Posted on by Jason Major

A Panorama of Curiosity’s Surroundings

Taken this morning (mission Sol 2) with the rover’s left Navcam, here’s a high-res panorama of Curiosity’s view at its landing site within Gale crater. The wide-angle view was assembled from two separate raw images, so while the mountainous rim of the crater is lined up horizontally there’s some distortion in alignment of objects closer to the rover due to the angle of the Navcam lens. Still, it’s a very cool view of Curiosity’s surroundings!

See the latest images from the MSL mission here, and check out 3D anaglyph images from Curiosity here.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Edited by J. Major.

(Image updated to link to full-size version.)

Posted on by Ken Kremer

Mount Sharp on Mars: 1st 2-D and 3-D Views of Curiosity’s Ultimate Mountain Goal

Image Caption: Clear View on Mars – This image comparison shows a view through a Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA’s Curiosity rover before and after the clear dust cover was removed. Both images were taken by a camera at the front of the rover. Mount Sharp, the mission’s ultimate destination, looms ahead. See the first 3 D and 2 D full res images with no dust cover, below. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity, NASA’s new car sized rover on Mars has sent back her first breathtaking views of Mount Sharp, the huge nearby mountain that enticed scientists to set Gale Crater as her touchdown goal.

And already within the first 2 Sols, or martian days, the rover has beamed back magnificent 2D and 3 D vistas of the landscape surrounding her.

The unprecedented rocket powered “Sky Crane” descent maneuver that lowered Curiosity by cables upon the Red Planet’s surface rover with pinpoint accuracy, set her down in a position inside Gale Crater that fortuitously pointed her front Hazard Avoidance (Hazcam) cameras towards a stupendous panoramic view of Mount Sharp.

The terrain is strewn with small pebbles that may stem from a nearby alluvial fan through which liquid water flowed long ago, scientist think.

The top image set shows the spectacular side by side views of Mount Sharp before and after the protective dust covers were popped off.

Mount Sharp is taller than Mount Ranier, the tallest mountain in the US in the lower 48 states. It’s about 3.5 miles (5.5 km) high.

Curiosity is roughly 6 km distant from Mount Sharp, as the martian crow flies.

The image below is the first full resolution Hazcam version of Mount Sharp.

Curiosity’s Early Views of Mars. This full-resolution image shows one of the first views from NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (early morning hours Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a “fisheye” wide-angle lens on one of the rover’s front Hazard-Avoidance cameras. These engineering cameras are located at the rover’s base. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Here’s the first 3D version of Mount Sharp assembled from both front cameras.

Image Caption: 3-D View from the Front of Curiosity. This image is a 3-D view in front of NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The anaglyph was made from a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance Cameras on the front of the rover. Mount Sharp, a peak that is about 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) high, is visible rising above the terrain, though in one “eye” a box on the rover holding the drill bits obscures the view. This image was captured by Hazard-Avoidance cameras on the front of the rover at full resolution shortly after the rover landed. It has been linearized to remove the distorted appearance that results from its fisheye lens. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Ken Kremer

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Rover, Sky Crane, Heat Shield and Parachute Located from Orbit by HiRISE

More awesomeness from HiRISE! A new orbital image shows the Curiosity rover sitting on Mars’ surface, along with all the accoutrements needed to get it there safely: the heat shield, backshell, parachute, and the Sky Crane. The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image just 24 hours after MSL’s landing.

“This is like the crime scene photo here,” HiRISE team member Sarah Milkovich said during a press conference on Aug. 7.

Of course, yesterday the HiRISE team revealed they had captured MSL in the act of landing.

In re-inacting the scene of the crime, er… incredible landing, the heat shield, lower right, was the first piece to hit the ground, followed by the back shell attached to the parachute, then the rover itself touched down. Then, and finally, after cables were cut, the sky crane flew away to the northwest and crashed.
The heat shield is about 1,220 meters (4,000 feet) from Curiosity, the backshell and parachute are about 610 meters (2,000 feet) away from the rover, and the Sky Crane is about 620 meters (2,100 feet) away.

The relatively dark areas in all four spots are from disturbances of the bright surface dust, revealing darker soil underneath. If you look closely, even visible are the black streaks where the sky crane thrusters kicked up dust. Malkovich said scientists have looked at the streak patterns to verify Curiosity’s orientation — which confirms the information from the rover’s first pictures from surface.


Close-up of Curiosity sitting on Mars’ surface. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

The darkened radial jets from the sky crane are downrange from the point of oblique impact, much like the oblique impacts of asteroids. In fact, NASA said, they make an arrow pointing to Curiosity.


Close-up of the Sky Crane. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

HiRISE’s image of MSL’s landing site shows the rover and the hardware doing their jobs exactly as they were designed to do.

The image was acquired from a special 41-degree roll of MRO, larger than the normal 30-degree limit. It rolled towards the west and towards the Sun, which increases visible scattering by atmospheric dust as well as the amount of atmosphere the orbiter has to look through, thereby reducing the contrast of surface features. Malkovich said that future images taken from a higher angle will show the hardware in greater detail.


Close-up of the parachute and backshell. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona


Close-up of the heat shield. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

See larger versions and additional info at the HiRISE website.

Posted on by Ken Kremer

Curiosity Beams 1st Color Image from Mars

Image caption: This murky view from Curiosity shows the martian landscape looking north to the rim from inside the Gale Crater landing site and is her first color image beamed back to Earth. It’s murky because the dust cover is still attached. See full MAHLI image below. Also see below full res Hazcam image of crater rim. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has beamed back her first color view since touchdown, showing a view of the alien landscape pointing northward towards the eroded rim of Gale crater.

The picture was snapped by the rovers Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the afternoon of the first day after the pinpoint landing – signified as Sol 1 on Aug. 6, 2012.

The MAHLI image looks murky because the protective dust cover is still in place and is coated with a film of martian dust sprayed up by the descent retrorockets during the terminal phase of the hair-raising landing on Aug 5/6.

The camera’s dust cover is intentionally transparent so that initial images can still be snapped through the cover before it’s popped off in about a week.

MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s 8 foot long robot arm which has been stowed in place on the front left side of Curiosity since long before the Nov. 26 liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In the stowed position, MAHLI is rotated about 30 degrees as seen in the image below. The top image has been rotated to correct for the tilt and shows the sky “up” as Curiosity is actually sitting on the Martian surface.


Image caption: This full frame view from Curiosity shows the martian landscape looking north to the rim from inside the Gale Crater landing site and is her first color image beamed back to Earth. It’s murky because the dust cover is still attached. The image is from the MAHLI camera on the robot arm and currently in the stowed position. It has been rotated 30 degress. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

During her 2 year prime mission, Curiosity’s goal is to determine if Mars was ever capable of supporting microbial life, past or present and to search for the signs of life in the form of organic molecules with a payload of 10 science instruments weighing 15 times more than any prior roving vehicle.

Curiosity is the 3rd generation of NASA rover’s delivered to the Red Planet

Ken Kremer

Image Caption: Looking Back at the Crater Rim – This is the full-resolution version of one of the first images taken by a rear Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). The image was originally taken through the “fisheye” wide-angle lens, but has been “linearized” so that the horizon looks flat rather than curved. The image has also been cropped. A Hazard-avoidance camera on the rear-left side of Curiosity obtained this image. Part of the rim of Gale Crater, which is a feature the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, stretches from the top middle to the top right of the image. One of the rover’s 20 inch wide wheels can be seen at bottom right. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Posted on by Ken Kremer

Curiosity’s Dramatic MARDI Descent Movie

Image Caption: Curiosity Heat shield falls away from the bottom of Curiosity and the Sky Crane descent stage in this image from the MARDI camera.
Watch the video below. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS

As NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) was in the final stages of her flawless but harrowing decent to Gale Crater on Mars overnight (Aug. 5/6) employing the never-before-used rocket powered sky crane descent stage, dramatic movie-like imagery of the plunge was being recorded by MARDI, the Mars Descent Imager camera positioned on the belly of the rover and pointed downwards.

The first low resolution MARDI images and video (above and below) were beamed back to Earth just hours after landing and clearly show the jettisoning of the heat shield moments after it sprung loose to expose Curiosity and MARDI for landing.

“We see the heat shield falling away about 2 minutes and 30 seconds from touchdown,” said Mike Malin, MARDI Principal Investigator from Malin Space Systems at a post-landing news briefing today (Aug. 6). “The heat shield is about 16 meters (50 ft) away in the image and 4.5 m (15 ft) across.”

“I’m very excited to be at Gale Crater”.

“So far we have received about 297 thumbnail images (192 x 144 pixels) so far and created a stop motion video. MADRI was collecting images at 4 frames per second. In the final frames you can see dust being kicked up the rocket engines.”
Curiosity landed at 1:32 on Aug. 6, EDT (11:32 p.m. Aug. 5, PDT), near the foot of a mountain three miles(5 km) tall inside Gale Crater, 96 miles (154 km) in diameter.

Video Caption: The Curiosity Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) captured the rover’s descent to the surface of the Red Planet. The instrument shot 4 fps video from heatshield separation to the ground. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS

“The image sequence received so far indicates Curiosity had, as expected, a very exciting ride to the surface,” said Mike Malin, imaging scientist for the Mars Science Lab mission from Malin Space Systems in San Diego. “But as dramatic as they are, there is real other-world importance to obtaining them. These images will help the mission scientists interpret the rover’s surroundings, the rover drivers in planning for future drives across the surface, as well as assist engineers in their design of forthcoming landing systems for Mars or other worlds.”

“A good comparison is to that grainy onboard film from Apollo 11 when they were about to land on the moon,” said Malin.

Over 1500 hundred more low and high resolution MARDI images (1600 x 1200 pixels) will be sent back over the next few weeks to make a full frame animation and will provide the most complete and dramatic imagery of a planetary landing in the history of exploration.

The team has been able to determine Curiosity’s location to “within” about 1 meter says Malin, by matching the MARDI and MRO HiRISE images as well as the Hazcam images.

“So far the rover is healthy and we are ecstatic with its performance,” said Jennifer Trospher, MSL mission manager

The next steps are to deploy the high gain antenna (HGA), raise the mast with the higher resolution cameras and continue to check out the mechanical and electrical systems as well the science instruments as the rover is transitioned to surface operations mode.

Ken Kremer

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Curiosity’s Awesome Landing “Trailer”

MSL Curiosity is busy investigating the surface of Mars, to see if that planet could have harbored life. Image: NASA/JPL/Cal-Tech
MSL Curiosity is busy investigating the surface of Mars, to see if that planet could have harbored life. Image: NASA/JPL/Cal-Tech

This short compilation video is a great overview of all the action on landing night for the Curiosity rover: Suspense, intrigue and definitely a happy ending. Only this “made for movie theater”-like trailer really happened.

UPDATE: We’ve gotten comments and questions that some people can’t see the video above, so we’ve added the You Tube version, below.
Continue reading “Curiosity’s Awesome Landing “Trailer””

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

“Nailed It!” HiRISE Captures Incredible Image of Curiosity’s Descent to Mars

The HiRISE team has outdone themselves this time. Using their incredible instrument, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, they have captured an absolutely amazing image of the Curiosity rover, descending on a parachute through Mars’ atmosphere.

“Nailed it!” Tweeted Christian Schaller of the HiRISE team. “My goodness, @MarsCuriosity you look pretty.”

Wow!

Full image below.

Link to original image (2.7 MB)

Schaller told Universe Today that the MSL Navigation team, the MRO Navigation team and the MRO FET (flight engineering team) “seriously rock. Seriously.”

The planning by those teams made this image possible.

Schaller is the software developer responsible for the primary planning tools the MRO and HiRISE targeting specialists and science team members use to plan their images.

“The Mars background looks a little blurry or smeared because we set up the timing to capture Curiosity, not the Martian surface,” Schaller said via email after the image was released at the press conference from JPL on Monday morning.

The image was set up so that as MSL was descending, MRO “slewed” the HiRISE field of view across the expected descent path. But obviously, MRO didn’t have to slew too much. “We were almost directly overhead, and had a very, very small angle to take the image,” said HiRISE team member Sarah Malkovich at the press conference. “MRO was essentially overhead.”

HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen said before the landing that they expected only a 60% chance of success.

McEwen wrote the HiRISE website of the image:

The parachute appears fully inflated and performing perfectly. Details in the parachute such as the band gap at the edges and the central hole are clearly visible. The cords connecting the parachute to the backshell cannot be seen, although they were seen in the image of Phoenix descending, perhaps due to the difference in lighting angles.

The bright spot on the backshell containing MSL might be a specular reflection off of a shiny area. MSL was released from the backshell sometime after this image was acquired.

This view is one product from an observation made by HiRISE targeted to the expected location of MSL about 1 minute prior to landing. It was captured in HiRISE CCD RED1, near the eastern edge of the swath width (there is a RED0 at the very edge). This means that MSL was a bit further east or downrange than predicted.

The image scale is 33.6 cm/pixel.

MRO was 340 km away from Curiosity when the image was taken, and that is line of sight distance, said Malkovich. “HiRISE has taken over 120 pictures of Gale Crater in preparation for MSL’s mission, but I think this is the coolest one,” she said.

McEwen said more details and image products will be available and we will post them as soon as they are available.

This animation shows how HiRISE planned to capture MSL’s descent:

Malkovich said that the HiRISE team already has plans to take images of Curiosity sitting on the surface of Mars later this week that will be of higher resolution than the descent image.

Posted on by Ken Kremer

President Obama Hails NASA Curiosity rover landing on Mars

Image Caption: Landing ellipse for Curiosity rover inside Gale Crater at the foot of Mount Sharp on Mars and will attempt to climb the mountain later in the mission. Credit: NASA

US President Barack Obama hailed the spectacular landing success of NASA’s Curiosity rover on Aug. 6 inside Gale Crater and eagerly awaits the discoveries to come. More accolades for Curiosity and the rover team are pouring in from all across the globe.

The White House issued the following statement:

Statement by the President on Curiosity Landing on Mars

“Tonight, on the planet Mars, the United States of America made history.

The successful landing of Curiosity – the most sophisticated roving laboratory ever to land on another planet – marks an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future. It proves that even the longest of odds are no match for our unique blend of ingenuity and determination.

Tonight’s success, delivered by NASA, parallels our major steps forward towards a vision for a new partnership with American companies to send American astronauts into space on American spacecraft. That partnership will save taxpayer dollars while allowing NASA to do what it has always done best – push the very boundaries of human knowledge. And tonight’s success reminds us that our preeminence – not just in space, but here on Earth – depends on continuing to invest wisely in the innovation, technology, and basic research that has always made our economy the envy of the world.

I congratulate and thank all the men and women of NASA who made this remarkable accomplishment a reality – and I eagerly await what Curiosity has yet to discover.”

The 1 ton Mini Cooper sized robot geologist and roving chemistry lab is seeking the signs of life on Mars and is loaded with 165 pounds of the most sophisticated science instruments ever delivered to the surface of the Red Planet.

During a two-year prime mission, Curiosity the rover will investigate whether the region has ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life, and search for organic molecules – the chemical ingredients for life.

Ken Kremer

Posted on by Ken Kremer

Long Live American Curiosity – Now We Start Exploring Mars

Image Caption: This image shows one of the first views from NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (early morning hours Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a “fisheye” wide-angle lens on one of the rover’s Hazard-Avoidance cameras. These engineering cameras are located at the rover’s base. As planned, the early images are lower resolution. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Welcome to Mars,” said Charles Elachi, Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., following the dramatic and successful touchdown of Curiosity on the Red Planet at 1:32 AM EDT Aug. 6 (10:32 PM Aug 5). “Tonight was a great drama. We did the landing. Tomorrow we start exploring Mars and make new discoveries every day. Our Curiosity has no limits and we will explore the solar system.”

Tumultuous and long lasting jubilation erupted at Mission Control at JPL when the spectacular pinpoint landing success was announced and continued during the post landing news briefing at JPL.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) safely survived the harrowing plunge and nail biting descent through the Martian atmosphere known as the “7 minutes of Terror”. After hitting the thin atmosphere at 13,200 MPH (5,900 m/s), the robot perfectly executed the unprecedented entry, descent and landing (EDL) sequence utilizing a rocket powered guided descent, supersonic parachutes and then culminating in the never before tried “sky crane maneuver” and helicopter-like touch down at 0 MPH barely 7 minutes later.

Curiosity landed near the foot of a layered mountain three miles (5 km) tall and 96 miles(154 km) in diameter inside Gale Crater which may once have contained a lake. She relayed a few initial thumbnail pictures within minutes after touchdown via NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter.

Larger images showing the Gale crater rim were sent back during the 2nd Odyssey over flight about 2 hours later. Many higher resolution images will be transmitted back to Earth in the coming days including the first 360 degree panorama.

“Curiosity’s landing site is beginning to come into focus,” said John Grotzinger, project manager of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “In the image (above), we are looking to the northwest. What you see on the horizon is the rim of Gale Crater. In the foreground, you can see a gravel field. The question is, where does this gravel come from? It is the first of what will be many scientific questions to come from our new home on Mars.”


Image Caption: Cheers for Curiosity – Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., celebrate the landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover on the Red Planet. The rover touched down on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Long live American Curiosity”, said John Holdren, science advisor to President Obama. “Today on Mars, history was made on Earth. It will stand as an American point of pride far in the future. I want to congratulate the team on behalf of President Obama. Landing Curiosity was the most challenging mission ever attempted in robotic planetary exploration. This 1 ton automobile sized piece of American ingenuity on Mars should put to rest any doubts about American space leadership. Even the longest odds are no match for our gutsy determination.”

Curiosity traveled for over 8 months and more than 352-million-mile (567-million-kilometer) to arrive at Mars since launching from Earth in Nov. 2011.

“Today, the wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze the trail for human footprints on Mars. Curiosity, the most sophisticated rover ever built, is now on the surface of the Red Planet, where it will seek to answer age-old questions about whether life ever existed on Mars — or if the planet can sustain life in the future,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

“This is an amazing achievement, made possible by a team of scientists and engineers from around the world and led by the extraordinary men and women of NASA and our Jet Propulsion Laboratory. President Obama has laid out a bold vision for sending humans to Mars in the mid-2030’s, and today’s landing marks a significant step toward achieving this goal.”

“What a fantastic demonstration of what our nation can accomplish. Thank you team. I am so proud of you. And what an inspiration to our young people. Nothing is harder than landing on Mars. Our leadership will make this world better.”

Curiosity is a 10 foot long (3 m) car-sized robotic geologist. The 1 ton behemoth is a roving chemistry lab with 10 state-of-the-art science instruments that will collect and analyze soil and rock samples and zap rocks from a distance with a laser to search for carbon in the form of organic molecules – the building blocks of life.

Image Caption: Gale Crater landing site for Curiosity beside layered Martian mountain with landing ellipse. Credit: NASA

“On behalf of the 400 members of the science team we thank everybody involved in this enterprise the landing team,” said John Grotzinger, the MSL Project Scientist of the California Institute of Technology. “There is no greater inspiration to school kids than going to Mars. The cost of MSL for each American is the cost of a movie. That’s a movie I want to see.”

During a 2 year prime mission, she will search for evidence of habitats that could preserve signs of Martian microbial life. She will rove the crater floor seeking evidence of water related phyllosilicates and sulfates and eventually climb up the nearby mountain, nicknamed Mount Sharp.

Ken Kremer

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Watch the Nail-biting 7 Minutes of Terror in JPL’s Mission Control

Live through the tense moments of waiting to find out if the Curiosity rover made it safely to Mars’ surface and the joy and elation of six more wheels on Mars.

UPDATE: Shortly after we posted this NASA video late last night/early this morning of the events that took place in JPL’s mission Control, it was taken down in due to a copyright claim by Scripps Local News. As you can see in the comments below, everyone was wondering how public domain footage from NASA could be copyrighted. Motherboard and Gizmodo uncovered what actually happened in Scripps’ “zealous takedown spree,” wrote Gizmodo. “They have a history of this sort of thing. The video has since gone back up, but it stands a particular egregious example of the way YouTube’s Content ID system allows third parties to shoot first and ask questions later when it comes to takedowns.” Read more about it at those two links.

And thanks to Raam Dev who supplied a back-up version of the events that we could post in the interim. His video is below.

Continue reading “Watch the Nail-biting 7 Minutes of Terror in JPL’s Mission Control”