Curiosity Landing

[Deepwater6]

http://www.space.com/16744-mars-odyssey-repositioned-curiosity-landing.html

 

We are but a few days away from the landing of our latest probe to analyze Mars. As a self proclaimed space junkie I can attest, it was a long wait for it to get there. Human exploration of space seems to move at a painfully slow rate, but it is what it is. The drop-in should be exciting all on it's own providing Curiosty makes it's way through it. Once up and running this probe should shed some light and maybe answer the question of was there ever life of any kind on that planet.

 

We are in an age of exploration vehicles that could not have been dreamed of 200 yrs ago and if the probe finds signs of life we will be alive during one of the most monumental discoveries in human history. A turning point in our short existence and it could answer a question women/man have asked for a long time. Because even if they find only bacteria we will know that we are not alone. Exciting times when you think about it.

[belovelife]

[CraigD]

As a self proclaimed space junkie I can attest, it was a long wait for it to get there.

As a fellow spaceflight fan (if I was a true junkie, I’d have died from withdraw after the end of the Apollo program), I’m excited about and afraid for Curiosity.

 

As I’m sure all my fellow fan/junkies know, at 900 kg mass-on-the ground, Curiosity (AKA the Mars Science Lab) is, as landers, or even spacecraft in general, go, big – 5 time the mass, 10 times of useful scientific payload, of the “Spirit class” (MER) rover, which was itself over 17 times the mass of the little “Soujouner class” (Pathfinder). This image

From NASA by way of wikipedia, give a sense of the difference.

 

This, along with what its big science payload can and hopefully will do, is the cause of my excitement.

 

My fear comes from the scary complexity of Curiosity’s landing system.

 

Unlike Sojourner and Spirit, which rolled out of self-righting bouncy-ball capsule/platforms, Curiosity will be set right on its wheels, lowered by cables from a hovering rocket platform. While I’ve got to trust that everybody’s got it right, and it’ll perform as designed, there are more possible failure points with the new system, nearly all of which lead to varying degrees of horrible Mars wrecks.

 

Exciting stuff! :thumbs_up

[Deepwater6]

I agree Craig, for those of us who can't help but to stay on top the probes progress the landing is going to be a nail biter.

[belovelife]

well, they are not allowed to fail, they have work to do

[belovelife]

[Buffy]

Here's a very cool movie (warning large and hi-def so if you're on a slow line Save Link As rather than streaming it) recently put out by JPL on Curiosity:

 

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/videos/movies/curiosity20120622/curiosity20120622-1280.mov

 

Last year I saw a presentation at Cal Tech's alumni day talking about the landing, and my main reaction was, "Geez, was Rube Goldberg on the design team?" But they say it's gonna work. The video at the link kinda get's the point across, "Zero margin for error."

 

My lucky mom gets to actually go to JPL next Sunday to watch the landing....

 

Vunce der rockets go up, who cares vere they come down? Dot's not my depaatment... :phones:

Buffy

[CraigD]

Everything worked!

The biggest spacecraft with the best instruments yet is safely on the surface of Mars.

[maddog]

Everything worked!

The biggest spacecraft with the best instruments yet is safely on the surface of Mars.

Yes, I got the news on my iPhone Very early this morning. Three Cheers to NASA for a great job!!!

 

maddog

[Deepwater6]

Yes, I got the news on my iPhone Very early this morning. Three Cheers to NASA for a great job!!!

 

maddog

 

http://www.space.com/16946-mars-rover-landing-seen-from-space.html

 

YEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH MAN!! I'm with you guys, GREAT job to the people who put so much time pulling this all together. I found this article with a shot of the drop in they were able to get with the orbiter to boot. I was really uneasy about all the elements to this landing, but they made a believer out of me.

 

http://www.space.com/16937-mars-rover-curiosity-landing-memorable-moments.html

 

http://www.space.com/16936-mars-rover-curiosity-first-landing-photos.html

 

Some first photo's too. I have to keep reminding myself when I look at these pix's though. This isn't some remote place on Earth I'm looking at. This is a WHOLE OTHER PLANET's landscape I'm seeing. Never before seen by humans. BRAVO guys BRAVO.

[Deepwater6]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19338870

 

One small issue with an instrument which may be attributed to the landing but that's not confirmed.

[CraigD]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19338870

 

One small issue with an instrument which may be attributed to the landing but that's not confirmed.

A strike from some small surface debris blown by the Descent Stage landing rockets seems the most likely culprit for the loss one of Curiosity's REMS's wind speed meters, though it may never be completely confirmed - short of finding a bit of rock with a bit of stuff from the instrument on it, this will have to remain a best guess.

 

This mishap vindicates the design decision to keep the rockets far from the surface, lowering the Curiosity Rover from the Descent Stage via 7.6 m cables. Had the rocket wash been more intense, there might have been more damage.

 

Happily, the REMS has 2 wind speed meters, so should be able to get along well with one disabled.

[Buffy]

More cool pics out today:

 

 

The telephoto images beamed back to Earth show a scene of eroded knobs and gulches on a mountainside, with geological layering clearly exposed. The new views were taken by the 100-millimeter telephoto lens and the 34-milllimeter wide angle lens of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument. Mastcam has photographed the lower slope of the nearby mountain called Mount Sharp.

 

"This is an area on Mount Sharp where Curiosity will go," said Mastcam principal investigator Michael Malin, of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. "Those layers are our ultimate objective. The dark dune field is between us and those layers. In front of the dark sand you see redder sand, with a different composition suggested by its different color. The rocks in the foreground show diversity -- some rounded, some angular, with different histories. This is a very rich geological site to look at and eventually to drive through."

 

Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe, :phones:

Buffy

[Buffy]

Okay kids, go run and rummage through your drawers for your 3D glasses (blue/red kind) and take a look at the latest from Curiosity:

 

 

 

If I knew that 3D was going to be such a big deal, I would have gotten that boob job 10 years ago, :phones:

Buffy

[Deepwater6]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20003236

 

Getting to the part of the mission where the rubber meets the road so to speak.

[Deepwater6]

http://www.universetoday.com/98302/the-curiosity-rovers-ultimate-self-portrait/

 

Sometimes when I look at these photos I tend to forget the background landscape is not California or somewhere in South America. It's a whole other planet I'm looking at...amazing. :o

[CraigD]

http://www.universetoday.com/98302/the-curiosity-rovers-ultimate-self-portrait/

 

Sometimes when I look at these photos I tend to forget the background landscape is not California or somewhere in South America. It's a whole other planet I'm looking at...amazing. :o

Too bad for casual sightseers like me Curiosity doesn’t have a camera that can take a single-shot self-portrait, rather than lots of shots composited together like this one. Somehow, the camera virtually hanging in midair makes the image seem ... well ... put-together.

 

A brief sojourn in search of single images showing the MAHLI’s arm took me to this NASA raw image, yielding this

I didn’t find the arm, but was struck by how the mage, which shows the fins on Curiosity’s RTG, looks unearthlily clean, the edges of the equipment so sharp. If I didn’t know this was a real image, I’d have guessed it to be a high-resolution computer generated one using a limited number of polygons for the machine parts!

 

I’m guessing from this that Curiosity hasn’t weathered one of Mar’s famous dust storm yet. I imagine Mar’s thin and dry atmosphere accounts for the lack of smudges and corrosion patinas.