Mars Rover Curiosity Lands successfully!! LIVE THREAD

Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) ^ | 5 Aug 2012 | JPL

[hattend]

Landing at 10:30PM Pacific...yes, this is early so all the aviation, space, astronomy and science pingers can "get 'er done".

[dragnet2]

Mars Rover Curiosity Raising Turret This photograph of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, was taken during testing on June 3, 2011. The location is inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The turret at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm holds five devices. On the left (downhill) edge of the turret in this view is the percussive drill for collecting powdered samples from rock interiors. On the edge toward the camera is a brush device named Dust Removal Tool. Farther to the right is the Mars Hand Lens Imager. Not visible in this view are the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer and a multi-purpose device named Collection and Handling for In-situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA), which includes a soil scoop and a set of chambers and labyrinths for sieving, sorting and portioning samples of rock powder or soil for delivery to analytical instruments.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. This mission will land Curiosity on Mars in August 2012.

Researchers will use the tools on the rover to study whether the landing region has had environmental conditions favorable for supporting microbial life and favorable for preserving clues about whether life existed.

[kitkat]

Mars - save

[hattend]

I’ll say it again. That thing is huge!

Imagine seeing that coming down out of the sky. Scare you to death!

[Blado]

Yes, my fear is that Curiosity may kill the cat.

Thanks - that's the best laugh I've had since the self-immolation of Adam Smith last week!

[dnandell]

Thanks for posting that. They also have ringtones available.

[publius911]

Bookmark

[NCC-1701]

If you can read Morse Code, look at the wheels It has JPL in Morse Code. Nothing like a little shameless self-promotion 130 million miles away.

[Museum Twenty]

Here is a page of Mars Clouds, Sunrises, & Susnsets, including a few Animated Gif’s:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/science/clouds.html

[dragnet2]

Lincoln Cent on Mars Rover

The Lincoln penny in this photograph is part of a camera calibration target attached to NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, which is on track for a landing on Mars the night of Aug. 5 to Aug. 6, 2012.

The calibration target for the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument also includes color references, a metric bar graphic, and a stair-step pattern for depth calibration. The MAHLI adjustable-focus, color camera at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm can be used for taking extreme close-ups of rocks and soil on Mars, as well as images from greater distances.

The penny is a nod to geologists' tradition of placing a coin or other object of known scale as a size reference in close-up photographs of rocks, and it gives the public a familiar object for perceiving size easily when it will be viewed by MAHLI on Mars.

The specific coin, provided by MAHLI's principal investigator, Ken Edgett, is a 1909 "VDB" penny. That was the first year Lincoln pennies were minted and the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The VDB refers to the initials of the coin's designer, Victor D. Brenner, which are on the reverse side. Brenner based the coin's low-relief portrait of Lincoln on a photograph taken Feb. 9, 1864, three day's before Lincoln's 55th birthday, by Anthony Berger in the Washington, D.C., studio of Mathew Brady.

This photograph of the penny on Curiosity was taken in August 2011 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center as the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft was being prepared for launch. The mission launched on Nov. 26, 2011. It will deliver the rover Curiosity to Gale Crater on Mars in August 2012. With MAHLI and nine other science instruments, Curiosity will investigate whether the area has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, supplied MAHLI and three other cameras for the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, and built Curiosity.

Preparation for one phase of testing of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. The testing during March 2011 in a 25-foot-diameter (7.6-meter-diameter) space-simulation chamber was designed to put the rover through operational sequences in environmental conditions similar to what it will experience on the surface of Mars.

In this March 8, 2011, image, Curiosity is fully assembled with all primary flight hardware and instruments. The test chamber's door is still open. After the door is closed, a near-vacuum environment can be established, and the chamber walls flooded with liquid nitrogen for chilling to minus 130 degrees Celsius (minus 202 degrees Fahrenheit).

A bank of powerful lamps simulates sunshine on Mars.

The technician in the picture is using a wand to map the solar simulation intensities at different locations in the chamber just prior to the start of the testing. The space-simulation chamber is at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

[JRandomFreeper]

According to my clock, the landing site just saw the sun come over the horizon. Solar elevation at 1.4degrees at 05:29 Local Mean Solar Time.

Light speed delay between Earth and Mars is 13 minutes, 47 seconds.

[Textide]

Sojourner (smallest), Spirit/Opportunity, Curiosity (largest)

[tet68]

Assuming that penny is an “S” VDB it’s value is between
$850 and $2000 depending on condition.

[JRandomFreeper]

So what you are saying is that the penny is the cheapest piece of copper on the spacecraft? ;)

/johnny

[Museum Twenty]

No Cows on Mars!

FLASH! FLASH!

NASA-TV, broadcasting a press conference, announces that there are no cows on Mars.

Stated that Mars Recon Orbiter has cameras which would have spotted the conjectured Martian Cows.

Cow speculation was fueled by detection of Methane in Martian atmosphere.

That is all.

[Portcall24]

Once it’s on the ground I hope they keep Howard Wolfowitz away from the controls.

[rdl6989]

Yes, there are a huge number of things that could go wrong with this one, especially the sky crane part. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

[LukeL]

Why not a 1909-s VDB?

[Red Steel]

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[ROCKLOBSTER]

Although no doubt Hubble is way up there also!

It was last time I checked.

[hattend]

Ahhh! Another fan! (see #80)