Posted on by Jason Major

Mystery Blur in Mars Image Explained

When Curiosity executed a perfect six-wheel landing on Mars on the morning of August 6 to the excitement of millions worldwide — not to mention quite a few engineers and scientists at JPL — it immediately began relaying images back to Earth. Although the initial views were low-resolution and taken through dusty lens covers, features of the local landscape around the rover could be discerned… distant hills, a pebbly surface, the rise of Gale Crater’s central peak — and a curious dark blur on the horizon that wasn’t visible in later images.

What could it have been? Another bit of lens dust? An image artifact? A piece of ancient Martian architecture that NASA demanded be erased from the image? As it turns out, it was most likely something even cooler (or at least real): the result of Curiosity’s descent stage crash-landing into the Martian surface.

Seen in an image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera, the remnants of Curiosity’s descent to Mars are scattered around the landing site. The heat shield, parachute, back shell — and undeniably the star player of Curiosity’s EDL sequence, the descent stage and sky crane — all landed in relatively close proximity to where the rover touched down. As it turned out, Curiosity’s’s rear Hazcam happened to be aimed right where the sky crane landed after it severed Curiosity’s bridles and rocketed safely away — just as it had been shown in the landing animation.

See an infographic on Curiosity’s EDL timeline here.

Seen in the first images captured by Curiosity’s rear Hazcams just minutes after touchdown — but not in higher-resolution images acquired later — the dark blur is now thought to be a plume of dust and soil kicked up by the sky crane’s impact.

“We know that the cloud was real because we saw it in both the left and right rear Hazcams, so it wasn’t just a smudge on the lens cover or anything like that… and then 45 minutes later it was gone,” said Steven Sell, Deputy Operations for Entry, Descent and Landing at JPL, during an interview with Universe Today on Friday.

“When we were putting together the sequence of images of what would happen after touchdown, we specifically put in the Hazcam shots as soon as we could on the off chance that we would see something,” Sell said. “It was just one of those things where we had some choices we could make, and we said if we put these really close to landing maybe we’ll actually see part of the descent stage.”

Although capturing the sky crane or other part of the descent stage on camera was an intriguing idea, it wasn’t any particular goal of the mission.

“We know that the cloud was real because we saw it in both the left and right rear Hazcams, so it wasn’t just a smudge on the lens cover or anything like that.”

– Steven Sell, Deputy Operations for Entry, Descent and Landing at JPL in Pasadena, CA

“We literally weren’t even thinking about it,” Sell said. “It’s a total bonus that we were able to capture that.”

Unfortunately, the plume only appears in the initial Hazcam shots, which were taken through lens covers coated with dust from landing. It wasn’t until nearly an hour later that the covers were removed and clearer images were captured, and by then the plume was gone. Plus the Hazcams themselves are low-resolution by design — they’re more for navigation than landscape photography.

“Those cameras are not intended for doing that kind of science, or even any science at all,” said Sell. “They’re strictly engineering cameras.”

It’s been said that the best camera is the one you have with you, and in this case Curiosity’s best camera happened to be aimed in the right place at the right time. Plus the sky crane just so happened to land in view of the cameras that got turned on first, which wasn’t a guarantee.

“The descent stage had two possible directions to go: it could have gone forward or backward,” Sell explained. “The way it decides which way to go is whichever direction would take it more north. We knew that the science target is toward the south — the scientists want to study the mountain — and so we didn’t want to throw the descent stage toward the mountain.

Read: Curiosity’s First 360-Degree Color Panorama

“The good news is that the forward Hazcams were at a lower temperature upon landing, we knew they were going to be colder,” Sell said. “The cameras have to reach a certain temperature before they can take a picture, so we knew the rear Hazcams were going to get the picture first, and so the fact that the thing flew to the rear was another coincidence.”

About the same mass as the rover itself, the sky crane weighed about 800 kg (1700 lbs) at the time of impact  — including 100 kg of fuel — and hit going 100 mph. That’s going to kick up a good-sized plume (although exactly how large has yet to be determined.)

“It was one hell of an impact,” Sell said.

You can watch Steve Sell describe this and other data from the first few days of the MSL mission in the press conference held at JPL on Friday, August 10 below, and follow Sell on his Twitter feed here.


Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech. HiRISE image NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Ironic Science Reality: Flying Saucers on Mars from Earth

“Irony: The first real flying saucer is from Earth. And it landed on Mars.”

That’s a quote we saw via UT writer Ray Sanders, from a great graphic making its way around the internet. But amazingly, it’s true. Above is a high resolution image from the Mars Science Laboratory’s MARDI instrument showing the heat shield falling away from the spacecraft and heading towards Mars, looking like a classic flying saucer UFO. This image shows the 4.5-meter (15-foot) diameter heat shield when it was about 16 meters (50 feet) from the spacecraft.

The image shows so much detail that “You can actually see the stitching in the thermal blanket and some wiring” said Mike Malin during a press conference at JPL today.

Here’s a new, higher resolution video of the heat shield’s descent from what was previously available:

This image shows the inside surface of the heat shield, with its protective multi-layered insulation. The bright patches are calibration targets for MARDI. Also visible is the Mars Science Laboratory Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrument (MEDLI) hardware attached to the inside surface.

Malin said that at this range, the image has a spatial scale of 0.4 inches (1 cm) per pixel. It is the 36th MARDI image, obtained about three seconds after heat shield separation and about two and one-half minutes before touchdown.

Emily Lakdawalla has another image that she “tweaked” that shows another look at the heat shield when it is farther away from MSL:


Caption: MSL’s heat shield falling towards Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/Emily Lakdawalla

“It is still mind-blowing to think that this snapshot was taken by a spacecraft flying in the air above a different planet,” Emily wrote on the Planetary Blog.

In other MSL news, Curiosity’s mast is deployed, evidenced by this shadow self-portrait:

And also from the images from the Navigation Cameras on the mast:

At the press conference, Curiosity’s Chief Scientist John Grotzinger said the view reminded him of the Mojave Desert, and remarked on the striking familiarity of an almost “Earth-like” plain with the crater rim in the distance. There also appears to be a little haze in the air that Grotzinger likened to “LA smog.”

Jason Major also posted a panoramic view of Curiosity’s surroundings by combining a couple of shots from the Navigation cameras.

And here’s that great graphic by Ken Watson:

Here’s where you can find more of the latest images from MSL.

Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

A Glimpse of Old Cape Kennedy

I’m a child of the shuttle era, but I grew up reading the tales of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. That heady time in the 1960s was so foreign to a teenager growing up in the age of personal computers and Internet access: people glued to television sets watching space shots. Newspapers carrying pages upon pages of space content, rather than small mentions.

My favourite book symbolizing what this era was like – at least, from the starry-eyed optimist’s point of view – was This Is Cape Canaveral, a children’s book first published in 1963 and subsequently republished under the names This Is Cape Kennedy and This Is The Way To The Moon.

Writer and illustrator Miroslav Sasek portrays the crowds, era and missile-obsessed businesses with a taste of humour and a keen eye for detail. It’s attention that his audience demanded: “Detail is very important to children,” he said in a 1969 interview. “If I paint 53 windows instead of 54 in a building, a deluge of letters pours in upon me!”

I cracked open my dog-eared copy the other day to play a mini where-are-they-now game with some of the mentioned landmarks and people:

The times change in 50 years, but the good thing is there is no lack of chronicles to tell us what it was like at the time.

Lead image caption: In This Is Cape Canaveral, Miroslav Sasek wasn’t afraid to poke fun at the excitement of the early days of the space program.

Elizabeth Howell (M.Sc. Space Studies ’12) is a contributing editor for SpaceRef and award-winning space freelance journalist living in Ottawa, Canada. Her work has appeared in publications such as SPACE.com, Air & Space Smithsonian, Physics Today, the Globe and Mail, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.,  CTV and the Ottawa Business Journal.

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 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

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 Ken Kremer

Super Bowl of Planetary Exploration – Great Convergence of Spacecraft for Curiosity Mars Landing

Image caption: This artist’s still shows how NASA’s Curiosity rover will communicate with Earth during landing. As the rover descends to the surface of Mars, it will send out two different types of data: basic radio-frequency tones that go directly to Earth (pink dashes) and more complex UHF radio data (blue circles) that require relaying by orbiters. NASA’s Odyssey orbiter will pick up the UHF signal and relay it immediately back to Earth, while NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will record the UHF data and play it back to Earth at a later time. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity is just hours away from ‘do or die’ time and the high stakes and harrowing “7 Minutes of Terror” after an 8 month journey to touchdown on the Red Planet and potentially make historic discoveries that could ultimately answer the question ‘Are We Alone?’

An armada of spacecraft are converging at Mars for the historic landing of NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab rover, the most daring, daunting and complex robotic mission that NASA has ever attempted. See the Video below

“Tonight is the Super Bowl of Planetary Exploration,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters, at a NASA JPL news briefing on Sunday (Aug. 5). “One yard line, one play left. We score and win, or we don’t score and we don’t win.”

“We are about to land a rover that is 10 times heavier and with 15 times the payload [compared to earlier rovers]. No matter what happens, I just want the team to know I am incredible proud and privileged to have worked with these guys and gals.”

“This is the most challenging landing we have ever attempted.”

“Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) are in good shape to relay the entry, descent and landing data.”

The trajectory to the atmospheric aim point is so precise that engineers decided to cancel the last course correction maneuver firing planned for today.

Tonight at around 1 AM EDT, Curiosity smashes into the Martian atmosphere at over 13,200 MPH (5,900 m/s) leading to an unprecedented entry, descent and landing sequence culminating in the never before tried “skycrane maneuver” and touchdown at 0 MPH just 7 minutes later astride a 3 mile (5 km ) mountain inside Gale Crater. Mount Sharp represents perhaps millions to perhaps billions of years of Mars geologic history stretching from the ancient wetter time to the more recent desiccated era.

“The team and the spacecraft are ready,” said Adam Steltzner, MSL Entry, Descent and Landing Lead engineer JPL. “We did everything possible to deserve success tonight, although as we all know we can never guarantee success. I am rationally confident and emotionally terrified and ready for EDL.”

Video Caption:This artist’s animation shows how orbiters over Mars will monitor the landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover.The animation starts with the path of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft capsule — which has the Curiosity rover tucked inside — speeding towards its Martian landing site in Gale Crater. Then, the paths of NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter become visible. Curiosity will be sending some basic radio-frequency tones straight back to Earth during its entry, descent and landing, on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). But sending more detailed engineering data about the landing is more complicated. Those kinds of data will be sent by Curiosity to the orbiters Odyssey and MRO, which will then relay them back to NASA’s Deep Space Network antennas on Earth. Curiosity can only send the data to Odyssey and MRO when it can see the orbiters — as soon as they rise above and before they set below the Martian horizon. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The 6 wheeled SUV sized rover Curiosity is scheduled to touchdown inside Gale Crater at about 1:31 a.m. EDT (531 GMT) early on Aug. 6 (10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5).

Under the best circumstance, the first signals from the surface could be transmitted via Odyssey within a few minutes of touchdown.

Curiosity is a robotic geologist and 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.

“We will attempt to have the MRO HiRISE camera point at MSL and get an image of it the final phases of its descent going down to Mars,” said McCuistion. “This will be difficult because of all the gyrations by the spacecraft. It’s pretty challenging. It will be very tough. We were lucky to get one of Phoenix. I am hopeful”

“We have the opportunity for untold discoveries. We couldn’t even imagine going to this place on Mars a few years ago.”

“If we are successful, it will be one of the greatest feats in exploration ever!”

Watch NASA TV online for live coverage of the Curiosity landing on Aug. 5/6 starting at 11:30 pm EDT:

www.mars.jpl.nasa.gov or www.nasa.gov

Ken Kremer

Posted on by Ken Kremer

When are the First Pictures Expected from Curiosity

Image Caption: This graphic shows the locations of the cameras on NASA’s Curiosity rover. The rover’s mast features seven cameras: the Remote Micro Imager, part of the Chemistry and Camera suite; four black-and-white Navigation Cameras (two on the left and two on the right) and two color Mast Cameras (Mastcams). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

If all goes well with the high stakes descent, the first images from the 1 ton Curiosity rover on the Martian surface could be received in the first few minutes after touchdown inside Gale Crater beside a huge mountain with layered sediments – now less than a day away.

It all depends on whether Curiosity successfully establishes a communications link with NASA’s Mars Odyssey signal relay spacecraft as the resilient orbiter simultaneously flies over the landing site and transmits the vital data indicating “Yes I’m Alive” to tracking stations back on Earth for analysis by anxiously waiting engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif.

“We are expecting Odyssey to relay good news,” said Steve Sell of the JPL engineering team that developed and tested the mission’s complicated and never before used “sky crane” landing system. “That moment has been more than eight years in the making.”

The initial pictures would be reduced-resolution fisheye black-and-white images from the Hazard-Avoidance cameras (Hazcams), attached to the front and rear body of the rover.

“On the first night we expect the first low resolution black-and -white images from the rear hazcam, thumbnails about 50 x 50 pixels” said JPL’s Richard Cook, deputy project manager for Curiosity at today’s (Aug. 4) news briefing for reporters at JPL. “The Mars Odyssey relay will continue for 2 to 5 minutes after landing. Later that first night we hope to get a 512 x 512 pixel image looking out the rear of the rover.”

The hazcam cameras are covered with protective clear dust covers so the initial pictures might be taken through the covers if they haven’t popped off yet, Cook explained.

“The next chance to receive data and pictures comes 2 hours later post-landing during the second Odyssey over flight,” he added. “The next opportunity after that comes about 12 hours later.”

Initial thumbnail images from the rovers Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) camera,located on the belly of the rover, during the descent to the Red Planet’s surface are expected a day later on Aug. 7. These images will help pinpoint Curiosity’s exact location.

The team expects to deploy the rover’s mast with the higher resolution cameras on Aug. 7. Curiosity would then begin acquiring a 360 degree stereo panorama with the Navcam cameras the next day on Aug. 8.

The first color images are expected around Aug 8 from the Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI, one of five devices on the rover’s Inspector Gadget-like robotic arm. MAHLI will still be in the stowed position when it snaps the initial pictures.

But the whole plan depends on a successful landing and engineering checkout and instrument deployments along with no significant technical problems.

Navigators guiding NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) are threading the needle in these final 24 hours as she accelerates towards a miniscule target box barely 2 miles by 7 miles (2.8 by 11.5 kilometers) wide.

“We’re now right on target to fly through the eye of a needle, that is, our target at the top of the Mars atmosphere,” said MSL mission manager Arthur Amador, JPL, at the briefing. “The target is a box that’s 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) by 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) in dimension. And we’re flying right through it.”

Image Caption: Eye of the Needle – This graphic shows how navigators steering NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory capsule — with the Curosity rover tucked inside — are aiming for a pinpoint location above Mars. They liken it to threading the eye of a needle. Navigators are aiming for a point inside of a target box that is 1.7 by 7.15 miles (2.8 by 11.5 kilometers) wide above the Red Planet. Mars’ gravity well, which has been precisely calculated, will pull the spacecraft into the Martian atmosphere. The plane in which MSL has been traveling toward Mars — labeled trajectory plane — hits what is known as the B-plane at a 90 degree angle. The B plane is the plane perpendicular to the velocity of the spacecraft when it is far away from Mars. It is used for maneuver targeting. The northward direction of Mars’ pole is also indicated. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

As of Saturday evening, Aug 4, MSL has cut its distance from Mars in half in the past day. MSL is the same distance from Mars as the Earth is from the Moon, around 250,000 miles (400,000 km) and closing at more than 8000 MPH (about 3,600 meters per second).

“Right now, I’m closer to Mars than the moon is to Earth,” Curiosity just tweeted.

After the nail biting entry, descent and landing (EDL) , the 6 wheeled rover Curiosity is scheduled to touchdown inside Gale Crater at about 1:31 a.m. EDT (531 GMT) early on Aug. 6 (10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5).

The 10 feet (3 meters) long mini Cooper sized Curiosity is loaded with 10 state-of-the-art science experiments that will search for organic molecules – the building blocks of life. She is the most sophisticated robot ever sent to the surface of another world. Curiosity will investigate the Red Planet like never before and look for signs of Martian microbial life and habitable zones by analyzing soil and rock samples with high powered analytical chemistry instruments.


Image Caption: This global map of Mars was acquired on Aug. 2, 2012, by the Mars Color Imager instrument on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

And even the weather is cooperating.

“The active dust storm we saw south of Gale crater has now evolved into a harmless dust cloud. Basically, the poofed remnants of what was that dust storm. Mars is cooperating by providing good weather for landing,” said JPL’s Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist for Curiosity.

“The team has done everything possible to make it a success. It is scary and risky. I am proud of the team,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters at the JPL briefing. “Risk exists.”

“The human spirit is driven by these kind of challenges. These challenges force us to explore our surroundings and understand what’s out there. And look at “Are we Alone?”

Watch NASA TV online for live coverage of the Curiosity landing on Aug. 5/6 starting at 11:30 pm EDT:

www.mars.jpl.nasa.gov or www.nasa.gov

Ken Kremer


Image Caption: Curiosity Landing site at Gale Crater from ESA Mars Express Orbiter. Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Read continuing features about Curiosity by Ken Kremer starting here:

Curiosity Precisely on Course at T Minus 48 Hours till a ‘Priceless Asset’ Lands on Mars

3 Days to Red Planet Touchdown – Watch the Harrowing Video of Car-Sized Curiosity Careening to Crater Floor

4 Days to Mars: Curiosity activates Entry, Descent and Landing Timeline – EDL Infographic

Curiosity’s Grand Entrance with Star Trek’s William Shatner and Wil Wheaton – Video Duet

Curiosity Completes Crucial Course Correction – 1 Week from Mars !

T Minus 9 Days – Mars Orbiters Now in Place to Relay Critical Curiosity Landing Signals

Posted on by Ken Kremer

Curiosity Precisely on Course at T Minus 48 Hours till a ‘Priceless Asset’ Lands on Mars

At this moment the mega rover Curiosity is barely 48 hours from Mars and transformation into a “priceless asset” on the Red Planet’s surface where she’ll initiate the search for evidence for habitats of Martian microbial life – past or present.

NASA JPL engineers have guided the Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) so precisely on her 352-million-mile (567-million-kilometer) interplanetary journey through space that they decided to cancel today’s planned course adjusting thruster firing, known as Trajectory Correction Maneuver 5 (TCM-5). If needed, they have one last chance for a course correction burn (TCM-6) this weekend on Sunday.

“We are now about 1000 yards from the entry target that will bring us to the touchdown point on the North side of Gale Crater,” said Tomas Martin-Mur, MSL Navigation team chief of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., at an Aug. 2 MSL news briefing.

Curiosity is now less than 450,000 miles away from Mars, careening through space at over 8000 MPH (3576 m/s) and accelerating moment by moment due to the ever increasing pull of Mars gravity.

To put that in perspective, that’s less than twice the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

By the time Curiosity hits the Martian atmosphere on Sunday night/Monday early morning (Aug 5/6) she’ll be blazing through space at more than 13,200 MPH (5,900 m/s).

“I’m less than 500,000 miles from Mars & the Red Planet looks about the size as a full moon seen from Earth. 2 days to landing!” Curiosity tweeted a short while ago.

She remains healthy, with all systems operating nominally. And she is brave!

Curiosity will not flinch knowing she must endure the “7 Minutes of Terror” and the fiery entry,descent and landing to touchdown inside the 96 mile wide Gale Crater just 2 days from now.

Watch the harrowing landing animation – here.


Image Caption: Gale Crater Landing site for Curiosity. Credit: NASA

Absolutely staggering photos and science discoveries are expected from Curiosity – the boldest, most daring and by far the most scientifically complex and capable robotic emissary ever dispatched by humans to another world.

But after landing, the team needs to first test the rover’s components and unfurl the robots camera mast and instruments.

“We must recognize that on Sunday night at 10:32 PM PST(1:32 AM EST, 532 GMT) we will have a ‘priceless asset’ that we placed on the surface of another planet that could last for a long time IF we operate it correctly,” said Pete Theisinger, MSL project manager, JPL, at the Aug. 2 news briefing.

“So we will be cautious as hell about what we do with it !”

“This is a very complicated beast, so we all need to exercise caution. It’s much, much more complicated than Spirit and Opportunity in terms of the interactions amongst the various pieces and the things we need to keep track of in order to operate it successfully.”

A few hours after touchdown, Curiosity will send back the first images from the Gale crater landing site beside a towering 3 mile (5 km) high layered Martian mountain, named Mount Sharp.

“We will start doing science right away. Very roughly, the contact science will begin in 2 to 4 weeks. Sampling science will begin 1 to 2 months after we land,” explained Theisinger.

The car-sized Curiosity is 10 feet (3 meters) long and packed with 10 state-of-the-art science experiments that will search for organic molecules – the building blocks of life – and clay minerals, potential markers for signs of Martian microbial life and habitable zones.


Image Caption:Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory Rover – inside the Cleanroom at KSC, with robotic arm extended prior to encapsulation and Nov. 26, 2011 liftoff. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

Watch NASA TV online for live coverage of the Curiosity landing on Aug 5/6 starting at 11:30 pm EDT:

www.mars.jpl.nasa.gov or www.nasa.gov

Ken Kremer


Image Caption: MSL entry track to Gale Crater. Credit: NASA

Read continuing recent features about Curiosity by Ken Kremer starting here:

3 Days to Red Planet Touchdown – Watch the Harrowing Video of Car-Sized Curiosity Careening to Crater Floor

4 Days to Mars: Curiosity activates Entry, Descent and Landing Timeline – EDL Infographic

Curiosity’s Grand Entrance with Star Trek’s William Shatner and Wil Wheaton – Video Duet

Curiosity Completes Crucial Course Correction – 1 Week from Mars !

T Minus 9 Days – Mars Orbiters Now in Place to Relay Critical Curiosity Landing Signals

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

HiRISE Camera to Attempt Imaging Curiosity’s Descent to Mars

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image of Phoenix hanging from its parachute as it descended to the Martian surface. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

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Note: This article was updated on Aug. 3 with additional information.

The HiRISE camera crew on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will attempt an audacious repeat performance of the image above, where the team was able to capture an amazing shot of the Phoenix lander descending on a parachute to land on Mars’ north polar region. Only this time it will try to focus on the Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity rover descending to touch down in Gale Crater. It will be all or nothing for the HiRISE team, as they get only one shot at taking what would likely be one of the most memorable images of the entire mission for MRO.

“We’re only making one attempt on MSL here,” Christian Schaller of the HiRISE team told Universe Today. “The EDL (Entry, Descent and Landing) image is set up so that as MSL is descending, MRO will be slewing the HiRISE field of view across the expected descent path. The plan is to capture MSL during the parachute phase of descent.”

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.

Last December, when Universe Today learned of this probable imaging attempt, HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen confirmed for us that, indeed, the team was working to make it happen. The preferred shot would be to “capture the rover hanging from the skycrane, but the timing may be difficult,” McEwen said.

It would take an impeccable – and fortuitous – sense of timing to get that shot, but since MSL’s EDL won’t happen on a precisely exact timetable, the HiRISE team will take their one shot and see what happens.

“We’ve been gradually updating the exact timing of the sequence over the past couple of weeks as the MSL navigation team, the MRO navigation team and the MRO flight engineering team refines that descent path and MRO slew,” Schaller said via email, “and we think we’ve pretty much got it nailed down at this point. I think it’s a real testament to NASA and its partners that we can even think about doing this.”

HiRISE will actually be taking two images, but the first is a “throwaway” warmup image taken about 50 minutes prior to MSL’s descent, designed to heat the camera’s electronics up to the preferred temperature for getting good image data.

“The warmup image we’re taking is a long-exposure throwaway that we’re taking on the night side of Mars,” Schaller explained. “It’s a 5,000 microsecond per line exposure, compared to a more typical 100 microsecond per line exposure during normal surface imaging. These warmup data will be useless, and we don’t even bother sending them back to Earth; we just dump them from the MRO filesystem once the exposure is complete.”

Schaller said the warmup image starts executing at 04:17 UTC/9:17 PM PDT. The real image starts executing at 05:09 UTC/10:09 PM PDT, centered on 10:16 PM as the time MSL and MRO navigation teams have determined MSL will pass through HiRISE’s field of view.

This image will be an approximately 500 microseconds per line exposure, to match the MRO’s slew rate.


Caption: Artist impression of MRO orbiting Mars. Credit: NASA

UPDATE (Aug. 3): In checking with McEwen, he said that Mars Express and Odyssey are NOT planning to image the descent, but they are supporting EDL via UHF relay, and the plans to use CTX has been dropped.

“HiRISE plans are to definitely attempt the image, unless there is a late upset to the MRO spacecraft,” McEwen said via email on August 3. “The engineers estimate we have a 60% chance of capturing MSL in our image.”

MRO’s Context Camera (CTX) will also be attempting to image Curiosity’s descent, as will NASA’s Mars Odyssey and ESA’s Mars Express and all the spacecraft have been performing special maneuvers to be aligned in just the right place – nearby to MSL’s point of entry into Mars’ atmosphere.

While Odyssey and Mars Express’ cameras may not have the resolving power to capture MSL itself, the powerful HiRISE camera does. However, it has a narrower field of view, so as much skill and planning as this requires, the team will need a little luck, too. But there’s also the CTX.

“CTX has a much larger field of view and will likely capture it,” McEwen said, “but at 20X lower resolution than HiRISE, which should still be good enough to detect the parachute.”

For those concerned about the fuel required for all these orbiters to reposition themselves just to take a few pictures, the expenditure is nothing that isn’t required anyway. All the spacecraft need to be in position to support MSL during the critical EDL event, and the images are pure extra-benefit, if not an incredible exercise for the imaging teams.

So while we’ll all be crossing our fingers for a successful landing for Curiosity, I’m on my way to find a rabbit’s foot or 4-leaf clover for HiRISE.