Updates Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

[NukeET]

Wow, so true! I wonder if it's a dry stream bed.

Canale?

:rofl:

 

[Topper]

Obamas call at NASA

---------- Post added 14-08-12 at 19:15 ---------- Previous post was 13-08-12 at 22:55 ----------



And Curiosity from upsite position (in Exaggerated Color)...

Whats the little black spot in the right of the rove (on the very little hill)?

 

[Screamer7]

I think it's a shadow of the hill itself.

 

[orb]

CBS News Space: Curiosity's software successfully updated; mobility tests on tap

SPACE.com: Mars Rover Curiosity Survives 'Brain Surgery,' Set for 1st Drive

Discovery News: Curiosity Ready to Drive After 'Brain Surgery'

The Planetary Society Blog: Curiosity's Marsdial is on Mars!

Four Mastcam images of the calibration target -- the Marsdial -- were taken on Curiosity's sol 3 (August 9, 2012) over a period of about 8 minutes. In that time, the shadow of the gnomon moved slightly, marking time on Mars with a sundial.
NASA / JPL / MSSS / Gordan Ugarkovic​

 

[garyw]

Curiosity - as seen from orbit:

The vehicle appears as a double dot.

The view from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been colour enhanced to emphasise certain ground features.

These include the disturbance in the soil made either side of the vehicle by the rocket powered crane that lowered Curiosity into Gale Crater a week ago.

"We can clearly see Curiosity - it's like two bright spots that we see, and their shadows. And then it's surrounded by the blast pattern from the descent stage - those little blue fans right next to it (false colour blue)," explained Alfred McEwen, the principal investigator on MRO's High Resolution Image Science Experiment (HiRise) camera.

Since its 6 August (GMT) touchdown, engineers have been checking out the rover's systems and instruments.

And the past four days have been spent upgrading the vehicle's onboard software.

Curiosity runs two computers - a main unit and a back-up. Both have been updated to what programmers call the R10 configuration.

This software is optimised for surface operations, enabling the rover to drive, drill into rocks and take samples into the laboratories inside its body.

The update also removed all the code used by Curiosity during the complex manoeuvres required to land in Gale Crater, a deep depression on Mars' equator.

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19262486

Why is the blast pattern blue though?

 

[Topper]

Curiosity Cradled by Gale Crater

NASA's Curiosity rover landed in the Martian crater known as Gale Crater, which is approximately the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. A green dot shows where the rover landed, well within its targeted landing ellipse, outlined in blue.

This oblique view of Gale, and Mount Sharp in the center, is derived from a combination of elevation and imaging data from three Mars orbiters. The view is looking toward the southeast. Mount Sharp rises about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) above the floor of Gale Crater.

The image combines elevation data from the High Resolution Stereo Camera on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, image data from the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and color information from Viking Orbiter imagery. There is no vertical exaggeration in the image.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/MSSS

source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia16058.html

 

[orb]

Why is the blast pattern blue though?

Discover Magazine - Bad Astronomy: Curiosity’s looking a little blue:

{...}

The colors have been enhanced in this image – which actually makes things very interesting. As I’ve pointed out before, most of Mars is covered in basalt, a blue-gray rock. When you hear about sand on Mars, it’s usually coarse-grained stuff made up of eroded basalt. However, there’s also much finer-grained dust which is high in iron oxide – rust – and it’s that which gives Mars its characteristic ruddy color.

That fine dust covers everything, making the planet red/orange/ochre. But there’s wind on Mars, and it can blow the dust around, revealing the grayer basalt underneath (like the dust devils do). And if there’s no natural wind, why, the thrusters from the rockets of a sky crane hovering over the surface as it lowers a one-ton rover to the ground will do just fine.

{...}

Here's release from NASA/JPL: Orbiter Views NASA's New Mars Rover in Color

Aviation Week: Mars Curiosity Eyes First Moves Next Week

The Planetary Society Blog: Video, sound, and timeline of Curiosity's descent

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV1fIPr-fh4"]MSL Curiosity Descent & Landing w/ Mission Control Audio - YouTube[/ame]

 

[orb]

Universe Today:

• A 360-Degree ‘Street View’ From Mars
  
  
  

  
  360-degree panoramic image of the Martian landscape surrounding NASA’s Curiosity.
  Credit: Andrew Bodrov​
  
  
• Curiosity Wheels Initial Rove in a Week on Heels of Science Success
  
  
  

  
  Curiosity’s Wheels Set to Rove Mars inside Gale Crater. This mosaic shows Curiosity wheels, nuclear power source and pointy low gain antennea (LGA) in the foreground looking to the eroded northern rim of Gale Crater in the background. The mosaic was assembled from full resolution Navcam images snapped by Curiosity on Sol 2 on Aug. 8. Image stitching and processing by Ken Kremer and Marco Di Lorenzo.
  Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo​

Florida Today: Mars Curiosity team curious to spy rover's pics

 

[Keatah]

Just out of curiosity...
Do these hi res cameras take video?:shrug:

http://msl-scicorner.jpl.nasa.gov/Instruments/Mastcam/

 

[n122vu]

I couldn't think of a better place for this...
:rofl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFvNhsWMU0c&feature=youtu.be

 

[Codz]

I couldn't think of a better place for this...
:rofl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFvNhsWMU0c&feature=youtu.be

Well...that was interesting.:lol:

 

[Yoda]

:thumbup::rofl:

 

[RGClark]

Curiosity Surveys a Martian 'Mojave Desert': Big Pic.
Aug. 8, 2012 --
http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-mars-curiosity-mojave-desert-120808.html

The panoramic image, attached below, shows what appears to be "haze" at the base of the mountains in the distance in Gale crater. This was predicted prior to landing:

Pink skies, water ice haze in forecast for Curiosity landing.
12:56 PM, Aug 5, 2012
"PASADENA, CALIF. — Expect pink skies with a chance of a water ice haze over Gale Crater Monday when NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity rover arrive at the red planet.
"Seasonal winter temperatures are expected to be a balmy 10 degrees Fahrenheit when Curiosity touches down at 3 p.m. local Mars time."
http://www.floridatoday.com/article...ies-water-ice-haze-forecast-Curiosity-landing

It is important to realize that clouds, fogs and hazes can have some proportion of liquid water even well below freezing temperature. This is well known to happen when salts are dissolved in the water through freezing point depression. But it can also happen with pure water through supercooling:

Supercooling.
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercooled[/ame]

The temperature at which supercooled liquid water can occur can even be below -40C, which coincidentally is also -40F:

Supercool Water.
Posted: 11/28/11
"Liquid water as cold as minus 40 F has been found in clouds. Scientists have done experiments showing liquid water can exist at least down to minus 42 F."
http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/4363/supercool-water



Bob Clark

 

[Unstung]

The descent sequence is still missing a lot of frames, but it's still amazing in high definition nonetheless:

 

[SiberianTiger]

I couldn't think of a better place for this...
:rofl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFvNhsWMU0c&feature=youtu.be

:thumbup: What SpaceX will respond with?

"We can saw down a nozzle! / we can saw down a nozzle!"

:lol:

 

[RGClark]

I couldn't think of a better place for this...
:rofl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFvNhsWMU0c&feature=youtu.be

Just saw it aired on NASA TV.

Bob Clark

 

[orb]

RIA Novosti: Russian Mars Water Sniffer Goes Online:

A Russian neutron detector on board NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, designed to search for any water that might be bound into shallow underground minerals along the rover's path, was activated on Friday, the manufacturer said.

“The first scientific information has been received about the substance of Mars and its radiation background in the landing area,” the Russian Academy of Sciences Space Research Institute said.

{...}

 

[RGClark]

...

It is important to realize that clouds, fogs and hazes can have some proportion of liquid water even well below freezing temperature. This is well known to happen when salts are dissolved in the water through freezing point depression. But it can also happen with pure water through supercooling:

Supercooling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercooled

The temperature at which supercooled liquid water can occur can even be below -40C, which coincidentally is also -40F:

Supercool Water.
Posted: 11/28/11
"Liquid water as cold as minus 40 F has been found in clouds. Scientists have done experiments showing liquid water can exist at least down to minus 42 F."
http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/4363/supercool-water
...

More detailed discussion here:

A liquid water component to clouds and fogs on Mars.
http://exoscientist.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-liquid-water-component-to-clouds-and.html

Bob Clark

 

[orb]

CBS News Space: Tenative travel plans for Mars rover unveiled

SPACE.com: Mars Rover to Fire Rock-Zapping Laser Ahead of 1st Drive

Florida Today: Curiosity rover eyes first Martian destination

NASA:

• RELEASE : 12-287 - NASA Curiosity Team Pinpoints Site for First Drive, First Laser Use On Tap This Weekend
  
  
• NASA Curiosity Team Pinpoints Site for First Drive

NASA JPL: NASA Curiosity Team Pinpoints Site for First Drive

The Planetary Society Blog: Curiosity sol 11 update: Decision to drive to "the high thermal inertia unit" and what that means

This view from orbit shows the Curiosity rover's landing site, a nearby area known as Glenelg that will be studied for much of the remainder of 2012 and the foothills of Mount Sharp, a three-mile-tall mound of layered terrain that represents one of the major goals of the mission. (Credit: NASA; edited by CBS News)

In this color view, Curiosity can be seen to the left of Glenelg, an area where three geological structures come together a short distance from the rover's landing site. (Credit: NASA; edited by CBS News)

A long-range view of Curiosity's ultimate objective, the foothills of Mount Sharp. "There are hills there that are the size of multi-story buildings, with the valleys in between them being broad boulevards and highways," said project scientist John Grotzinger. "So it's a spectacular terrain and that's where we'll be headed one day." (Credit: NASA)​

 

[mahdavi3d]

interactive panorama view:
Mars Panorama - Curiosity rover: Martian solar day 2

Mars Panorama - Curiosity rover: Martian solar day 3