The Curiosity On Mars Thread.

shedweller

Zapped, Martian Rock

This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows details of rock texture and color in an area where the rover's Dust Removal Tool (DRT) brushed away dust that was on the rock. This rock target, "Wernecke," was brushed on the 169th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's mission on Mars (Jan. 26, 2013). This image was recorded on Sol 173 (Jan. 30, 2013).

The image shows nine small pits created by the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) laser during its analysis of the target, one of four potential drill targets considered. Ultimately, this site was not chosen for the rover's first drilling. The rest of the features are natural to the rock, and include fractures, white veins, gray and white nodules, pits and tiny dark grains. Remaining clumps and specks of dust can also be seen. The scale bar at lower left is 0.12 inches (3 millimeters).

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Honeybee Robotics/LANL/CNES

Bit of a Thousand Yard Stare thing going on here. I like it though. Still think i could go for a walk there in jeans and t-shirt!

Standard Toaster

apod wrote:

This remarkable self-portrait of NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover includes a sweeping panoramic view of its current location in the Yellowknife Bay region of the Red Planet's Gale Crater. The rover's flat, rocky perch, known as "John Klein", served as the site for Curiosity's first rock drilling activity. At the foot of the proud looking rover, a shallow drill test hole and a sample collection hole are 1.6 centimeters in diameter. The impressive mosaic was constructed using frames from the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Mastcam. Used to take in the panoramic landscape frames, the Mastcam is standing high above the rover's deck. But MAHLI, intended for close-up work, is mounted at the end of the rover's robotic arm. The MAHLI frames used to create Curiosity's self-portrait exclude sections that show the arm itself and so MAHLI and the robotic arm are not seen. Check out this spectacular interactive version of Curiosity's self-portrait panorama.

shedweller

^^^^^^
That is one cool picture! Thank you.

shedweller

Lab Instruments Inside Curiosity Eat Mars Rock Powder02.25.13

The left Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of Curiosity's sample-processing and delivery tool just after the tool delivered a portion of powdered rock into the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
› Full image and caption

PASADENA, Calif. - Two compact laboratories inside NASA's Mars rover Curiosity have ingested portions of the first sample of rock powder ever collected from the interior of a rock on Mars.

Curiosity science team members will use the laboratories to analyze the rock powder in the coming days and weeks.

The rover's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments received portions of the sample on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 22 and 23, respectively, and began inspecting the powder.

"Data from the instruments have confirmed the deliveries," said Curiosity Mission Manager Jennifer Trosper of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The powder comes from Curiosity drilling into rock target "John Klein" on Feb. 8. One or more additional portions from the same initial sample may be delivered to the instruments as analysis proceeds.

During a two-year prime mission, researchers are using Curiosity's 10 science instruments to assess whether the study area in Gale Crater on Mars ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20130225.html
Well that took a while! I suppose they don't want to spill powder all over the rover. Still, i would have thought it would be a pre-programmed manoeuvre and could just happen in a few minutes. Maybe next time?

shedweller

One of rover's two onboard computers became corrupted, delaying scientific operations for at least a week.

Marc Kaufman
for National Geographic News
Published March 1, 2013

The Mars rover Curiosity experienced its first significant malfunction on Wednesday, when one of its two onboard computers became corrupted and failed to turn off and enter "sleep mode" as planned.

The Curiosity team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent up commands to switch all operations from the corrupted A computer to the twin B computer early Thursday morning, according to a Thursday NASA statement.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130301-mars-rover-curiosity-malfunction-science-space-nasa-jpl/
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20130228.html

Well, that explains why the rover was rather quiet recently. Thankfully it's not a show stopper but the a-side computers health could be a problem in the future.
What do you lads think nasa will do? Cycle the main breaker switch?:pac:

Mountainsandh

check cables ? switch it off and back on again ? ...

TheUsual

Must be a Martian virus. Need to update the firewall on it.

Mountainsandh

Documentary called Mars Landing 2012 on 549 Disc Science +1 right now. It's started a while, more than likely will get replayed sometime ? I usually press record on the sky box, and it must complete the recording automatically when it's replayed, because when I go to see it again more often than not I see the whole thing !
Am only catching on to it now so don't know what's been in it so far.

A lot of views of the surface of Mars.

shedweller

^^^^
Missed it. As usual. I'll look it up later, thanks.

TheUsual

Nasa engineers are looking into possible causes for the files on the robot's flash memory being damaged.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21654308

The corrupted files may have been caused by stray cosmic rays.
Speaking to Space.com, Project Manager for the Curiosity team Mr Cook said: "The hardware that we fly is radiation-tolerant, but there's a limit to how hardened it can be.
"You can still get high-energy particles that can cause the memory to be corrupted. It certainly is a possibility and that's what we're looking into."

Our correspondent added that the back-up computer on the rover had previously been used to test software updates before they were installed on the main machine.

Due to capacity limitations on the craft, the rover launched with only the software needed to land. Once on the planet, new software had to then be installed remotely.

Mountainsandh

Mars landing doc starting again on 549 Disc Sci +1 now.

shedweller

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has transitioned from precautionary "safe mode" to active status on the path of recovery from a memory glitch last week. Resumption of full operations is anticipated by next week.

One path of progress is evaluating the A-side with intent to recover it as a backup

So there is a chance that the A-side is done for? Which leaves the B-side...
That's a little worrying, given how long the A-side lasted. Ok, it could have been a one in a billion chance but it's still not a good place to be.

Regarding cosmic rays, i did a little searching and found a document from the 90's mentioning how GCR (galactic cosmic rays) radiation increases when solar output is lower. We are going through an almost solar max at the moment so GCR's would have been lower. Rover still got damaged. Hmmm!
The document also said that the martian atmosphere would filter out some GCR so if the B-side computer on Curiosity is ok now, it should be ok in the future. Should...

Roll on, Curiosity!

shedweller

http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu/catch/cr3.html

Top graph is solar output, bottom is GCR.

mickmackey1

Resumption of full operations is anticipated by next week.

Does that mean 'full operations' but without the a-side...? If the primary is already toast the outlook could be pessimistic - wonder how Opportunity never had any problem with 'cosmic rays'...

shedweller

I presume they mean full operations with or without the B-side.
I don't know how much different the computers are to those found in Opportunity etc. Surely equal if not better in terms of radiation hardening?

Wiki entry:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory

The two identical on-board rover computers, called "Rover Compute Element" (RCE), contain radiation-hardened memory to tolerate the extreme radiation from space and to safeguard against power-off cycles. Each computer's memory includes 256 KB of EEPROM, 256 MB of DRAM, and 2 GB of flash memory.[31] This compares to 3 MB of EEPROM, 128 MB of DRAM, and 256 MB of flash memory used in the Mars Exploration Rovers.[32]
The RCE computers use the RAD750 CPU (a successor to the RAD6000 CPU used in the Mars Exploration Rovers) operating at 200MHz.[33][34][35] The RAD750 CPU is capable of up to 400 MIPS, while the RAD6000 CPU is capable of up to 35 MIPS.[36][37] Of the two on-board computers, one is configured as backup, and will take over in the event of problems with the main computer.[31]

Mountainsandh

Would the location of Curiosity expose it to more radiation for some reason maybe ?

Capt'n Midnight

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Would the location of Curiosity expose it to more radiation for some reason maybe ?

Mars doesn't have the same sort of magnetic field that protects us nor does it have much of an atmosphere.

humans would have to live underground etc.

It's location on Mars shouldn't make much difference apart from the altitude, and even then it's fairly low to allow better parachuting. The idea is that it heads uphill for a good while.


There is no realistic protection against the highest energy cosmic rays. It's all probability / luck, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray_visual_phenomena

Mountainsandh

I'm well aware it doesn't have the same atmosphere and magnetic field.

But it does have an atmosphere, which seems to evolve with the seasons and change in its composition, with weather patterns too.
For example argon, see this link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_atmosphere

So what with poles, orientation, and some weather patterns/atmospheric changes, I figured it might affect different spots differently.

That's if such changes in atmosphere/weather might affect/sway radiation.

edit : found a bit more info on a wiki page about MARIE

JPL reported that MARIE-measured radiation levels were two to three times greater than at the International Space Station (which is 100-200mSv/a).[2] Levels at the Martian surface might be closer to the level at the ISS due to atmospheric shielding -- ignoring the effect of thermal neutrons induced by GCR. Average in-orbit doses were about 400-500mSv/a. However occasional solar proton events (SPEs) produce a hundred and more times higher doses, see diagram above. SPEs were observed by MARIE that were not observed by sensors near Earth, confirming that SPEs are directional.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Radiation_Environment_Experiment

Mountainsandh

And now I found another interesting article that again helps answer my own question :rolleyes:.

(I just needed someone to spur me to do the research myself, thanks Captain Midnight )

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20121115.html

Effects of that atmospheric tide show up in data from Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD). This instrument monitors high-energy radiation considered to be a health risk to astronauts and a factor in whether microbes could survive on Mars' surface.

"We see a definite pattern related to the daily thermal tides of the atmosphere," said RAD Principal Investigator Don Hassler of the Southwest Research Institute's Boulder, Colo., branch. "The atmosphere provides a level of shielding, and so charged-particle radiation is less when the atmosphere is thicker. Overall, Mars' atmosphere reduces the radiation dose compared to what we saw during the flight to Mars."

Since the tide in question is to do with the carbon dioxyde level changes at the poles, I suppose location would probably affect how much of a tidal effect you're getting on Mars. Also the winds in Gale crater and possible changes in dust levels in the atmosphere could also have an effect ? They seem to think that Curiosity has already been exposed to dust devils but that due to a lesser extent of dust on the ground at that spot they have not been visually spotted.

shedweller

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/03/curiosity-solar-storm/

NASA’s Curiosity rover has been ordered to batten down the hatches to avoid getting damaged while a solar storm rages around Mars.
Solar storms occur when the surface of the sun erupts, spewing out a jet of radiation and charged particles at millions of kilometers per hour. People on Earth are protected by our planet’s magnetic field so the effects are generally limited to extra-bright auroras. But a space storm can cause problems with satellites, communications, and, in the case of really big events, can wreak havoc on electronics and power lines.
“Space weather can be nasty!” wrote geologist Ken Herkenhoff, who works with the rover’s science team, in an update from the USGS’s Astrogeology Science Center explaining the decision to put the rover to sleep.

The odds are really stacking up against Curiosity now.

Mountainsandh

Fingers crossed there won't be too much damage. It would be a shame to get serious or permanent radiation damage this early in the mission.

shedweller

It's also casting uncertainty over manned mars missions. It's one thing to harden electronics, it's another to harden the human body against radiation.
I sincerely hope there will be an increase in spending in this area some time soon.

Mountainsandh

I was watching this Mars Pioneer program this week on one of the documentary channels, it was interesting, looking at habitats, biospheres, etc... For radiation, a man (some specialist/engineer can't remember) was putting forward the idea that to shield from radiation, eventually (that's after a good settlement had been established presumably with plenty of tools etc...), humans should look at old solutions : bricks made with martian soil, excavate, use soil to make bricks, and construct multiple arched vault, to be then buried under another mound of soil. As in, make the caves if the caves aren't readily available.
It's weird thinking of humans building such primitive habitat on another planet, but I think there's something in it.

It was pretty good, they were also experimenting with lava stone powder to simulate the dust on Mars, and reckoned this would be a major problem to overcome for humans.

shedweller

I think this is where 3D printers come into play. I saw one being tested once and it was printing a hollow concrete wall with a spaceframe inside. I had a "why didnt i think of that" moment when i saw it!
We're a bit aways from it but if we give up now...

shedweller

NASA will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT), Tuesday, March 12, to discuss the Curiosity rover's analysis of the first sample of rock powder ever collected on Mars. The briefing, at NASA Headquarters in Washington, will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website.
The participants will be:
-- Michael Meyer, lead scientist, Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington

-- John Grotzinger, Curiosity project scientist, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.

-- David Blake, principal investigator for Curiosity's Chemistry and Mineralogy investigation, NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

-- Paul Mahaffy, principal investigator for Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars investigation, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

That's 17:00 GMT tomorrow, Tuesday 12th.

thecommander

shedweller wrote: »

That's 17:00 GMT tomorrow, Tuesday 12th.

ALIENS!

shedweller

^^^^^^
We'll have to wait and see. I hope they have good news about the a-side cpu.

thecommander

shedweller wrote: »

^^^^^^
We'll have to wait and see. I hope they have good news about the a-side cpu.

Nothing permanently damaged from what I was told.

Mountainsandh

This program I was on about is called Space Pioneer and is replayed tonight at 9pm Disc Science.

(Mr Mountains is on tour so I watch a lot of documentaries at the moment )

Capt'n Midnight

off topic - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/11/caltech_self_healing_chips/ self healing chips , though probably more suited to a terminator