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Author Topic: Curiosity's Landing on Mars  (Read 29899 times)

Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #30 on: October 09, 2012, 01:09:56 pm »
09.26.2012
Longest Drive Yet



This image was taken by Navcam: Left A (NAV_LEFT_A) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 50 (2012-09-26 13:07:29 UTC) .
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


On Sol 50 (Sept. 26), Curiosity completed its longest drive yet, rolling about 160 feet (48.9 meters) eastward toward the Glenelg area. The mission's total distance driven has now reached one-quarter mile (416 meters). A priority in coming sols is to identify a location for first use of the rover's capability to scoop up soil material and deliver a sample of it into laboratory instruments.

Activities on Sol 50 included pre-drive imaging of a target near the morning location and post-drive imaging of the new surroundings and the sky. A raw image from Curiosity's left Navigation Camera, with tracks from the drive in view, is at http://1.usa.gov/SzZmHE.

Curiosity continues to work in good health. Sol 50, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ends at 4:29 p.m. Sept. 25, PDT (7:29 p.m. EDT).

Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #31 on: October 09, 2012, 01:18:18 pm »
PRESS RELEASE
09.27.2012
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA Rover Finds Old Streambed On Martian Surface




PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Curiosity rover mission has found evidence a stream once ran vigorously across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. There is earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but this evidence -- images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels -- is the first of its kind.

Scientists are studying the images of stones cemented into a layer of conglomerate rock. The sizes and shapes of stones offer clues to the speed and distance of a long-ago stream's flow.

"From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep," said Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley. "Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we're actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of it."

The finding site lies between the north rim of Gale Crater and the base of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside the crater. Earlier imaging of the region from Mars orbit allows for additional interpretation of the gravel-bearing conglomerate. The imagery shows an alluvial fan of material washed down from the rim, streaked by many apparent channels, sitting uphill of the new finds.




NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence for an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here, which the science team has named "Hottah" after Hottah Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories. It may look like a broken sidewalk, but this geological feature on Mars is actually exposed bedrock made up of smaller fragments cemented together, or what geologists call a sedimentary conglomerate. Scientists theorize that the bedrock was disrupted in the past, giving it the titled angle, most likely via impacts from meteorites.

The key evidence for the ancient stream comes from the size and rounded shape of the gravel in and around the bedrock. Hottah has pieces of gravel embedded in it, called clasts, up to a couple inches (few centimeters) in size and located within a matrix of sand-sized material. Some of the clasts are round in shape, leading the science team to conclude they were transported by a vigorous flow of water. The grains are too large to have been moved by wind.

A close-up view of Hottah (Figure 1) reveals more details of the outcrop. Broken surfaces of the outcrop have rounded, gravel clasts, such as the one circled in white, which is about 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) across. Erosion of the outcrop results in gravel clasts that protrude from the outcrop and ultimately fall onto the ground, creating the gravel pile at left.

This image mosaic was taken by Curiosity's 100-millimeter Mastcam telephoto lens on its 39th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Sept. 14, 2012 PDT/Sept. 15 GMT).

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS


09.26.2012
Rock Outcrops on Mars and Earth




This set of images compares the Link outcrop of rocks on Mars (left) with similar rocks seen on Earth (right). The image of Link, obtained by NASA's Curiosity rover, shows rounded gravel fragments, or clasts, up to a couple inches (few centimeters), within the rock outcrop. Erosion of the outcrop results in gravel clasts that fall onto the ground, creating the gravel pile at left. The outcrop characteristics are consistent with a sedimentary conglomerate, or a rock that was formed by the deposition of water and is composed of many smaller rounded rocks cemented together. A typical Earth example of sedimentary conglomerate formed of gravel fragments in a stream is shown on the right.

An annotated version of the image highlights a piece of gravel that is about 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) across. It was selected as an example of coarse size and rounded shape. Rounded grains (of any size) occur by abrasion in sediment transport, by wind or water, when the grains bounce against each other. Gravel fragments are too large to be transported by wind. At this size, scientists know the rounding occurred in water transport in a stream.



The name Link is derived from a significant rock formation in the Northwest Territories of Canada, where there is also a lake with the same name.

Scientists enhanced the color in the Mars image to show the scene as it would appear under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain. The Link outcrop was imaged with the 100-millimeter Mast Camera on Sept. 2, 2012, which was the 27th sol, or Martian day of operations.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS and PSI




09.27.2012
Dry Streambed on Alluvial Fan in Northern Chile



This image shows a dry streambed on an alluvial fan in the Atacama Desert, Chile, revealing the typical patchy, heterogeneous mixture of grain sizes deposited together. On Mars, Curiosity has seen two rock outcrops close to its Bradbury Landing site that also record a mixture of sand and pebbles transported by water that were most likely deposited along an ancient streambed.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UC Berkeley


he science team may use Curiosity to learn the elemental composition of the material, which holds the conglomerate together, revealing more characteristics of the wet environment that formed these deposits. The stones in the conglomerate provide a sampling from above the crater rim, so the team may also examine several of them to learn about broader regional geology.

The slope of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater remains the rover's main destination. Clay and sulfate minerals detected there from orbit can be good preservers of carbon-based organic chemicals that are potential ingredients for life.

"A long-flowing stream can be a habitable environment," said Grotzinger. "It is not our top choice as an environment for preservation of organics, though. We're still going to Mount Sharp, but this is insurance that we have already found our first potentially habitable environment."

During the two-year prime mission of the Mars Science Laboratory, researchers will use Curiosity's 10 instruments to investigate whether areas in Gale Crater have ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

« Last Edit: October 09, 2012, 01:23:18 pm by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #32 on: October 09, 2012, 01:20:27 pm »
09.27.2012
Link to a Watery Past




In this image from NASA's Curiosity rover, a rock outcrop called Link pops out from a Martian surface that is elsewhere blanketed by reddish-brown dust. The fractured Link outcrop has blocks of exposed, clean surfaces. Rounded gravel fragments, or clasts, up to a couple inches (few centimeters) in size are in a matrix of white material. Many gravel-sized rocks have eroded out of the outcrop onto the surface, particularly in the left portion of the frame. The outcrop characteristics are consistent with a sedimentary conglomerate, or a rock that was formed by the deposition of water and is composed of many smaller rounded rocks cemented together. Water transport is the only process capable of producing the rounded shape of clasts of this size.

The Link outcrop was imaged with the 100-millimeter Mast Camera on Sept. 2, 2012, which was the 27th sol, or Martian day of operations.

The name Link is derived from a significant rock formation in the Northwest Territories of Canada, where there is also a lake with the same name.

Scientists enhanced the color in this version to show the Martian scene as it would appear under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #33 on: October 09, 2012, 01:38:48 pm »
9.27.2012
Best View of Goulburn Scour




This image from NASA's Curiosity Rover shows a high-resolution view of an area that is known as Goulburn Scour, a set of rocks blasted by the engines of Curiosity's descent stage on Mars. It shows a section from a mosaic of a pair of images obtained by Curiosity's 100-millimeter Mast Camera, with three times higher resolution than previously released. Details of the layer of pebbles can be seen in the close-up. These two images were the first views of this sandy conglomerate, a sedimentary layer laid down by water in the very distant past and uncovered in August 2012 during the rover's landing. The inset magnifies the area by a factor of two. Mastcam obtained these images on Aug. 19, 2012, or the 13th sol, or Martian day, of Curiosity's surface operations.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS


08.11.2012
Exposed by Rocket Engine Blasts




This color image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows an area excavated by the blast of the Mars Science Laboratory’s descent stage rocket engines. This is part of a larger, high-resolution color mosaic made from images obtained by Curiosity's Mast Camera.

With the loose debris blasted away by the rockets, details of the underlying materials are clearly seen. Of particular note is a well-defined, topmost layer that contains fragments of rock embedded in a matix of finer material. Shown in the inset in the figure are pebbles up to 1.25 inches (about 3 centimeters) across (upper two arrows) and a larger clast 4 inches (11.5 centimeters) long protruding up by about 2 inches (10 centimeters) from the layer in which it is embedded. Clast-rich sedimentary layers can form in a number of ways. Their mechanisms of formation can be distinguished by the size, shape, surface textures and positioning with respect to each other of the fragments in the layers.

The images in this mosaic were acquired by the 34-millimeter Mastcam over about an hour of time on Aug. 8, 2012 PDT (Aug. 9, 2012 EDT), each at 1,200 by 1,200 pixels in size.

In the main version, the colors portrayed are unmodified from those returned by the camera. The view is what a cell phone or camcorder would record since the Mastcam takes color pictures in the exact same manner that consumer cameras acquire color images. The second version, linked to the main version, shows the colors modified as if the scene were transported to Earth and illuminated by terrestrial sunlight. This processing, called 'white balancing,' is useful for scientists to be able to recognize and distinguish rocks by color in more familiar lighting.


At least NASA is finally getting the COLORS right :P


Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #34 on: October 09, 2012, 01:43:04 pm »
09.28.2012
Near Possible Target for Use of Arm Instruments



Raw image from Curiosity's left Navigation Camera
This image was taken by Navcam: Left A (NAV_LEFT_A) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 52


On Sol 52 (Sept. 28), Curiosity drove about 122 feet (37.3 meters) eastward toward the Glenelg area, using visual odometry to assess and adjust for any wheel slippage. The mission's total distance driven has now reached 0.28 mile (0.45 kilometer). The drive brought the rover to a few meters away from an outcrop being considered for an approach drive and subsequent examination with instruments at the end of Curiosity's arm: the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer and the Mars Hand Lens Imager.

Another priority in coming sols is to reach a location for first use of the rover's capability to scoop up soil material and deliver a sample of it into laboratory instruments.

Activities on Sol 52 included the usual monitoring of the environment around Curiosity with the Radiation Assessment Detector, the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons instrument, and the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station. A raw image from Curiosity's left Navigation Camera, showing the ground near the rover after the Sol 52 drive, is at http://1.usa.gov/SifbNW.

Curiosity continues to work in good health. Sol 52, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ends at 5:48 p.m. Sept. 28, PDT (8:48 p.m. EDT).

Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #35 on: October 09, 2012, 01:44:45 pm »
10.01.2012
Inspection of Rock Target 'Bathurst Inlet'



This image was taken by Navcam: Left A (NAV_LEFT_A) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 54 (2012-09-30 14:20:43 UTC) .
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


On Sol 54 (Sept. 30, 2012), Curiosity used two tools at the end of its arm to inspect two targets on an angular rock called "Bathurst Inlet." The rover had driven 7 feet (2.1 meters) the preceding sol to place itself within arm's reach of the targets.

Curiosity took close-up images of Bathurst Inlet with its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), and took readings with the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) to identify chemical elements in the target. MAHLI also inspected another location within reach, "Cowles."

A Sol 54 raw image from Curiosity's left Navigation Camera showing the arm at work at Bathurst Inlet is at http://1.usa.gov/NYUbz3 .

Sol 54, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 7:07 p.m. Sept. 30, PDT (10:07 p.m. EDT).

Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #36 on: October 09, 2012, 01:46:59 pm »
10.02.2012
From 'Bathurst Inlet' to 'Rocknest'



On Sol 55, Curiosity's right Navigation Camera shows the calibration targets for the Mast Camera (Mastcam) and ChemCam, and the rover's UHF antenna, in the foreground, and the lower slope of Mount Sharp in the distance.This image was taken by Navcam: Right A (NAV_RIGHT_A) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 55 (2012-10-01 18:39:25 UTC) .
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


On Sol 55 (Oct. 1, 2012), Curiosity finished observations at the "Bathurst Inlet" rock target it had examined with instruments on the arm. Then the rover completed a drive of about 77 feet (23.5 meters) to arrive near a patch of wind-deposited soil called "Rocknest," which is a potential target for the first scooping activity. This drive brought the total distance driven during the mission to about 0.30 mile (0.48 kilometer).

Sol 55 activities prior to the drive included use of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on Bathurst Inlet.

A Sol 55 raw image at http://1.usa.gov/P7LZ0V from Curiosity's right Navigation Camera shows the calibration targets for the Mast Camera (Mastcam) and ChemCam, and the rover's UHF antenna, in the foreground, and the lower slope of Mount Sharp in the distance.

Sol 55, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 7:46 p.m. Oct. 1, PDT (10:46 p.m. EDT).

Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #37 on: October 09, 2012, 01:53:58 pm »
10.03.2012
Approach to Ripple



10.03.2012
A Ripple At Rocknest.jpg
A raw image from Curiosity's front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam) after the Sol 56 drive, showing a ripple at Rocknest
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


On Sol 56 (Oct. 2, 2012), Curiosity drove about 20 feet (6 meters) westward to reach a ripple of sand and dust deposited by the wind at a soil patch called "Rocknest." This site is a potential target for the rover's first use of its scoop, which the team will be evaluating over the next few days.

Activities on Sol 56 also included monitoring the environment around Curiosity with the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument, and the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS). A raw image from Curiosity's front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam) after the Sol 56 drive, showing a ripple at Rocknest, is at http://1.usa.gov/PstZsE .

Sol 56, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 8:26 p.m. Oct. 2, PDT (11:26 p.m. EDT).


10.04.2012
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA Mars Curiosity Rover Prepares To Study Martian Soil



10.04.2012
Wheel Scuff Mark at 'Rocknest'
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity cut a wheel scuff mark into a wind-formed ripple at the "Rocknest" site to give researchers a better opportunity to examine the particle-size distribution of the material forming the ripple. The rover's right Navigation camera took this image of the scuff mark on the mission's 57th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 3, 2012), the same sol that a wheel created the mark. For scale, the width of the wheel track is about 16 inches (40 centimeters).
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Curiosity rover is in a position on Mars where scientists and engineers can begin preparing the rover to take its first scoop of soil for analysis.

Curiosity is the centerpiece of the two-year Mars Science Laboratory mission. The rover's ability to put soil samples into analytical instruments is central to assessing whether its present location on Mars, called Gale Crater, ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. Mineral analysis can reveal past environmental conditions. Chemical analysis can check for ingredients necessary for life.

"We now have reached an important phase that will get the first solid samples into the analytical instruments in about two weeks," said Mission Manager Michael Watkins of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Curiosity has been so well-behaved that we have made great progress during the first two months of the mission."

The rover's preparatory operations will involve testing its robotic scooping capabilities to collect and process soil samples. Later, it also will use a hammering drill to collect powdered samples from rocks. To begin preparations for a first scoop, the rover used one of its wheels Wednesday to scuff the soil to expose fresh material.

Next, the rover twice will scoop up some soil, shake it thoroughly inside the sample-processing chambers to scrub the internal surfaces, then discard the sample. Curiosity will scoop and shake a third measure of soil and place it in an observation tray for inspection by cameras mounted on the rover's mast. A portion of the third sample will be delivered to the mineral-identifying chemistry and mineralogy (CheMin) instrument inside the rover. From a fourth scoopful, samples will be delivered to both CheMin and to the sample analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, which identifies chemical ingredients.

"We're going to take a close look at the particle size distribution in the soil here to be sure it's what we want," said Daniel Limonadi of JPL, lead systems engineer for Curiosity's surface sampling and science system. "We are being very careful with this first time using the scoop on Mars."

The rinse-and-discard cycles serve a quality-assurance purpose similar to a common practice in geochemical laboratory analysis on Earth.

"It is standard to run a split of your sample through first and dump it out, to clean out any residue from a previous sample," said JPL's Joel Hurowitz, a sampling system scientist on the Curiosity team. "We want to be sure the first sample we analyze is unambiguously Martian, so we take these steps to remove any residual material from Earth that might be on the walls of our sample handling system."

Rocknest is the name of the area of soil Curiosity will test and analyze. The rover pulled up to the windblown, sandy and dusty location Oct. 2. The Rocknest patch is about 8 feet by 16 feet (2.5 meters by 5 meters). The area provides plenty of area for scooping several times. Diverse rocks nearby provide targets for investigation with the instruments on Curiosity's mast during the weeks the rover is stationed at Rocknest for this first scooping campaign.

Curiosity's motorized, clamshell-shaped scoop is 1.8 inches (4.5 centimeters) wide, 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) long, and can sample to a depth of about 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters). It is part of the collection and handling Martian rock analysis (CHIMRA) device on a turret of tools at the end of the rover's arm. CHIMRA also includes a series of chambers and labyrinths for sorting, sieving and portioning samples collected by the scoop or by the arm's percussive drill.

Following the work at Rocknest, the rover team plans to drive Curiosity about 100 yards (about 100 meters) eastward into the Glenelg area and select a rock as the first target for use of its drill.

2012-312

Guy Webster / D.C. Agle 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov / agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov


Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #38 on: October 09, 2012, 01:58:45 pm »
10.05.2012
Scuff Stuff



10.05.2012
Scuff Stuff .jpg
Sol 58 raw image from Curiosity's front Hazard Avoidance Camera after the Sol 56 drive, shows the arm extended toward the scuff in the ripple.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


On Sol 58 (Oct. 4, 2012) Curiosity maneuvered its arm to use instruments for close-up examination of sandy material at the "Rocknest" site. The inspections with the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) focused on targets in and near a wheel scuff that Curiosity made on the preceding sol to freshly expose material in a wind-sculpted ripple. These activities were preparation for planned first use of the rover's scoop.

A Sol 58 raw image at http://1.usa.gov/UHIyL6 from Curiosity's front Hazard Avoidance Camera after the Sol 56 drive, shows the arm extended toward the scuff in the ripple.

Sol 58, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 9:45 p.m. Oct. 4, PDT (12:45 a.m. Oct. 5, EDT).


10.08.2012
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
First Scoopful A Success



First Scoopful
This image was taken by Navcam: Left A (NAV_LEFT_A) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 61 (2012-10-07 18:24:21 UTC)
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


On the mission's 61st Martian day, or sol (Oct. 7, 2012),NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used its soil scoop for the first time, collecting a scoopful of sand and powdery material at the "Rocknest" site. Imaging verified collection of the sample. The collected material will be used for cleaning interior surfaces of the rover's sample-handling mechanism. It will be held and vibrated inside each chamber of the mechanism before the material is discarded. Curiosity's Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) device, on the robotic arm, includes the scoop and the mechanism for sieving and portioning samples of soil and powdered rock.

A Sol 61 raw image from Curiosity's left navigation camera, at http://1.usa.gov/OMDbxy, shows where the soil collected by the scoop was removed from the ground. The scoop leaves a hole 1.8 inches (4.5 centimeters) wide.

The rover's ability to put scooped and sieved samples of soil into on board laboratory instruments is an important part of the mission. Those instruments -- Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) -- will play crucial roles in evaluating whether the study area has ever had a favorable environment for microbial life. Still to be used for the first time is the rover's capability to take powdered samples from rocks, using a percussive drill, for delivery to those same instruments.

Sol 61, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 11:44 p.m. Oct. 7, PDT (2:44 a.m. Oct. 8, EDT).
« Last Edit: October 09, 2012, 02:03:09 pm by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #39 on: October 09, 2012, 02:14:13 pm »
STATUS REPORT
10.08.2012
Checking a Bright Object on the Ground



View of Curiosity's First Scoop Also Shows Bright Object
This image from the right Mast Camera (Mastcam) of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows a scoop full of sand and dust lifted by the rover's first use of the scoop on its robotic arm.


Curiosity's first scooping activity appeared to go well on Oct. 7. Subsequently, the rover team decided to refrain from using the rover's robotic arm on Oct. 8 due to the detection of a bright object on the ground that might be a piece from the rover. Instead of arm activities during the 62nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission, Curiosity is acquiring additional imaging of the object to aid the team in identifying the object and assessing possible impact, if any, to sampling activities.

Sol 62, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, will end at 12:23 a.m. Oct. 9, PDT (3:23 a.m., EDT)

A related image is at: http://1.usa.gov/RrqFjs
A related video is at: http://1.usa.gov/RaFPcm .




10.08.2012
View of Curiosity's First Scoop Also Shows Bright Object


This image from the right Mast Camera (Mastcam) of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows a scoop full of sand and dust lifted by the rover's first use of the scoop on its robotic arm. In the foreground, near the bottom of the image, a bright object is visible on the ground. The object might be a piece of rover hardware. This image was taken during the mission's 61st Martian day, or sol (Oct. 7, 2012), the same sol as the first scooping. After examining Sol 61 imaging, the rover team decided to refrain from using the arm on Sol 62 (Oct. 8). Instead, the rover was instructed to acquire additional imaging of the bright object, on Sol 62, to aid the team in assessing possible impact, if any, to sampling activities.

For scale, the scoop is 1.8 inches (4.5 centimeters) wide, 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) long.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #40 on: February 10, 2013, 12:39:55 am »
Space Maverick

I couldn't find a thread that strictly had images from Curiosity specifically.  If there is one Mod feel free to move this.  I was wondering if we could place images from that spacecraft in one thread?  I wanted to start here.



Some say a metal object and one person has even said it was a large lizard.  I don't know but its interesting.  The object in question is at 12 o'clock in this picture and has 2 reflections emanating from it.  Taken January 30th 2013.

ETA by Zorgon
Discussion Thread on this artifact is here


« Last Edit: February 10, 2013, 12:52:04 am by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #41 on: February 10, 2013, 12:40:07 am »
Feb. 9, 2013

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington                                 
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

PRESS RELEASE: 13-044
NASA CURIOSITY ROVER COLLECTS FIRST MARTIAN BEDROCK SAMPLE


PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Curiosity rover has, for the first time,
used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a
flat, veiny rock on Mars and collect a sample from its interior. This
is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a
sample on Mars.

The fresh hole, about 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches
(6.4 centimeters) deep in a patch of fine-grained sedimentary
bedrock, can be seen in images and other data Curiosity beamed to
Earth Saturday. The rock is believed to hold evidence about long-gone
wet environments. In pursuit of that evidence, the rover will use its
laboratory instruments to analyze rock powder collected by the drill.


"The most advanced planetary robot ever designed now is a fully
operating analytical laboratory on Mars," said John Grunsfeld, NASA
associate administrator for the agency's Science Mission Directorate.
"This is the biggest milestone accomplishment for the Curiosity team
since the sky-crane landing last August, another proud day for
America."

For the next several days, ground controllers will command the rover's
arm to carry out a series of steps to process the sample, ultimately
delivering portions to the instruments inside.

"We commanded the first full-depth drilling, and we believe we have
collected sufficient material from the rock to meet our objectives of
hardware cleaning and sample drop-off," said Avi Okon, drill
cognizant engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
Pasadena.

Rock powder generated during drilling travels up flutes on the bit.
The bit assembly has chambers to hold the powder until it can be
transferred to the sample-handling mechanisms of the rover's
Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA)
device.

Before the rock powder is analyzed, some will be used to scour traces
of material that may have been deposited onto the hardware while the
rover still was on Earth, despite thorough cleaning before launch.

"We'll take the powder we acquired and swish it around to scrub the
internal surfaces of the drill bit assembly," said JPL's Scott
McCloskey, drill systems engineer. "Then we'll use the arm to
transfer the powder out of the drill into the scoop, which will be
our first chance to see the acquired sample."

"Building a tool to interact forcefully with unpredictable rocks on
Mars required an ambitious development and testing program," said
JPL's Louise Jandura, chief engineer for Curiosity's sample
system."To get to the point of making this hole in a rock on Mars, we
made eight drills and bored more than 1,200 holes in 20 types of rock
on Earth."

Inside the sample-handling device, the powder will be vibrated once or
twice over a sieve that screens out any particles larger than
six-thousandths of an inch (150 microns) across. Small portions of
the sieved sample will fall through ports on the rover deck into the
Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument and the Sample Analysis
at Mars (SAM) instrument. These instruments then will begin the
much-anticipated detailed analysis.

The rock Curiosity drilled is called "John Klein" in memory of a Mars
Science Laboratory deputy project manager who died in 2011. Drilling
for a sample is the last new activity for NASA's Mars Science
Laboratory Project, which is using the car-size Curiosity rover to
investigate whether an area within Mars' Gale Crater has ever offered
an environment favorable for life.

JPL manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington.

For more about the mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:

http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity

and

http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity

   
-end-
« Last Edit: February 10, 2013, 01:22:27 am by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #42 on: February 10, 2013, 12:45:43 am »
Curiosity Drills into Mars

Feb. 9, 2013:  NASA's Curiosity rover has used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a flat, veiny rock on Mars and collect a sample from its interior. This is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars.

This is the biggest milestone accomplishment for the Curiosity team since the sky-crane landing last August, another proud day for America," says John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. "The most advanced planetary robot ever designed is now a fully operating analytical laboratory on Mars."


Curiosity's First Sample Drilling

At the center of this image from NASA's Curiosity rover is the hole in a rock called "John Klein" where the rover conducted its first sample drilling on Mars. The drilling took place on Feb. 8, 2013, or Sol 182, Curiosity's 182nd Martian day of operations. Several preparatory activities with the drill preceded this operation, including a test that produced the shallower hole on the right two days earlier, but the deeper hole resulted from the first use of the drill for rock sample collection.

The image was obtained by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on Sol 182. The sample-collection hole is 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter and 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) deep. The "mini drill" test hole near it is the same diameter, with a depth of 0.8 inch (2 centimeters).

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS


 The fresh hole, about 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) deep in a patch of fine-grained sedimentary bedrock, can be seen in images and other data Curiosity beamed to Earth on Feb. 9th. The rock is believed to hold evidence about long-gone wet environments. In pursuit of that evidence, the rover will use its laboratory instruments to analyze rock powder collected by the drill.

For the next several days, ground controllers will command the rover's arm to carry out a series of steps to process the sample, ultimately delivering portions to the instruments inside.
The Edge (signup)

"We commanded the first full-depth drilling, and we believe we have collected sufficient material from the rock to meet our objectives of hardware cleaning and sample drop-off," said Avi Okon, drill cognizant engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Rock powder generated during drilling travels up flutes on the bit. The bit assembly has chambers to hold the powder until it can be transferred to the sample-handling mechanisms of the rover's Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) device.

Before the rock powder is analyzed, some will be used to scour traces of material that may have been deposited onto the hardware while the rover was still on Earth, despite thorough cleaning before launch.


Ready, Set, Drill

An animated set of three images from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the rover's drill in action on Feb. 8, 2013, or Sol 182, Curiosity's 182nd Martian day of operations. This was the first use of the drill for rock sample collection. The target was a rock called "John Klein," in the Yellowknife Bay region of Gale Crater on Mars.

This set of images was obtained by Curiosity's right front Hazard-Avoidance camera on Feb. 8, 2013, or Sol 182.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


We'll take the powder we acquired and swish it around to scrub the internal surfaces of the drill bit assembly," explains JPL's Scott McCloskey, drill systems engineer. "Then we'll use the arm to transfer the powder out of the drill into the scoop, which will be our first chance to see the acquired sample."

"Building a tool to interact forcefully with unpredictable rocks on Mars required an ambitious development and testing program," said JPL's Louise Jandura, chief engineer for Curiosity's sample system. "To get to the point of making this hole in a rock on Mars, we made eight drills and bored more than 1,200 holes in 20 types of rock on Earth."

Inside the sample-handling device, the powder will be vibrated once or twice over a sieve that screens out any particles larger than six-thousandths of an inch (150 microns) across. Small portions of the sieved sample will fall through ports on the rover deck into the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument and the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. These instruments then will begin the much-anticipated detailed analysis.

The rock Curiosity drilled is called "John Klein" in memory of a Mars Science Laboratory deputy project manager who died in 2011.

Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/09feb_borehole/


Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS


Offline zorgon

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Re: Curiosity's Landing on Mars
« Reply #43 on: February 10, 2013, 12:57:09 am »





 


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