NEWEST ROVER TO LAND ON MARS 8/6/2012

Pictures from the lander:

Rear:




Front:

excellent shots and I was amazed at how swimmingly flawless was the landing.

I wonder how they are going to purge and set up the gas chromatography , so itll be at least accurate enough to get reasonable levels of concentrations.
I hope all the "Tune up" data will be on the web.

That site you posted CI was just a bunch of commercials on my machine. It didnt show me anything

The landing was wonderful to see. Frustrating because the Wisconsin murders news and the Olympics prevented more information about the landing.

BBB

Mars Rover Pulls Off High-Wire Landing
August 6, 2012
by Mark Stencel - NPR

An artist's rendering shows a rocket-powered descent stage lowering the one-ton Curiosity rover to the Mars surface.

The best place to stand in the entire solar system at 1:14 a.m. ET Monday was about 150 million miles away, at the bottom of Gale Crater near the equator of the Red Planet.

Looking west around mid-afternoon local time, a Martian bystander would have seen a rocket-powered alien spacecraft approach and then hover about 60 feet over the rock-strewn plain between the crater walls and the towering slopes of nearby Mount Sharp.

A gangly vehicle, about the size of a small car on Earth, descended from the spacecraft on nylon cords amid blowing crimson dust. As soon as this machine touched the soil with its six wheels, its delivery craft abruptly disconnected the cables and, with the last of its fuel, safely careened away from its passenger. NASA's new Mars rover, Curiosity, had landed.

Fourteen minutes later, news of these strange happenings reached the people on Earth who were responsible:

"Touchdown confirmed!"

With those words, the mission control team at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., erupted in cheers, applause and hugs. And as the first pictures began to arrive from their nuclear-powered explorer, the celebrations grew louder and continued well into a televised news conference an hour later.

Curiosity's shadow on the surface of Mars, just minutes after the rover landed on the surface of the planet.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity's shadow on the surface of Mars, just minutes after the rover landed on the surface of the planet.

"Needless to say there's a lot of excitement in this room," said the laboratory's director, Charles Elachi.

When it comes to visitors like the $2.5-billion Curiosity rover, Mars has been a reclusive, get-off-of-my-lawn host. Of 13 previous attempts to land space probes on the Red Planet over the past four decades, nearly half failed or immediately lost contact.

Those odds were enough to make for a tense scene at mission control in the days and hours leading up the landing. "You can't believe the tension and uncertainty here at JPL," NPR science correspondent Joe Palca reported from the laboratory. "The anxiety just couldn't be denied."

The novel use of the rocket-powered "sky crane" to lower the one-ton robot to the Martian surface only added to the drama.

"I was on the edge of my seat," former astronaut and NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden Jr. told NASA TV moments after the landing.

With the suspenseful landing behind them, mission controllers quickly turned their attention to Curiosity's coming months of work on the Martian surface. The rover is expected to spend two years exploring Gale Crater and the three-mile-high mountain within it.

"Tomorrow," JPL's Elachi said, "we're going to start exploring Mars."

NASA TV has been streaming video of the overnight events at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and plans to carry the next scheduled news conference at Noon ET.

Stream videos at Ustream

Our earlier updates appear below.

Update at 4:05 a.m. ET. More Images

After a helpful space probe in Mars orbit again passed within range of Curiosity's transmissions, a new batch of photos arrived in Pasadena. In one of the black-and-white images, the shadowy rim of Gale Crater was clearly visible on the horizon.

Update at 1:15 a.m. ET. 'A Lot Has To Go Right'

Mission control just got word that Curiosity successfully separated from the cruise stage that has carried the rover since its launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida — 36 weeks and millions of miles ago.

Now things begin to move fast. As science correspondent Joe Palca told our Newscast unit, "A lot has to go right for the rover... to land safely":

"A heat shield has to slow the spacecraft from 13,000 mph to about 800 mph. Then a giant supersonic parachute has to unfurl properly to slow the rover further to about 200 mph. Then onboard radar has to detect the surface, and rocket engines aboard a kind of jet pack have to fire, slowing Curiosity to a crawl. Finally, a bridle has to lower the rover from the jet pack to the surface."

Easy enough, right? A NASA video calls the whole chain of events "seven minutes of terror." You'll find that video and a gallery of artist renderings depicting key moments in Curiosity's descent and landing in Joe's profile of one of the engineers behind this intricate plan.

On Sunday's All Things Considered, Joe also talked with Richard Kornfeld, a senior engineer on the landing team, about the 14-minute delay before transmissions reach Earth. For people like Kornfeld, this has to make the Olympics coverage feel real-time.

Update at 1 a.m. ET. The 'Bermuda Triangle' Of Space?

Not that we want to jinx Curiosity, but it's worth a moment before the descent begins to go back through Mars' well-earned reputation as dangerous destination for space probes.

We mentioned that 7 of the 13 previous attempts to reach the Martian surface were successful. The first, the Soviet Union's Mars 3 lander in 1971, arrived during a sandstorm and only sent back one partial, fuzzy image before communication was lost seconds later.

Of the six failures, the landing vehicles crashed, lost contact on the way down or on the ground, missed Mars entirely, or never made it out of Earth orbit. The most recent losses were the European Space Agency's Beagle 2 in 2003 and the U.S. Polar Lander in 1999. The others were led by the Soviet Union or Russia.

That said, the overall U.S. track record with Mars landings has been a solid six-for-seven, including:

Curiosity's destination is Gale Crater, where the six-wheeled rover is expected to spend at least two years looking for signs of water or possibly a long-gone lake.

Samuel Kounaves, a chemistry professor at Tufts University, talked to NPR's Joe Palca and science writer Jessica Stoller-Conrad about the mission's scientific goals. The rover "is not going to be looking for life directly, but it's going to be looking for past habitability," Kounaves told them. "We're looking to see if the elements required for life are there."

Gale Crater is nearly 100 miles across. Curiosity will try to land in a relatively flat area between the crater's rim and the steep slopes of Mount Sharp. The landing zone — 4 miles wide and 12 miles long — was narrowed recently to try to place Curiosity closer to the three-mile-high mountain, where scientists hope the rover will uncover layers of Martian history.

Mount Sharp was named for Robert P. Sharp, an influential planetary geologist who died in 2004.

Spectacular job by NASA! I loved seeing everyone's reaction in the control room.

I thought I read somewhere that it would take a year for the rover to get to the mountain... seems like a long time. I wonder how far away it is, and if they are anticipating difficult terrain to get there, or if they are planning on stopping a lot on the way.

Their excitement was contagious!! We especially got a kick out of 'Mohawk' guy -- did you see him? He dyed his mohawk red and blue and had stars carved on either side of it. What a hoot LOL! Loved their little mini celebrations through each of the stages and then to see the sheer joy on all those faces when touchdown was announced! Couldn't be happier for their success

well, for many of them, a successful landing was a major assurance of some amount of tenure.
Now theres all kinds of needs for the "infrastructure and data" guys to get it running and keep it running.

If it takes a year to get to the rise, they are probably going to sample the **** out of the subsurface .

Hahaha...he's already a meme!

Wow, it's like the brain-power olympics. And they all just won gold. Great stuff.

Here's the rover landing pix.

http://news.yahoo.com/wow-mars-rover-landing-spotted-orbiting-spacecraft-172934026.html

the crater i about 96 mi in diameter, so as far as taking a year to traverse half the distance, I can see it.

I wondered why they were eating peanuts last night when I was watching. Mohawk-guy (also the flight director lol) tweeted this photo from his Twitter account:

Hallelujah!!!

JPL's first few Mars probes failed I think. The first JPL probe to Mars that actually succeeded, someone had brought a jar of peanuts with them into the control room to munch on. Ever since then, they've always brought lots of peanuts into the control room for landings.

Mohawk guy gets an unusual haircut (different each time) whenever they have a landing event. This time around he let everyone in the control room vote to decide what his unusual haircut would be.

I seem to remember a lander from a few years ago which carried a microphone so that we could "hear" the sounds of Mars. Probably just wind I guess. But we'll never know, because I think it crashed and was lost.

I thought the microphone was a good idea. Do any of the other rovers have the ability to record sound?

2012 August 7
A Wheel on Mars
Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech/Mars Science Laboratory

Explanation: A wheel attached to NASA's Curiosity rover is firmly on the martian surface in this early picture from the Mars Science Laboratory mission, captured after a successful landing on August 5, 2012 at 10:32pm (PDT). Seen at the lower right of a Hazard Avoidance Camera fisheye wide-angle image, the rover's left rear wheel is 50 centimeters (about 20 inches) in diameter. Part of a spring hinge for the camera's dust cover is just visible in the right corner, while at the upper left is part of the rover's RTG power source. Looking into the Sun across the rock stewn surface of Mars, distant hills on the right are the rim of Gale Crater, about 20 kilometers from the compact car-sized rover's current resting place.

PHOTOS
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA15973_modest.jpg

Original Caption Released with Image:

This is one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on the left "eye" of a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance cameras on the left-rear side of the rover. The image is one-half of full resolution. The clear dust cover that protected the camera during landing has been sprung open. Part of the spring that released the dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the rover's wheel.

On the top left, part of the rover's power supply is visible.

Some dust appears on the lens even with the dust cover off.

The cameras are looking directly into the sun, so the top of the image is saturated. Looking straight into the sun does not harm the cameras. The lines across the top are an artifact called "blooming" that occurs in the camera's detector because of the saturation.

As planned, the rover's early engineering images are lower resolution. Larger color images from other cameras are expected later in the week when the rover's mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2012-08-06

PHOTO

Wheels and Legs

The rover's wheels and "legs"

The Mars Science Laboratory has six wheels, each with its own individual motor.

The two front and two rear wheels also have individual steering motors (1 each). This steering capability allows the vehicle to turn in place, a full 360 degrees. The 4-wheel steering also allows the rover to swerve and curve, making arching turns.

How the Wheels Move
Big Wheels Cross The Finish Line...for Now!
Big Wheels Cross The Finish Line...for Now!
One of the black, cleated wheels of the Mars Science Laboratory rover.

The design of the suspension system for the wheels is based on heritage from the "rocker-bogie" system on the Pathfinder and Mars Exploration Rover missions. The suspension system is how the wheels are connected to and interact with the rover body.

The term "bogie" comes from old railroad systems. A bogie is a train undercarriage with six wheels that can swivel to curve along a track.

The term "rocker" comes from the design of the differential, which keeps the rover body balanced, enabling it to "rock" up or down depending on the various positions of the multiple wheels. Of most importance when creating a suspension system is how to prevent the rover from suddenly and dramatically changing positions while cruising over rocky terrain. If one side of the rover were to travel over a rock, the rover body would go out of balance without a "differential" or "rocker," which helps balance the angle the rover is in at any given time. When one side of the rover goes up, the differential or rocker in the rover suspension system automatically makes the other side go down to even out the weight load on the six wheels. This system causes the rover body to go through only half of the range of motion that the "legs" and wheels could potentially experience without a "rocker-bogie" suspension system.

The rover is designed to withstand a tilt of 45 degrees in any direction without overturning. However, the rover is programmed through its "fault protection limits" in its hazard avoidance software to avoid exceeding tilts of 30 degrees during its traverses.

The rover rocker-bogie design allows the rover to go over obstacles (such as rocks) or through holes that are more than a wheel diameter (50 centimeters or about 20 inches) in size. Each wheel also has cleats, providing grip for climbing in soft sand and scrambling over rocks.

Rover Speed

The rover has a top speed on flat hard ground of 4 centimeters per second (a little over 1.5 inches per second).

PHOTO

Power


Power provides electricity to the spacecraft and its subsystems. Below are examples of the way in which the Mars Science Laboratory mission benefits from past technological development and contributes new capabilities.

Inherited Technologies
Mars Science Laboratory uses a radioisotope power system to generate electricity needed to operate the rover and its instruments. Radioisotope electrical power and heating systems enable science missions that require greater longevity, more diverse landing locations or more power or heat than missions limited to solar power systems.

Related Links

Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG)

More About Radioisotope Power




Radioisotope power systems are generators that produce electricity from the natural decay of plutonium-238, which is a non-weapons-grade form of that radioisotope used in power systems for NASA spacecraft. Heat given off by the natural decay of this isotope is converted into electricity, providing constant power during all seasons and through the day and night.

Radioisotope power systems were first flown on U.S. space vehicles more than 40 years ago. They offer the key advantage of operating continuously, independent of sunlight, for a long time. They have little or no sensitivity to cold, radiation or other effects of the space environment. More than two dozen NASA spacecraft have conducted their missions using such systems for electrical power and/or heating. For example, the Viking landers, each with a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, landed on Mars in 1976 and operated on Mars for four and six years respectively. The solar-powered 1997 Mars Pathfinder mission's Sojourner rover used radioisotope heaters to keep its electronics box warm. The solar-powered Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity also use radioisotope heaters.

New Capabilities

The need for reliable, long-lived power systems is important for future, increasingly sophisticated Mars missions. NASA and the Department of Energy are developing a new generation of these long-lived, reliable nuclear power systems to enable a broader range of important science missions. They are ideally suited for missions involving autonomous operations in the extreme environments of space and on planetary surfaces.

One of these next-generation space power systems was chosen as the electrical power system for the Mars Science Laboratory -- the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG).

The use of this power source will enable:

Access to More of Mars

This type of power supply will give the mission an operating lifespan on Mars' surface of a full Martian year (687 Earth days, a little less than two Earth years) over a wide latitude range. That means it opens up more regions of Mars to exploration, giving mission planners more choices in selecting landing sites that have characteristics related to Mars' potential as a habitat for life. With more of Mars accessible, Mars Science Laboratory can better meet its science goal of understanding the planet's potential as a past or present habitat for life.

Greater Mobility, More Operational Flexibility, and More Science

Compared to the solar power alternative studied, the MMRTG-powered rover provides significantly greater mobility and operations flexibility and more science payload capability.

Thermal Stability for the Rover

The MMRTG is also crucial for the rover's thermal stability. Waste heat from the unit is circulated throughout the rover system to keep instruments, computers, mechanical devices and communications systems within their operating temperature ranges. This system-wide thermal control does not draw on the rover's electrical power, and precludes the need for radioisotope heater units for spot heating.

Optimized Power and a Long Lifetime

The MMRTG optimizes power levels over a minimum lifetime of 14 years.

Smaller Size and Minimized Weight

With its smaller size, the MMRTG adds more flexibility to spacecraft and mission designs. Compared to the solar power alternative studied, the MMRTG minimizes weight.

Safety

The design requirements of the MMRTG include ensuring a high degree of safety. The design of the generator's General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) module, which contains the radioisotope heat source, is enhanced and provides added factors of safety in the event of impact or inadvertent reentry.

INFORMATION

2011 July 29

Gale Crater
Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, ASU

Explanation: This sharp view from the Thermal Emission Imaging System camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter is centered on 154 kilometer (96 mile) wide Gale crater, near the martian equator. Within Gale, an impressive layered mountain rises about 5 kilometers (3 miles) above the crater floor. Layers and structures near its base are thought to have been formed in ancient times by water-carried sediments. In fact, a spot near the crater's northern side at the foot of the mountain has now been chosen as the target for the Mars Science Laboratory mission. Scheduled for launch late this year, the mission will land Mars' next visitor from planet Earth in August of 2012, lowering the car-sized Curiosity rover to the martian surface with a hovering, rocket-powered skycrane. Curiosity's science instruments are intended to discover if Gale once had favorable environmental conditions for supporting microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

PHOTO

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1107/GaleCraterMars_themis.jpg

Aug. 07, 2012
California's Aerojet plays key role in Mars rover's mission
Mark Glover | The Sacramento Bee

The thunderous applause Sunday night from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena echoed in the halls of Rancho Cordova's Aerojet, which provided key propulsion components for the super-complex rover landing on the surface of Mars.

Aerojet thrusters guided the Mars Science Laboratory, or MSL, to a safe landing on the Red Planet at 10:32 p.m. Pacific time, with the rover Curiosity creeping down to the Martian surface at about 2 mph, coming on the heels of a 13,000 mph blaze through the planet's atmosphere.

Aerojet engines assisted with entry, descent and landing. The company's thrusters also provided control and trajectory correction maneuvers during the MSL's journey to the Red Planet. One aerospace engineer equated the mission to "slowing a bullet down to a stop and putting it nose up on a coffee table."

While pleased, Aerojet took it in stride. After all, this wasn't the local rocket maker's first rodeo.

"Aerojet thrusters brought Viking 1 and 2 and the Phoenix Mars Lander to safe arrivals on Mars, and we were confident that our MSL thrusters would once again help deliver success," said Julie Van Kleeck, Aerojet vice president of space and launch systems.

In all, the MSL carried 24 Aerojet thrusters with varying degrees of force. Sixteen of them assisted in the landing near the northern flank of 3-mile-high Mount Sharp, inside Gale Crater on Mars.

The three different types of thrusters aboard the MSL were designed and manufactured at Aerojet's Redmond, Wash., facility. Throttling tests were performed at Aerojet's Rancho Cordova facilities.

Aerojet is no stranger to the international spotlight. During the halcyon days of the U.S. manned space program, the sprawling complex along Highway 50 employed more than 20,000 and helped put men on the moon in 1969.

The Mars landing is the latest milestone in a recent resurgence.

Last month, Aerojet parent GenCorp Inc. announced that it was buying rocket-engine maker Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in a $550 million deal that will nearly double GenCorp's business.

The deal isn't expected to add many workers to GenCorp and Aerojet's 1,600-employee Rancho Cordova headquarters, but it is expected to bolster Aerojet's standing in the aerospace and defense industry, which accounted for nearly all of GenCorp's $918 million in revenue last year.