The Curiosity On Mars Thread.

shedweller

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20130605.html

Curiosity is finishing investigations in an area smaller than a football field where it has been working for six months, and it will soon shift to a distance-driving mode headed for an area about 5 miles (8 kilometers) away, at the base Mount Sharp.

Yee haa! Lets roll!!!:D

Mountainsandh

into the dusty sunset...

was there another live stream today ? I think I saw another recent email telling me the cam was live but I deleted it too fast.

shedweller

^^^^
Tut tut. Less haste with the ould delete!

Mountainsandh

checked the Ustream and found it anyway :P it was for yesterday

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl?utm_source=crowd-live-backend&utm_medium=visit-channel-ustre-am&utm_campaign=notifications

shedweller

Small tidbit from a few days ago now:
http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/msl/130605plan/

Ten months after a spectacular landing in Gale Crater, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is wrapping up a second drilling campaign, mission managers said Wednesday, and the science team is gearing up to begin the long trek to Mount Sharp, a towering mound of layered rock 5 miles away that is expected to shed new light on the red planet's history and habitability.

To reach the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, Curiosity will have to traverse more than 10 times that distance, a trip that could take another 10 months to a year or longer to complete.

Engineers also are factoring in the locations of discarded hardware used by Curiosity's "sky crane" landing system to determine if it might be feasible for the rover to take a closer look at some of the components as it slowly rolls toward Mount Sharp.
"We'll be planning the general path in the next few weeks," said Jim Erickson, the Curiosity project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "And then we'll start our trek to the base of Mount Sharp.

I must look back and see what "hardware" has any chance of being visited. I think there was discussion here about it and the heatshield came up as a potential. The skycrane itself is, i think, off out the other way from Mt. Sharp so would be off the list if i were the rover driver. If i were the rover driver....:pac::(
The rover appears to be on the move although they haven't said anything to that effect. New landscape!

Mountainsandh

Exciting, straight ahead Shedweller, go on !

shedweller

:D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSHr4ubuD64

shedweller

Huge picture time!!

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on June 13, 2013, Sol 303 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 10:12:12 UTC.

When this image was obtained, the focus motor count position was 13592. This number indicates the internal position of the MAHLI lens at the time the image was acquired. This count also tells whether the dust cover was open or closed. Values between 0 and 6000 mean the dust cover was closed; values between 12500 and 16000 occur when the cover is open. For close-up images, the motor count can in some cases be used to estimate the distance between the MAHLI lens and target. For example, in-focus images obtained with the dust cover open for which the lens was 2.5 cm from the target have a motor count near 15270. If the lens is 5 cm from the target, the motor count is near 14360; if 7 cm, 13980; 10 cm, 13635; 15 cm, 13325; 20 cm, 13155; 25 cm, 13050; 30 cm, 12970. These correspond to image scales, in micrometers per pixel, of about 16, 25, 32, 42, 60, 77, 95, and 113.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=0303MH0293001000E1_DXXX&s=303

That is some rock formation. Will they do a 3D of it??

apollo8

Not long after the unfortunate incident were Curiosities wheels drew a phallus in the sand now our little rover is photographing RATS!:eek:

shedweller

apollo8 wrote: »

Not long after the unfortunate incident were Curiosities wheels drew a phallus in the sand now our little rover is photographing RATS!:eek:

Darn it your link didnt work. But fear not, i found another one:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00193/mcam/0193MR1024018000E1_DXXX.jpg
Cant embed but there it is.

It's a human condition. That is all. Seeing the rat that is, not embedding pics!
I just hope the rover driver doesn't feel the need to head over and waste time looking at it. Although it could eliminate decades of CTers time wasted. Hmm....

apollo8

Not sure what link i posted anyhow Shedweller i read this thread all the way through before i joined,fair play to you for keeping it going nice job.enjoyed reading the pages devoted to landing,seems like yous had a lot of fun and a surprising amount of members were awake and posting at that hour.proably more didn't go asleep more than woke early i'd say lol
i was on Nasaspaceflight.com it was exciting but not as much fun as here.
Could be fun bringing the rodent to CT alright

Curiosity photographed its wheels recently,they are pockmarked even as it started its five mile trek.

shedweller

I was abroad for the landing (+1hour) and there was free wifi all over the hotel so i didnt even have to leave the room in me onesies!
Is that wheel pic a new one? I saw the dents shortly after it started driving and these new dents are bigger. I dont think it'll be a show stopper though. They might look like they were dragged out of a ditch but they'll still work. The spokes are titanium afaik. Thats chuck norris' metal of choice!

apollo8

Roughly a month old that pic.

Capt'n Midnight

apollo8 wrote: »

Curiosity photographed its wheels recently,they are pockmarked even as it started its five mile trek.

So much for Rover's 3 year unlimited mileage warranty.

Zubeneschamali

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

So much for Rover's 3 year unlimited mileage warranty.

That'll polish out!

shedweller

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

That'll polish out!

That crack in the anodising wont!:eek: When the rover starts doing some serious climbing, those wheels better hold out!

cuppa

Though you guys might like this

Take on Mars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfqsl0xQ34E

Capt'n Midnight

shedweller wrote: »

That crack in the anodising wont!:eek: When the rover starts doing some serious climbing, those wheels better hold out!

https://xkcd.com/695/

shedweller

Remember that large-ish rock above? Well MAHLI is having a gander at it.

shedweller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2rwWECbEHg

apollo8

Terrific panorama of gale crater has just been released.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/06/mars-billion-panorama/

shanered

apollo8 wrote: »

Terrific panorama of gale crater has just been released.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/06/mars-billion-panorama/

Thanks, great link.
The definition is great.
I spotted something in my attached photo mars6, what do you guys n gals think it is?
It looks like a little man waving but could be anything. Is it bad quality camera because otherwise it seems great!

shanered

Last photo, shows that it is just left of mountain range in distance,
what do you think it is
*this post is a continuation of my previous post*

Mountainsandh

Hi Shanered, your mark seems to be in the exact center of the image, so I think it could be a mark they apply during processing to stitch together the mosaics, that should probably have been clicked off.

TheUsual

apollo8 wrote: »

Terrific panorama of gale crater has just been released.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/06/mars-billion-panorama/

That's deadly.

Google Mars, here we come.

shanered

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Hi Shanered, your mark seems to be in the exact center of the image, so I think it could be a mark they apply during processing to stitch together the mosaics, that should probably have been clicked off.

Cheers for clearing that up! Was wondering since the images where such good quality.

shedweller

Only have the mobile for a wee while so i can only attach a link to a pic.
http://marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=NLB_426181739EDR_F0060804NCAM00207M_&s=323
There doesn't appear to be many colour pics lately. I presume that shows how much they want to just get on with things and get a few km under her wheels!

Am i right in saying there was another phobos passing in front of the sun? I saw the thumbnail for the video but didnt get to watch it. Its a new one isnt it?
I'd love to see a timelapse of a full day passing from the rovers perspective too!
We need Don Petit and Chris Hadfield in charge of the cameras!!

Rubecula

BBC News reported she is on the move again towards Mt Sharp.

shedweller

I've been away this past while so here's an out of date pic:

Lower slopes of Mount Sharp appear at the top of this image taken by the right Navigation Camera (Navcam) of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity at the end of a drive of about 135 feet (41 meters) during the 329th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (July 9, 2013). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Nice to see some new terrain! I expect Curiosity to not come out of top gear over those rocks!;):D

shedweller

Couple of days old. I'm just getting back up to speed after the hols.:(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vluaivJqo9w