Curiosity MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) - Atlas V 541 - Canaveral SLC-41 - 26.11.2011

[che wi]

голубой марсианский закат

[che wi]

First Asteroid Image from the Surface of Mars
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17937

The Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has captured the first image of an asteroid taken from the surface of Mars. The night-sky image actually includes two asteroids: Ceres and Vesta, plus one of Mars' two moons, Deimos, which may have been an asteroid before being captured into orbit around Mars. The image was taken after nightfall on the 606th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (April 20, 2014, PDT). In other camera pointings the same night, the Mastcam also imaged Mars' larger moon, Phobos, plus the planets Jupiter and Saturn.

Ceres, with a diameter of about 590 miles (950 kilometers), is the largest object in the asteroid belt, large enough to be classified as a dwarf planet. Vesta is the third-largest object in the asteroid belt, about 350 miles (563 kilometers) wide. These two bodies are the destinations of NASA's Dawn mission, which orbited Vesta in 2011 and 2012 and is on its way to begin orbiting Ceres in 2015.

This annotated image combines portions of images taken at the same pointing with two different exposure times, plus insets from other camera pointings. In the main portion of the image, Vesta, Ceres and three stars appear as short streaks due to the duration of a 12-second exposure. The background is detector noise, limiting what we can see to magnitude 6 or 7, much like normal human eyesight. The two asteroids and three stars would be visible to someone of normal eyesight standing on Mars. Specks are effects of cosmic rays striking the camera's light detector.

Three square insets at left show Phobos, Jupiter and Saturn at exposures of one-half second each. Deimos was much brighter than the visible stars and asteroids in the same part of the sky, in the main image. The circular inset covers a patch of sky the size that Earth's full moon appears to observers on Earth. At the center of that circular inset, Deimos appears at its correct location in the sky, in a one-quarter-second exposure. In the unannotated version of the 12-second-exposure image, the brightness of Deimos saturates that portion of the image, making the moon appear overly large.

[Виктор Петров]

Пора обсерваторию на Марсе организовывать

[Сергио]

Церера планета, а не астероид!

[che wi]

Сергио пишет:

Церера планета, а не астероид!

То, что она карликовая планета, не мешает ей быть астероидом

[che wi]

весь в пылюке

[Виктор Петров]

Что кстати про колеса слышно? Деградация стабилизировалась или нет?

[bavv]

Curiosity Rover ‏@MarsCuriosity 35 мин.
Hole-y moley. See the mark left by my most recent "mini-drill" on Mars
http://go.nasa.gov/1fRdfZz  pic.twitter.com/BTUSuoD9c0
 
 

[che wi]

панорамка
http://www.360cities.net/image/mars-panorama-curiosity-solar-day-213

[azeast]

che wi пишет:
панорамка

Дух захватывает!

[bavv]

@NASA 7 ч.
.@MarsCuriosity wheel testing helps understand the effects of damage on traction performance
http://1.usa.gov/1kU0TUO  pic.twitter.com/DBwr9COjp3
› Full size

Спойлер

Testing the Wheels of the Mars Curiosity Rover
 
In support of the Mars Science Laboratory Program (MSL), a set of the same wheels currently on the Mars Curiosity Rover were sent to NASA Glenn recently for performance evaluation by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.  The goal is to understand the effects of wheel damage on traction performance.

NASA Glenn technician Ariana Miller checks the wheel mount and drive hardware assembly on a Curiosity wheel for tests at the Traction and Excavation Capabilities Lab. Researchers are using a newly built single-wheel tester to simulate a variety of terrain conditions similar to Mars including loose granular soil, dense high shear strength soil and a bedrock-like material.

The pace of holes appearing in Curiosity's aluminum wheels increased unexpectedly in late last year, compared with the first 12 months of the rover's mission on Mars.  Curiosity was crossing terrain studded with sharp, embedded rocks.  By early 2014, changes in route planning and driving methods slowed the pace of wheel damage.  The tests at NASA Glenn are part of the rover project's efforts to understand how the damage occurs, to develop methods for further reducing the pace of damage and to anticipate how accumulation of damage to the wheels could affect performance.

[свернуть]

[che wi]

NASA's Curiosity Rover Drills Sandstone Slab on Mars
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-142

[bavv]

Curiosity Rover ‏@MarsCuriosity  6 мин.
Laser tag! I drilled sandstone, zapped it w/ChemCam & imaged it at night. http://go.nasa.gov/1k66oQO  #PewPew pic.twitter.com/cTmP1vw8qU

[che wi]

Curiosity Rover back on the Road to Mount Sharp after Drilling
http://www.spaceflight101.com/msl-mission-updates-7.html

The Curiosity rover has finished its exploration campaign at the Kimberley waypoint and is now back on the road, continuing the journey to the Mount Sharp Entry Point to reach the lower slopes of Aeolis Mons, the mission's primary science goal. The 40-sol exploration campaign at the Kimberley included the mission's third drilling campaign to acquire a powdered sample from a slab of sandstone - the sample is currently aboard the rover for analysis by the laboratory instruments.

Спойлер

After completing its drilling operation at the Windjana sandstone target on Sol 621, Curiosity completed sample processing operations for next two Sols with CHIMRA - Collection and Handling for interior Martian Rock Analysis - a very complex system featuring a number of chambers, labyrinths, transfer tubes, sieves and other components to process samples. In addition to gravity and arm/turret movements, CHIMRA can use vibration at 70-80Hz to direct the powdered sample through the various tubes and sieves.

To process a sample, the robotic arm goes through a range of motions to direct the sample through a number of chambers before reaching the 150-micron sieve. CHIMRA uses vibration to sieve the material before generating small sample portions of 45 to 65 mm³ for the SAM and CheMin instruments.

The powder was also directed into the scoop to allow it to be imaged using the Mast Cameras as a final check of the condition of the sample before being distributed to the SAM and CheMin laboratory instruments. Now distributed  to the CheMin Sample Chambers and SAM Sample Cups, the material is available for analysis when available power, drive planning and other operations permit - sample analysis can be stretched out over a period of weeks or months as MSL usually conducts SAM and CheMin Operations at night.

Leftovers of the sample can also be left inside the turret until the next sampling operation is planned to be able to distribute sample material to the instruments or the Observation Tray even weeks after the drilling operation. One drawback of having a sample inside CHIMRA is a series of restrictions on arm operations that make robotics planning more complex.

With sample processing complete, Curiosity spent a few more Sols at Mount Remarkable to study the Windjana target and complete some engineering surveys that included imaging of the wheels with MAHLI and imaging of the turret and SAM/CheMin sample inlets using the Mast Cameras.

MSL used its Alpha-Particle X-Ray Spectrometer on Sol 622 to analyze the drill tailings which was followed by with ChemCam analysis of the tailings  to get a data set on the drilled sample from all of Curiosity's instruments. Additionally, APXS completed a long overnight integration on the drilling site.

Using ChemCam on Sol 626, Curiosity showed off its precision by performing active laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with ChemCam inside the drill hole. Seven spots on the wall of the small hole at different depths were targeted to acquire data on how the composition of the soil and rock changes with increasing depth which is an extraordinary feature provided by ChemCam.

Sol 627 was also dedicated to contact science as MAHLI was used to take a close look at the drill hole and its surroundings followed by APXS and MAHLI studies of a nearby rock target named 'Stephen.' This target was also subject of active spectroscopy conducted by ChemCam which demonstrated the instrument's laser as an effective dust removal system as its left behind clean rock surfaces after firing its laser at several points on Stephen.

Working overtime on Sol 628, Curiosity conducted contact science with MAHLI after sunset making use of its visible and UV LEDs to illuminate the drill hole. MAHLI took close-up images of the drill hole and its walls under LED illumination that provides scientists with a different perspective that does not rely on illumination from the sun which can produce shadows that make it difficult to see some features.

Wrapping up operations at the Kimberley on Sol 629, MSL performed APXS and MAHLI contact science on the Stephen site, taking advantage of the cleaned spots left by ChemCam.

On Sol 630, Curiosity hit the road again, making the first drive in 21 Sols after stopping for drilling on Sol 609. The Sol 630 drive was about 30 meters followed by a shorter drive on Sol 631. Back on the road to Mount Sharp, the mission's primary science goal, MSL's focus over the next weeks will be driving and completing the sample analysis using SAM and CheMin.

[свернуть]

Driving will be the priority over the coming weeks, but the team expects to make short stops at locations that are of interest to scientists. One more waypoint along the route to Murray Buttes has been identified. Known as FC_9, this waypoint lies about halfway between the Kimberley and Murray Buttes, the Mount Sharp entry point.

Being a mission driven by science, Curiosity is not following a precise schedule and it can not be predicted when the rover will arrive at Mount Sharp as the team may elect to take longer or shorter stops at interesting targets that are found along the way.

[Виктор Левашов]

по ТВ передали, что "Кьюриосити" НЛО заснял. а на форуме тихо. странно.

[Дмитрий Виницкий]

Нада меньше смотреть телевизор!

[che wi]

Виктор Левашов пишет:

по ТВ передали, что "Кьюриосити" НЛО заснял. а на форуме тихо. странно.

Наверное, не проходит и месяца, чтобы разные чудики фантазёры не находили на снимках Кьюриосити (или других аппаратов) то окаменевший палец, то перемещающийся кусок скалы, то странную тень, то ещё фиг знает что :) Забавно, конечно, но не более того.

[Vi1]

А еще забавнее когда пишут про кьюриоса, а снимок местности приводят с оппортьюнити или, что еще хуже - более древнего пасфайндера

[Виктор Левашов]

che wi пишет:

Виктор Левашов пишет:

по ТВ передали, что "Кьюриосити" НЛО заснял. а на форуме тихо. странно.

Наверное, не проходит и месяца, чтобы разные чудики фантазёры не находили на снимках Кьюриосити (или других аппаратов) то окаменевший палец, то перемещающийся кусок скалы, то странную тень, то ещё фиг знает что С улыбкой Забавно, конечно, но не более того.

чувствую, гинекологов порнухой не удивишь.

[Антон Власов]

June 23, 2014
RELEASE 14-177
NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover Marks First Martian Year with Mission Successes


NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover captures a selfie to mark a full Martian year -- 687 Earth days -- spent exploring the Red Planet.
Image Credit: 
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Full image and caption

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover will complete a Martian year -- 687 Earth days -- on June 24, having accomplished the mission's main goal of determining whether Mars once offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.
One of Curiosity's first major findings after landing on the Red Planet in August 2012 was an ancient riverbed at its landing site. Nearby, at an area known as Yellowknife Bay, the mission met its main goal of determining whether the Martian Gale Crater ever was habitable for simple life forms. The answer, a historic "yes," came fr om two mudstone slabs that the rover sampled with its drill. Analysis of these samples revealed the site was once a lakebed with mild water, the essential elemental ingredients for life, and a type of chemical energy source used by some microbes on Earth. If Mars had living organisms, this would have been a good home for them.


Other important findings during the first Martian year include:
-- Assessing natural radiation levels both during the flight to Mars and on the Martian surface provides guidance for designing the protection needed for human missions to Mars.
-- Measurements of heavy-versus-light variants of elements in the Martian atmosphere indicate that much of Mars' early atmosphere disappeared by processes favoring loss of lighter atoms, such as fr om the top of the atmosphere. Other measurements found that the atmosphere holds very little, if any, methane, a gas that can be produced biologically.
-- The first determinations of the age of a rock on Mars and how long a rock has been exposed to harmful radiation provide prospects for learning when water flowed and for assessing degradation rates of organic compounds in rocks and soils.
Curiosity paused in driving this spring to drill and collect a sample fr om a sandstone site called Windjana. The rover currently is carrying some of the rock-powder sample collected at the site for follow-up analysis.
"Windjana has more magnetite than previous samples we've analyzed," said David Blake, principal investigator for Curiosity's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California.  "A key question is whether this magnetite is a component of the original basalt or resulted from later processes, such as would happen in water-soaked basaltic sediments. The answer is important to our understanding of habitability and the nature of the early-Mars environment."



This map shows in red the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the "Bradbury Landing" location wh ere it landed in August 2012 (blue star at upper right) to nearly the completion of its first Martian year. The white line shows the planned route ahead.
Image Credit: 
NASA/JPL

Preliminary indications are that the rock contains a more diverse mix of clay minerals than was found in the mission's only previously drilled rocks, the mudstone targets at Yellowknife Bay. Windjana also contains an unexpectedly high amount of the mineral orthoclase, This is a potassium-rich feldspar that is one of the most abundant minerals in Earth's crust that had never before been definitively detected on Mars.
This finding implies that some rocks on the Gale Crater rim, from which the Windjana sandstones are thought to have been derived, may have experienced complex geological processing, such as multiple episodes of melting.
"It's too early for conclusions, but we expect the results to help us connect what we learned at Yellowknife Bay to what we'll learn at Mount Sharp," said John Grotzinger, Curiosity Project Scientist at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "Windjana is still within an area wh ere a river flowed. We see signs of a complex history of interaction between water and rock."
Curiosity departed Windjana in mid-May and is advancing westward. It has covered about nine-tenths of a mile (1.5 kilometers) in 23 driving days and brought the mission's odometer tally up to 4.9 miles (7.9 kilometers). 
Since wheel damage prompted a slow-down in driving late in 2013, the mission team has adjusted routes and driving methods to reduce the rate of damage.
For example, the mission team revised the planned route to future destinations on the lower slope of an area called Mount Sharp, wh ere scientists expect geological layering will yield answers about ancient environments. Before Curiosity landed, scientists anticipated that the rover would need to reach Mount Sharp to meet the goal of determining whether the ancient environment was favorable for life. They found an answer much closer to the landing site. The findings so far have raised the bar for the work ahead. At Mount Sharp, the mission team will seek evidence not only of habitability, but also of how environments evolved and what conditions favored preservation of clues to whether life existed there.
The entry gate to the mountain is a gap in a band of dunes edging the mountain's northern flank that is approximately 2.4 miles (3.9 kilometers) ahead of the rover's current location. The new path will take Curiosity across sandy patches as well as rockier ground. Terrain mapping with use of imaging from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enables the charting of safer, though longer, routes.
The team expects its will need to continually adapt to the threats posed by the terrain to the rover's wheels but does not expect this will be a determining factor in the length of Curiosity's operational life.
"We are getting in some long drives using what we have learned," said Jim Erickson, Curiosity Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "When you're exploring another planet, you expect surprises.  The sharp, embedded rocks were a bad surprise. Yellowknife Bay was a good surprise."
JPL manages NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington, and built the project's Curiosity rover.