it may begin using its drill.

The rover drove eastward about 52 feet (16 meters) on Tuesday, its 22nd Martian day after landing. This third drive was longer than Curiosity's first two drives combined. The previous drives tested the mobility system and positioned the rover to examine an area scoured by exhaust from one of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft engines that placed the rover on the ground.

"This drive really begins our journey toward the first major driving destination, Glenelg, and it's nice to see some Martian soil on our wheels," said mission manager Arthur Amador of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The drive went beautifully, just as our rover planners designed it."

Glenelg is a location where three types of terrain intersect. Curiosity's science team chose it as a likely place to find a first rock target for drilling and analysis.

"We are on our way, though Glenelg is still many weeks away," said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "We plan to stop for just a day at the location we just reached, but in the next week or so we will make a longer stop."

During the longer stop at a site still to be determined, Curiosity will test its robotic arm and the contact instruments at the end of the arm. At the location reached Tuesday, Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) will collect a set of images toward the mission's ultimate driving destination, the lower slope of nearby Mount Sharp. A mosaic of images from the current location will be used along with the Mastcam images of the mountain taken at the spot where Curiosity touched down, Bradbury Landing. This stereo pair taken about 33 feet (10 meters) apart will provide three-dimensional information about distant features and possible driving routes.

[Buddhas Hand]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJo2G662Xdw&feature=player_detailpage

[Hobble]

I am for space exploration, but would like people to discuss why we are doing it.

Face it, it costs a lot of money - money that could be used by medical science for cures, or for programs to help third world countries become self sufficient ( growing crops for food for example).

With that said, here's the big question:

How will the mars mission(s) benefit mankind?

Inspiration is the first one to come to my mind.

This could help unite mankind once and for all, maybe bring and end to all the fighting we wage against each other.

[nucklehead]

It is the final frontier!

[Buddhas Hand]

3-D image from mars

more new images ,

Looking Back at Tracks from Sol 24 Drive

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drove about 70 feet (about 21 meters) on the mission's 21st Martian day, or sol (Aug. 30, 2012) and then took images with its Navigation Camera that are combined into this scene, which inclues the fresh tracks. The view is centered toward the west-northwest.

Tracks from Eastbound Drive on Curiosity's Sol 22

On Aug. 28, 2012, during the 22nd Martian day, or sol, after landing on Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover drove about 52 feet (16 meters) eastward, the longest drive of the mission so far. The drive imprinted the wheel tracks visible in this image. The rover's rear Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam) took the image after the drive. Curiosity's front and rear Hazcams have fisheye lenses for enabling the rover to see a wide swath of terrain. This image has been processed to

Marks of Laser Exam on Martian Soil

The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used its laser to examine side-by-side points in a target patch of soil, leaving the marks apparent in this before-and-after comparison.

The two images were taken by ChemCam's Remote Micro-Imager from a distance of about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters). The diameter of the circular field of view is about 3.1 inches (7.9

[:D]

Any Martians?

[Sharpshooter]

Any Martians?

[Tom-The-Great]

bumping an epic thread

[Buddhas Hand]

This view of the lower front and underbelly areas of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines nine images taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 34th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Sept. 9, 2012). Image credit: ASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity carries five cylindrical blocks of organic check material for use in a control experiment if the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory detects any organic compounds in samples of Martian soil or powdered rock. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

› Full image and caption

A sample of basaltic rock from a lava flow in New Mexico serves as a calibration target carried on the front of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity for the rover's Canadian-made Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

› Full image and caption

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Mars rover Curiosity stepped through activities on Sept. 7, 8 and 9 designed to check and characterize precision movements by the rover's robotic arm and use of tools on the arm.

The activities confirmed good health and usefulness of Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI, and used that camera to check arm placement during several positioning activities.

MAHLI took an image with its reclosable dust cover open for the first time on Mars, confirming sharp imaging capability that had been obscured by a thin film of dust on the cover during previous use of the camera. It took images of cameras at the top of Curiosity's mast, of the underbelly of the rover and of MAHLI's own calibration target, among other pointings.

"Wow, seeing these images after all the tremendous hard work that has gone into making them possible is a profoundly emotional moment," said MAHLI Principal Investigator Ken Edgett of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. "It is so exciting to see the camera returning beautiful, sharp images from Mars."

Selected MAHLI images, with captions, are available at: http://1.usa.gov/PecY9c . Raw versions of all MAHLI images are available along with raw images from the other cameras on Curiosity at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/ .

The camera's calibration target includes a 1909 Lincoln penny that Edgett purchased for this purpose. "We're seeing the penny in the foreground and, looking past it, a setting I'm sure the people who minted these coins never imagined," Edgett said.

The penny is a nod to geologists' tradition of placing a coin or other object of known scale as a size reference in close-up photographs of rocks, and it gives the public a familiar object for perceiving size easily when it will be viewed by MAHLI on Mars.

"The folks who drive the rover's arm and turret have taken a 220-pound arm through some very complex tai chi, to center a penny in an image that's only a few centimeters across," said MAHLI Deputy Principal Investigator Aileen Yingst of the Tucson-based Planetary Science Institute. "They make the impossible look easy."

The arm characterization activities, including more imaging by MAHLI, will continue for a few days before Curiosity resumes driving toward a mid-term science destination area called Glenelg. In that area, the rover may use its scoop to collect a soil sample, and later its drill to collect a sample of powder from inside a rock.

Curiosity is five weeks into a two-year prime mission on Mars. It will use 10 science instruments to assess whether the selected study area ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

[YaK]

The camera's calibration target includes a 1909 Lincoln penny that Edgett purchased for this purpose. "We're seeing the penny in the foreground and, looking past it, a setting I'm sure the people who minted these coins never imagined," Edgett said.

[Buddhas Hand]

Yeah, no kidding...

I sometimes wonder if anything we leave behind will be used in completely unintended purposes that we cannot foresee...