The Curiosity On Mars Thread.

shedweller

Ya, i'm always thinking i could just head on out there for a walk up that hill. One of many reasons i'll never be an astronaut i guess!
I saw this picture taken yesterday afternoon and thought Curiosity is probably not going to take this route!


Here is a MAHLI pic of a wheel, showing a nice hole at the top! If those bits start sticking in a lot they could end up cutting the power cables so carefully routed along the top surface of the leg.

Shiraz 4.99

I've stared at the wheel pictures & can never make out the damage people speak of. Can someone point out exactly on the above photo where this damage is.

Blowfish

Shiraz 4.99 wrote: »

I've stared at the wheel pictures & can never make out the damage people speak of. Can someone point out exactly on the above photo where this damage is.

The bits of light you can see on the back of the wheel are actually holes. Here's a much more blatant pic of one of the wheels:

Shiraz 4.99

Thanks for that, main reason I was as interested is that I work with steel, I'm an engineer so I had an interest in the damage.
As there's no deflection in the main wheel skin where the gripper ridges are these must be reinforced inside by a series of ribs.
Those tears appear to be nothing more than cosmetic damage away from the main structure of the wheel.
Not nice to look at but no great worry.

shedweller

I've not heard of much science results lately. I assume its being done constantly but i dont see any results from it. The joys of commuting across a crater floor i spose!

shedweller

A look back over "Junda"


And heres the panoramic:

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the Navigation Camera (Navcam) on its mast for this look back after finishing a drive of 328 feet (100 meters) on the 548th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Feb. 19, 2014). The rows of rocks just to the right of the fresh wheel tracks in this view are an outcrop called "Junda." The rows form striations on the ground, a characteristic seen in some images of this area taken from orbit.

http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/msl/curiosity-pia17949/
The wheels are a little worse for wear but not by much. Here's a MAHLI view of them:

You can see the internal rim where the spokes attach is starting to show up on the outside due to the 0.75mm thin wheel skin bending around it. It's reassuring to me from an engineering perspective that its going to keep the wheel somewhat round no matter what. I do wonder how the motor overloads will cope with spike loads if the wheel gets significantly off centre at the outer edges. This could happen when the rover starts climbing Mt. Sharp and options for go-arounds are limited.
We'll cross that bridge when we get there eh?

shedweller

Getting ready for drilling!
Here's the location:

Scoop: Check!

APXS: Check!

Drill: ehhhhhh.....no pics!

shedweller

MAHLI has been doing some close up photography this morning. Presumably to find a suitable spot to drill. There's only small pics at the moment but you can see some small inclusions in the rock:

You might need your own MAHLI to see anything on that thumnail so best of luck!
CHEMCAM took this shortly before the above pic and the little lumps are more clearly seen: Blueberries, anyone?

K.Flyer

shedweller wrote: »

The wheels are a little worse for wear but not by much.

I'll gladly volunteer to be sent out to change them if needs be

shedweller

K.Flyer wrote: »

I'll gladly volunteer to be sent out to change them if needs be

Oh man just say the word!

Mountainsandh

Curiosity Cam live on Ustream now, missed the start, and connection not great
:

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

They're on about asteroids right now.

edit : Dammit it's finished and I don't even know what it was about. Lecture about NASA Earth Missions now, but it wasn't that, anyone watched the live broadcast ?

shedweller

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Curiosity Cam live on Ustream now, missed the start, and connection not great
:

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

They're on about asteroids right now.

edit : Dammit it's finished and I don't even know what it was about. Lecture about NASA Earth Missions now, but it wasn't that, anyone watched the live broadcast ?

Missed it. It might be in the videos section on the nasa homepage later. Cheers for the heads up. This asteroid mission sure looks like the stuff of sci fi and it cannot come soon enough!

shedweller

Mastcam took this yesterday. Looks like a small gully cut out by a flowing liquid that has since been sand duned by the wind. Opinions?

shedweller

It also looks to me as though they haven't drilled at that layered rock. Here's the hazcam view from yesterday:


And here's the view this morning:


Thats "Junda" to the right of the image if i'm not mistaken. So it appears they have moved Curiosity away from junda. It does look like it's more than just to get a better spot to drill at it and maybe they decided against it and press on instead?? Or they could be going to drill on top of the layers of Junda?
Anyway, the wheels seemm to be holding up well. The road from Dingo Gap was a good choice eh?

shedweller

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Curiosity Cam live on Ustream now, missed the start, and connection not great
:

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

They're on about asteroids right now.

edit : Dammit it's finished and I don't even know what it was about. Lecture about NASA Earth Missions now, but it wasn't that, anyone watched the live broadcast ?

This is a recent upload and it might cover what you nearly saw!
It's off topic as feck but hey!:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkiDM9erghA

Mountainsandh

Thanks, I wasn't aware it was off topic at first, I get the Ustream notice telling me Curiosity Cam has gone live, and thought it was about Curiosity.
'Tis all my fault, sorry

shedweller

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Thanks, I wasn't aware it was off topic at first, I get the Ustream notice telling me Curiosity Cam has gone live, and thought it was about Curiosity.
'Tis all my fault, sorry

No no! The video i posted was heading off topic!
So, ustream notice eh? Where do i get one of those??!

shedweller

This came in yesterday. Nice use of reflective rover surfaces eh?

Mountainsandh

Sorry Shedweller, can't remember how and where I subscribed to Ustream Curiosity Cam ! Could be a link from this Facebook page I follow.

What are the 2 very obvious flat bits on the pic ? I can't make it out very well, are they like bent flaps attached to the flat mud sheet sort of thing ? or are they stones under it ?

shedweller

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Sorry Shedweller, can't remember how and where I subscribed to Ustream Curiosity Cam ! Could be a link from this Facebook page I follow.

What are the 2 very obvious flat bits on the pic ? I can't make it out very well, are they like bent flaps attached to the flat mud sheet sort of thing ? or are they stones under it ?

I got the impression they are bonded to the end of the flagstone. It might have been even sedimentary rock that was randomised by a meteor impact and has spent so long there that it fused with whatever it lay on.
It is safe to say sedimentary rocks wrt mars, yes??! Next thing we know we'll be looking down that hatch thats lighting up in the distance!!

Mountainsandh

Maybe we could just ask the locals

littlemac1980

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Sorry Shedweller, can't remember how and where I subscribed to Ustream Curiosity Cam ! Could be a link from this Facebook page I follow.

What are the 2 very obvious flat bits on the pic ? I can't make it out very well, are they like bent flaps attached to the flat mud sheet sort of thing ? or are they stones under it ?

Well they are definitely not stones under it - because if that were the case the larger one on the left would have a NW facing shadow. I think its clear anyway from the photo that they are attached to the "mud-flat" type rock.

That's such an interesting photo. How could something like that typically happen on Earth?

Also its seems like a lot of the rock and stones underneath - which are visible - are conglomorate type muddy rock.

littlemac1980

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Maybe we could just ask the locals

They might be here:

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/04/08/picture-bright-light-on-mars-has-ufo-fans-crying-alien/

Mountainsandh

Yes a puzzling pic ! It's like something pushed against it when the mud was still soft, but there's no trace of what could have pushed against it.

Maybe they're upright pebbles, they got stuck in the mud vertically ?
There's the little one on the far left as well.

And yeah, to an untrained eye, it really looks like a dried out layer of mud on top of conglomerate mud and pebbles.

littlemac1980

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Yes a puzzling pic ! It's like something pushed against it when the mud was still soft, but there's no trace of what could have pushed against it.

Maybe they're upright pebbles, they got stuck in the mud vertically ?
There's the little one on the far left as well.

And yeah, to an untrained eye, it really looks like a dried out layer of mud on top of conglomerate mud and pebbles.

Oh my God - you just called me untrained. You're 100% correct! ;-)

Mountainsandh

Well I was calling myself untrained rather, but hey, the more the merrier

littlemac1980

littlemac1980 wrote: »

They might be here:

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/04/08/picture-bright-light-on-mars-has-ufo-fans-crying-alien/

Here's a better Article -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/08/white-light-mars-images-nasa-curiosity-rover-photos_n_5111905.html

And it mentions something that was omitted from the first, i.e. that although the bright spot turned up on the RHS nav cam, and not the LHS - the images were taken seconds apart.

The NASA guys have offered two theories for why the photos are simply explainable glitches.

1. Leaking light through some vent thingie.

2. Reflective Rock

Here's another photo -



1. Bit odd that the leaking light could position itself on a precise (but differently aligned) piece of horizon on both occasions.

2. Bit strange that we've never seen any reflective rocks to date (as far as I'm aware). Also the "reflection" seems very bright, like very very bright.

Maybe Curiosity has sparked someone or something elses Curiosity? :eek:

Mountainsandh

I find the cosmic rays explanation the most convincing.

But also, rather than rock, could it be a bit debris from previous exploration/failed landings etc...) that's reflecting like a mirror ?

littlemac1980

Mountainsandh wrote: »

But also, rather than rock, could it be a bit debris from previous exploration/failed landings etc...) that's reflecting like a mirror ?

Yes I was thinking that as well - the images were taken only a day apart - you can actually compare the mountains behind and it become clear that the light may even be coming from the same location on both days. That surely would have to rule out the cosmic ray/leaking light theory though - if it could be shown to originate from a certain physical location which remains constant despite Curiosity's movement.

However, given the obvious distance the light is away - it seems rather improbable that the RHS nav cam picked it up and a few seconds later the LHS cam missed it - yet it was spotted from two different positions one day apart.

Maximus Alexander

It's clearly a periscope being used by a heretofore unknown subterranean Martian civilization. Curiosity trundling over their rooftops has been keeping them awake at night and now they're getting angry.