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

[Georgij]

народ, хуле спорить, за 15 лет он полмарса объедет,вы молитесь чтоб посадка успешной была...

[Дмитрий Виницкий]

Так у девайса же есть МастКам с ИК-спектрометром и лазерным испарителем! Да и вниз кое-что могло скатиться.

Скатившееся можно наблюдать в конусе выноса.

[pkl]

Да, но там они вперемешку. А на склонах каньона какие-никакие, а СЛОИ. Структура. Можно и хронологию составить.

[Дмитрий Виницкий]

По фотографии??? Весьма условно. А вот, имея образцы, их уже можно атрибутировать по хронологии, в т.ч. и по пластам.

[pkl]

народ, хуле спорить, за 15 лет он полмарса объедет,вы молитесь чтоб посадка успешной была...

Georgij :!: Типун Вам на язык, это во-первых. И чтобы комп сгорел и с доступом случилась какая-нибудь серьёзная проблема как раз в начале августа.

А во-вторых, ему, чтобы в каньон попасть, придётся назад возвращаться ибо склоны явно крутые. А чего они на эту гору полезли?

[Дмитрий Виницкий]

Потому, что гора сложена теми же самыми породами, что и столь любимые вами обрывы. Только ехать на пологий склон, куда удобней

[pkl]

По фотографии??? Весьма условно. А вот, имея образцы, их уже можно атрибутировать по хронологии, в т.ч. и по пластам.

Ну почему сразу "по фотографии"? У MSL очень серьёзная аппаратура для дистанционного анализа, думаю, не ошибусь, если скажу, что самая серьёзная. А определить, откуда этот образец принесло течением, имхо, будет ох как не просто.

P.S.: Дмитрий! Этот каньон - это же подарок судьбы! Он явно свежий, т.е. на его склонах выходы пород, в т.ч. и тех, которые в остальных местах скрыты под толщей пород. Там можно изучать недра той же горы и без всякого бурения!

[Дмитрий Виницкий]

Действующая на сотни метров?
В остальном, геология прекрасно справляется с определением, откуда принесён образец Помогает знание структурной геологии и геоморфологии. А в сочетании с упомянутой аппаратурой - так и вовсе, единственный способ.

[pkl]

Всё, молчу-молчу.

[instml]

Robotic Arm Target Practice

[Oleg]

100 дней до приказа!

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100 Days and Counting to NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Landing

At 10:31 p.m. PDT today, April 27, (1:31 p.m. EDT), NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, carrying the one-ton Curiosity rover, will be within 100 days from its appointment with the Martian surface. At that moment, the mission has about 119 million miles (191 million kilometers) to go and is closing at a speed of 13,000 mph (21,000 kilometers per hour).

"Every day is one day closer to the most challenging part of this mission," said Pete Theisinger, Mars Science Laboratory project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Landing an SUV-sized vehicle next to the side of a mountain 85 million miles from home is always stimulating. Our engineering and science teams continue their preparations for that big day and the surface operations to follow."

On Sunday, April 22, a week-long operational readiness test concluded at JPL. The test simulated aspects of the mission's early surface operations. Mission planners and engineers sent some of the same commands they will send to the real Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars to a test rover used at JPL.

"Our test rover has a central computer identical to Curiosity's currently on its way to Mars," said Eric Aguilar, the mission's engineering test lead at JPL. "We ran all our commands through it and watched to make sure it drove, took pictures and collected samples as expected by the mission planners. It was a great test and gave us a lot of confidence moving forward."

The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, launched Nov. 26, 2011, will deliver Curiosity to the surface of Mars on the evening of Aug. 5, 2012, PDT (early on Aug. 6, Universal Time and EDT) to begin a two-year prime mission. Curiosity's landing site is near the base of a mountain inside Gale Crater, near the Martian equator. Researchers plan to use Curiosity to study layers in the mountain that hold evidence about wet environments of early Mars.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .

You can follow the mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120427.html

[Georgij]

ох и стрёмный этот спайс-кран)

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Curiosity's Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Acquires Test Image En Route to Mars
Captioned Image Release No. MSSS-223 — 2 May 2012

Using its own white light LEDs (light emitting diode) source, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard the Mars Science Laboratory rover acquired this full-color test image inside the dark cruise vehicle and aeroshell on 20 April 2012.  

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

What's it like inside the spacecraft that is carrying NASA's Curiosity rover to Mars right now? Using its own white light LEDs (light emitting diode) source, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard the Mars Science Laboratory rover acquired this full-color test image inside the dark cruise vehicle and aeroshell on 20 April 2012. It is a test image used to check that the camera is performing as expected following its 26 November 2011 launch.
 


NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

The second figure shows the MAHLI test image with and without explanatory annotations; in this case, the image has been rotated so that up and down are relative to the positions of the rover deck (up) and the rover's wheels (down). The first thing one notices is that the scene is out of focus. This is as expected. The MAHLI is designed to take close-up images of rocks and regolith ("soil") on Mars; it can also take pictures of the Martian landscape. To acquire these images, the MAHLI lens has the ability to change focus. To focus the MAHLI requires commanding a motor to move the focusable part of the MAHLI lens. When the camera is not in use, the motor positions the lens mechanism in a way that protects the system from the vigorous vibrations that occur during launch, descent and landing, and during operation of the rover and its tools on Mars. The focus mechanism is not operated during the cruise to Mars as a precaution to ensure that the system remains in a safe configuration for the landing in the martian crater, Gale, on August 5, 2012, Pacific Daylight Time.
 


View of the MAHLI installed on the rover Curiosity before launch at Kennedy Space Center.

NASA photo KSC-2011-7089; NASA/Kim Shiflett; cropping/annotation by Malin Space Science Systems

When the lens mechanism is in this safe, launch lock position, the camera's transparent dust cover is closed and the lens is in focus only for targets that are about 2.1 centimeters (0.8 inches) from MAHLI. During the cruise to Mars, there are no targets this close to the camera. What is in the field of view, then, is out of focus. The nearest feature, a bracket that holds some cables that are part of the rovers mobility (driving/wheels) subsystem, is about 19 centimeters (7.5 inches) away. A photograph taken on 23 September 2011 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, before launch illustrates what is in the MAHLI field of view at the time the April 2012 image was obtained. The grayish feature is the top of the forward mobility system cable bracket, the orange or copper-colored features are some of the cables that are restrained by the bracket. The bracket and cables are mounted on a black bar which is the forward rocker of the rover's six-wheeled mobility system. These features are only in the MAHLI field of view during the launch, cruise, and descent to Mars; when the rover touches down in Gale, these will have unfolded beneath the rover to support its touchdown and Mars roving capabilities.

http://www.msss.com/science-images/mahli-acquires-test-image-en-route-to-mars.php

[pkl]

Это с подсветкой? А остальные камеры будут включать?

[Dmitri]

а как эта система отреагирует на марсианский смерч при спуске, если не повезет?Он ее поднимет на высоту 20 км и потом она просто разобьется?

[Дмитрий Виницкий]

Марсианский смерч этой массе вообще не заметен.

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Mojave Desert Tests Prepare for NASA Mars Roving

Mars Science Laboratory mission team members ran mobility tests on California sand dunes in early May 2012 in preparation for operating the Curiosity rover, currently en route to Mars, after its landing in Mars' Gale Crater. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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.

Information collected in these tests on windward and downwind portions of dunes will be used by the rover team in making decisions about driving Curiosity on dunes near a mountain in the center of Gale Crater.

First, however, the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, launched Nov. 26, 2011, must put Curiosity safely onto the ground. Safe landing on Mars is never assured, and this mission will use innovative methods to land the heaviest vehicle in the smallest target area ever attempted on Mars. Advances in landing heavier payloads more precisely are steps toward eventual human missions to Mars.

Curiosity is on track for landing the evening of Aug. 5, 2012, PDT (early on Aug. 6, Universal Time and EDT) to begin a two-year prime mission. Researchers plan to use Curiosity to study layers in Gale Crater's central mound, Mount Sharp. The mission will investigate whether the area has ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120511.html

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Mars rover test-drive in California dunes
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1205/10rovertest/

[Луноход]

Интересные фото! Спасибо!