The Curiosity On Mars Thread.

Jawgap

Jernal wrote: »

So Beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1ebHThBdlY

Really when the heat shield fell away they should've said "We have separation......"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HofoK_QQxGc

Capt'n Midnight

Jawgap wrote: »

How did they test it here then? all the components were tested to 3 x life. also the second rover they kept here presumably has to operate in our gravity so it's unlikely they specc'ed one set of actuators for the Mars rover and one for its earthbound buddy?

Of course it works on earth.

Just pointing out that due to the cost of sending every gram to the surface of Mars don't expect it to be as over-engineered as Soviet military spec gear.

shedweller

For those of you interested in the weather station on board curiosity:
http://cab.inta-csic.es/rems/rems_WS_en.html

REMS wind sensor measures the wind horizontal and vertical speed as well as the wind direction. The sensor is based on hot film anemometry.
There are two REMS wind sensor units on MSL and each is mounted on separate booms or housings. These booms are designed to support the wind sensor units in order to reduce aerodynamic effects and minimize weight. REMS booms are located on the MSL rover cam-mast and placed at an angle of 120 degrees, and located at slightly different heights: 50mm difference. The different locations of the booms allows to measure wind from all directions, and in this way it can be ensured that the mast perturbation affects only one sensor unit at a time.

That explains how easily damaged the sensor was and how there is a bit of redundancy built into it.
No news from the press conference yet?

Turtwig

MastCam is online.

Mount Sharp :

NASA wrote:

For scale, an annotated version of the figure highlights a dark rock that is approximately the same size as Curiosity. The pointy mound in the center of the image, looming above the rover-sized rock, is about 1,000 feet (300 meters) across and 300 feet (100 meters) high.

shedweller

Thats a nice pic! I feel like i could just get my mountain bike out on it!!

What is it that's highlighted with the white square in the second image?

Turtwig

gvn wrote: »

What is it that's highlighted with the white square in the second image?

Sorry my internet is on the fritz.

NASA wrote:

For scale, an annotated version of the figure highlights a dark rock that is approximately the same size as Curiosity. The pointy mound in the center of the image, looming above the rover-sized rock, is about 1,000 feet (300 meters) across and 300 feet (100 meters) high.

shedweller

gvn wrote: »

What is it that's highlighted with the white square in the second image?

That rock is about the size of the rover. Which puts the mound behind it at about 300 feet tall, according to nasa. Waaay bigger than i thought!!

Thanks, Jernal.

That's a great image. It really gives a sense of scale. With most images it's very difficult to tell if a ridge or mountain is 500 feet high or 15,000 feet high because of how barren the landscape is. Mt. Sharp really is a monster of a mountain!

namloc1980

Wow the layers in the rock is so earth like!

shedweller

The following statement by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden was returned to Earth via the Mars Curiosity rover.
Hello. This is Charlie Bolden, NASA Administrator, speaking to you via the broadcast capabilities of the Curiosity Rover, which is now on the surface of Mars.

Since the beginning of time, humankind’s curiosity has led us to constantly seek new life…new possibilities just beyond the horizon. I want to congratulate the men and women of our NASA family as well as our commercial and government partners around the world, for taking us a step beyond to Mars.

This is an extraordinary achievement. Landing a rover on Mars is not easy – others have tried – only America has fully succeeded. The investment we are making…the knowledge we hope to gain from our observation and analysis of Gale Crater, will tell us much about the possibility of life on Mars as well as the past and future possibilities for our own planet. Curiosity will bring benefits to Earth and inspire a new generation of scientists and explorers, as it prepares the way for a human mission in the not too distant future.

Thank you.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/bolden20120827.html

I think this was to coincide with a press conference but i cant be sure. I wonder what kind of signal degradation it had over that distance?!

expectationlost

the william song thing is a bit silly look at the photo above, that is what will excite young people

ps source links ftw

expectationlost

although the above whitened and contrast altered photos are a bit of cheat this is mars

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4567

shizz

I can't link to the article but Its on space.com. apparently the first song to be beamed back from an alien planet is will.I.am's reach for the stars. What an awful choice.

shedweller

I saw the discussion on AH and i'm on the fence on this one tbh. Look, i suppose the goal here is a sound check. To see how the audio sounds over such a distance. But moreso to reach out to a wide audience and stimulate kids to do maths and science etc. It can only be a good thing.

In any case, anyone for some blueberries?

Well, they certainly look like the blueberries we encountered with MER!

And here is a familiar picture with estimated distances indicated.

Turtwig

Well I'll have me my humble pie right now because I owe Curiosity's sister an epic apology. I always thought Oppy was a he, but apparently she's a she.

shedweller

Jernal wrote: »

Well I'll have me my humble pie right now because I owe Curiosity's sister an epic apology. I always thought Oppy was a he, but apparently she's a she.

I haven't looked but arent all the rovers "female"? Do they follow ship naming protocol? To be honest, i never put any thought into this!

In other news, the rover is on the road! Quote from nasa mobile page:

NASA Curiosity Rover Begins Eastbound Trek on Martian Surface
 
 
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 (JPL) 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 (Caltech) 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.

Curiosity is three 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. JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

jkforde

shedweller wrote: »

For those of you interested in the weather station on board curiosity:
http://cab.inta-csic.es/rems/rems_WS_en.html




That explains how easily damaged the sensor was and how there is a bit of redundancy built into it.
No news from the press conference yet?

and Mars weather... http://cab.inta-csic.es/rems/marsweather.html
looks like it's sunny in the da crata today!

shedweller

Almost looks better than here!

shedweller

The recent drive:

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 straighten the horizon.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

And one showing the JPL in morse code:

Reading the Rover's Tracks

The straight lines in Curiosity's zigzag track marks are Morse code for JPL, which is short for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where the rover was built and the mission is managed. The "footprint" is more than an homage to the rover's builders, however. It is an important reference mark that the rover can use to drive more precisely via a system called visual odometry.

The Morse code, imprinted on all six wheels, is: .--- (J), .--. (P), and .-.. (L), as indicated in this image.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

shedweller

Getting to Know Mount Sharp

This image taken by the Mast Camera (MastCam) on NASA's Curiosity rover highlights the interesting geology of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside Gale Crater, where the rover landed. Prior to the rover's landing on Mars, observations from orbiting satellites indicated that the lower reaches of Mount Sharp, below the line of white dots, are composed of relatively flat-lying strata that bear hydrated minerals. Those orbiter observations did not reveal hydrated minerals in the higher, overlying strata.

The MastCam data now reveal a strong discontinuity in the strata above and below the line of white dots, agreeing with the data from orbit. Strata overlying the line of white dots are highly inclined (dipping from left to right) relative to lower, underlying strata. The inclination of these strata above the line of white dots is not obvious from orbit. This provides independent evidence that the absence of hydrated minerals on the upper reaches of Mount Sharp may coincide with a very different formation environment than lower on the slopes. The train of white dots may represent an "unconformity," or an area where the process of sedimentation stopped.

Chuck Stone

It's so awesome thinking that there's a thing the size of a small car driving around on a planet it takes 6 months to get to at thousands of miles per hour being controlled from earth.

I truly believe that robotic missions are the way forward. I'd love to see a flotilla of probes being sent out to the interesting moons of the gas giants in my lifetime.

shedweller

Me too. It's such a pity to see so little spent on space exploration, compared to trying to fill a black hole with money, as is the case with the banks right now.
Hopefully Orion will come on stream quickly, followed by asteroid exploration. Just get on with it already!!!!!

jkforde

shedweller wrote: »

Hopefully Orion will come on stream quickly, followed by asteroid exploration.

asteroids you say? just watched this from JPLNews's Youtube feed... very nice, amazing to believe we've got this sort of resolution from an asteroid... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84vz6J8cnc8

and Dawn is just leaving Vesta for Ceres, eta 2015, gently pushed along by xeon ions... www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-271

oh for the brains to work in JPL!

.... aaaanyways, back to Mars....!

shedweller

They did a load of undersea experiments in a program called NEEMO where they scuba dived and anchored themselves to cliffs etc. it was all over nasa a while back.

shedweller

jkforde wrote: »

oh for the brains to work in JPL!

Lad, there isn't a day goes by that i don't feel regret at my rubbish leaving cert!

Hotblack Desiato

Thing was, when I was a kid I just assumed you needed to be born in California to get to do the really cool scientific stuff like work in JPL or SLAC

Would help a lot if we joined CERN and publicised the achievements of our scientists working on international projects (whether here or elsewhere) a lot more, and our nascent space industry...

Hotblack Desiato

shedweller wrote: »

Lad, there isn't a day goes by that i don't feel regret at my rubbish leaving cert!

Don't worry about it. I did a science degree but it didn't help in my career much more than an arts degree would (and I work in IT)

My dad didn't have that much in terms of a formal education but he was always interested in 'popular science' and that helped get me interested when I was a kid. Horizon on BBC2. The Sky At Night...
You don't need a LC or a degree to have an interest, find out more, and learn stuff. Curiosity is what it's all about, kids all have it but many adults lose it along the way - or perhaps, like learning a new language, they are too afraid of making a mistake?

People associate heavy mathematics with science - you don't need it to understand the broad principles though, and even the maths you need to get a bachelor level physics degree isn't all that bad if you bite off a little bit at a time. The OU stripped a lot of the snobbery away in the UK but we might still have a bit left here. The best thing about the OU was/is making it easier for mature students to do things their schoolteachers never thought they'd do.

shedweller

Wasn't there mention of a NASA / Ireland collaboration recently when Charlie Bolden was in Trinity? There is hope for our kids. We just have to instil the desire to learn and explore in them.

Easier said than done, i can assure you! My lads seem more interested in spongebob than curiosity! No.2 just asked me if i was going to be watching this mars rover malarkey for long more! "how long will it last, daddy?" he asked! "at least two years" i said. At which point he looked at me like i said i won the lotto! "Two Years?????"

Boy did i laugh!

I love it!

Capt'n Midnight

jkforde wrote: »

oh for the brains to work in JPL!

They use the most boring coders imaginable to get predictable results.

Anyone with a flash of brilliance or creativity need not apply.