The Curiosity On Mars Thread.

shedweller

(Thought it might be a good time to start a Mars Curiosity Rover thread, seeing as a milestone was reached recently.)

Curiosity departed Earth late last November and is now homing in on it's landing site. The landing site, on Gale Grater, has been narrowed down from an ellipse measuring 20 by 25km to just 7 to 20km.

However, an issue has cropped up. The drill has been shown to potentially introduce contaminants to the very samples it is getting! These come from the teflon seals on the drill motor and from the molybdenum disulfide grease within.
http://www.livescience.com/20886-nasa-mars-rover-contamination-landing.html

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120611.html

Beeker

You got there ahead of me, I was going to do just that:) Realy looking forward to this mission, my interest in space was sparked by the Viking landings on Mars back in 1976 and ever since I have had a special interest in the Mars programme.
Fingers crossed for a safe landing in August!!

vonbarracuda

Can't wait for the landing. Always great watching mission control when there's a landing

shedweller

Here's a wee video that, while most of us have already seen it, it is narrated by Stephen Lee. He is the guidance, navigation, and control manager for the Mars Science Laboratory mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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

Man that's a harrowing descent! :eek:

af_thefragile

I've got 6th of August marked on my calender!

Can't wait to see all the news pics from Mars from the new bigger and better rover!

AugustusMinimus

Has a very interesting landing mechanism. Looks very complicated. Hope nothing goes wrong with it.

Rubecula

It is a lot bigger than Spirit isn't it?

shizz

Rubecula wrote: »

It is a lot bigger than Spirit isn't it?

Yup



And here is it compared to a person.




EDIT: I'm starting to think that the first picture may not actually be to proper scale but may be the correct scale between the rovers?

af_thefragile

^What I read is its the size of a hatchback car.

shizz

af_thefragile wrote: »

^What I read is its the size of a hatchback car.

Yeah it is as can be judged by the second picture. I always knew the first one was a model, just thinking that it doesn't seem to be to actual scale.

shedweller

I must do a little research on the wheel design. I'd be interested to see what differences there are between this and the last rovers. It was Spirit that had a front wheel failure after a while and though it wasnt a show stopper, it did need a bit of working around.

Also, on the lander, there are 8 thrusters but any video i have seen of it in action has shown 4 in use. Are the other 4 backups? I would imagine there being a major need of some kind of backup, should a thruster fail!

af_thefragile

shedweller wrote: »

I must do a little research on the wheel design. I'd be interested to see what differences there are between this and the last rovers. It was Spirit that had a front wheel failure after a while and though it wasnt a show stopper, it did need a bit of working around.

Also, on the lander, there are 8 thrusters but any video i have seen of it in action has shown 4 in use. Are the other 4 backups? I would imagine there being a major need of some kind of backup, should a thruster fail!

From wiki:

Like previous rovers Mars Exploration Rovers and Mars Pathfinder, Curiosity is equipped with 6 wheels in a rocker-bogie suspension. The suspension system will also serve as landing gear for the vehicle, unlike its smaller predecessors.[51] Curiosity's wheels are significantly larger than those used on previous rovers. Each wheel has a pattern which helps it maintain traction but also leaves patterned tracks in the sandy surface of Mars. That pattern is used by on-board cameras to judge the distance traveled. The pattern itself is Morse code for "JPL" (·--- ·--· ·-··).


Although Curiosity has much bigger whels than Spirit/Opportunity so hopefully it shouldn't get stuck.

Speaking of Spirit, it reminded me of this:

jkforde

really looking forward to this landing, watched a documentary on the development of the rover and the landing technology a good while back and even the development team at the start were disbelieving and daunted by the expectations and the how much they had to push the envelope in the time allowed but they managed it, truly inspiring what our species can achieve when we aren't fighting over petty worldly resources!.... fingers crossed....

shedweller

Jkforde, it may be an obvious question but what was the name of that doc?

jumpjack

Rubecula wrote: »

It is a lot bigger than Spirit isn't it?

it's as big as a small car indeed. or as two 'spirit'.

Timfy

af_thefragile wrote: »

From wiki:


Speaking of Spirit, it reminded me of this:

This cartoon always, without fail, makes me very sad

af_thefragile

^indeed. But its still amazing to see how Opportunity is still working fine and doing lots of good exploration and work on the planet. The little rover just keeps on going!

shedweller

For a rover designed to last 92 days but is over 3000 now, it has certainly done well! So if Curiosity has to last a year, it could (hopefully) last decades!!
Did anyone catch the press conference the other day? I'm away from the pc so i haven't had a chance to look at it.

jkforde

shedweller wrote: »

Jkforde, it may be an obvious question but what was the name of that doc?

can't remember. twas a type of behind-the-scenes at JPL on NASA TV interviewing mission scientists and techs (might've been one of their Edge programmes). have searched http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/videoarchive/ but can't see it. if I come across it I'll post it.

thecommander

Great little vid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqdoXwLBT8

Anyone know what time it's due to land? Coming back from honeymoon that morning from America, hoping it's not too early!

FOUND IT. Curiosity is scheduled to land at approximately 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5 (1:31 a.m. EDT, Aug. 6)

shedweller

Times like this i wish there was a go-pro strapped to its back!

thecommander

shedweller wrote: »

Times like this i wish there was a go-pro strapped to its back!

There's a camera under the lander seemingly, so we'll get pics back of the sky crane working.

shedweller

Aye, i hope it has a decent frame rate!

shizz

I think they are hoping to catch it landing with one of the orbiting satellites.

Beeker

thecommander wrote: »

Great little vid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqdoXwLBT8

Anyone know what time it's due to land? Coming back from honeymoon that morning from America, hoping it's not too early!

FOUND IT. Curiosity is scheduled to land at approximately 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5 (1:31 a.m. EDT, Aug. 6)

That will make it 06:31 Irish time on Aug 6.

shedweller

Taken from a website run by Malin Space Science Systems:


With the primary concern raised about MARDI addressed, the NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate agreed to return MSL MARDI to flight status. MARDI will be delivered in May 2008, and will take 1600x1200 pixel RGB color images at a rate of 5 frames per second during about 2 minutes of descent and landing in September 2010.

This being from the phoenix lander which had the same camera as MSL. 5fps is not too bad and the resulting video should look good.

murrayp4

thecommander wrote: »

Great little vid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqdoXwLBT8

Anyone know what time it's due to land? Coming back from honeymoon that morning from America, hoping it's not too early!

FOUND IT. Curiosity is scheduled to land at approximately 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5 (1:31 a.m. EDT, Aug. 6)

Wow...

shedweller

shizz

Wow, so close yet 13 MILLION km away.

Rubecula

Any updates on this?

shizz

Rubecula wrote: »

Any updates on this?

It hasn't landed yet.... :pac: