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What to Expect When Curiosity Starts Snapping Pictures

By Guest PostAugust 5, 2012Sciencecuriosity rover, gale crater, hazard avoidance cameras, hazcams, justin maki, mahli, mardi, mars, mars descent imager, NASA, navcams, navigation cameras, red planet, remote sensing mast, rover, surface

If a group of tourists piled out of a transport vehicle onto the surface of Mars, they’d no doubt start snapping pictures wildly. NASA’s Curiosity rover, set to touch down on the Red Planet the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (early morning EDT), will take a more careful approach to capturing its first scenic views.

The car-size rover’s very first images will come from the one-megapixel Hazard-Avoidance cameras (Hazcams) attached to the body of the rover. Once engineers have determined that it is safe to deploy the rover’s Remote Sensing Mast and its high-tech cameras, a process that may take several days, Curiosity will begin to survey its exotic surroundings. (more…)

Taking a Robotic Geologist to Mars

By Guest PostAugust 3, 2012Sciencebob downs, chemcam, chemin, curiosity, earth minerals, gale crater, geologic past, hirise camera, ipods, mars, mars rover, martian equator, martian surface, mount sharp, NASA, nuclear generator, rare earth minerals, red planet, robotic geologist, rock sample, shaunna morrison, star wars, ua geoscientists, xrays

As Mars rover Curiosity makes its final approach to the Red Planet, two UA geoscientists are getting ready to help solve some of the mysteries of its geologic past.

On Aug. 5, at about 10:30 p.m., an already busy summer will kick into overdrive for University of Arizona geosciences professor Bob Downs and one of his graduate students, Shaunna Morrison. At that time – provided everything goes as planned – Curiosity, the most sophisticated exploration vehicle ever sent to another planet, will parachute toward the Martian surface faster than the speed of sound after a nine-month journey through space. And as soon as it sinks its six wheels into the red dust, the two scientists specializing in mineralogy will have not one, but two planets to deal with.

As “primary data downlink leaders” designated by NASA, Downs and Morrison are part of a team of scientists tasked with the identification of rocks that Curiosity will encounter during its two-year expedition across the floor of Gale Crater near the Martian equator. (more…)

Ralph Milliken: Curiosity’s Mission on Mars

By Guest PostAugust 2, 2012Sciencebrown geologist, chemcam, chemin, curiosity, dan, david orenstein, earth, earth time, gale crater, geology, guadalupe mountains, jpl, mars, mars time, msl, NASA, neutron detector, organic material, plasma, ralph milliken, red planet, rover, rover curiosity, sam, xray diffraction

As Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover, gets set to land in the wee hours of Monday morning, Brown geologist Ralph Milliken will be getting ready to get to work. He’s a member of the mission’s science team. His curiosity lies in finding out why Mars is a colder, drier place than it used to be.

PASADENA, Calif. [Brown University] — Ralph Milliken, assistant professor of geological sciences, is on the science team of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), which is set to land the rover Curiosity on the Red Planet in the early morning of Aug. 6 Eastern Daylight Time. The rover will allow the team to study the rocks and soils of Gale Crater, giving scientists years of data to help them learn the geological history of the planet. If there are signs of water or organic material, Curiosity can find those, too. (more…)

Mojave Desert Tests Prepare for NASA Mars Roving

By Guest PostMay 14, 2012Sciencecalifornia, curiosity, dumont dunes, earth, Environment, gale crater, gravity of mars, human mission, mars, mars roving, michael malin, microbial life, mobility system, mojave desert, mount sharp, NASA, safe landing, tests

Team members of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission took a test rover to Dumont Dunes in California’s Mojave Desert this week to improve knowledge of the best way to operate a similar rover, Curiosity, currently flying to Mars for an August landing.

The test rover that they put through paces on various sandy slopes has a full-scale version of Curiosity’s mobility system, but it is otherwise stripped down so that it weighs about the same on Earth as Curiosity will weigh in the lesser gravity of Mars. (more…)

‘Mount Sharp’ on Mars Links Geology’s Past and Future

By Guest PostApril 1, 2012Sciencearizona, bob sharp, curiosity, edward stolper, gale crater, geological sciences, grand canyon, john grotzinger, ken edgett, life magazine, liquid water, mars, michael malin, mount rainier, mount sharp, NASA, robert p sharp, san diego, seattle, spacecraft

One particular mountain on Mars, bigger than Colorado’s grandest, has been beckoning would-be explorers since it was first sighted from orbit in the 1970s. Scientists have ideas about how it took shape in the middle of ancient Gale Crater and hopes for what evidence it could yield about whether conditions on Mars have favored life.

No mission to Mars dared approach it, though, until NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, which this August will attempt to place its one-ton rover, Curiosity, at the foot of the mountain. The moat of flatter ground between the mountain and the crater rim encircling it makes too small a touchdown target to have been considered safe without precision-landing innovations used by this mission. (more…)

NASA Mars-Bound Rover Begins Research in Space

By Guest PostDecember 14, 2011Scienceaeroshell, astronauts, atomic and subatomic particles, boulder, cape canaveral, christian albrechts university, curiosity rover, distant supernovas, don hassler, doug mccuistion, earth, energetic particle radiation, gale crater, Germany, human missions, kiel, mars, mars science laboratory, microbes, monitoring, NASA, rad, radiation assessment detector, red planet, signs of life on mars, sources, southwest research institute, Space, space radiation, spacecraft, sun, surface of mars, trajectory

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s car-sized Curiosity rover has begun monitoring space radiation during its 8-month trip from Earth to Mars. The research will aid in planning for future human missions to the Red Planet.

Curiosity launched on Nov. 26 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard the Mars Science Laboratory. The rover carries an instrument called the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) that monitors high-energy atomic and subatomic particles from the sun, distant supernovas and other sources. (more…)

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