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 Ken Kremer

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


Video Caption: This 11-minute animation depicts key events of how NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission will land the huge rover Curiosity on Mars on August 5/6, 2012. Credit: NASA

Well, here we are 3 days from the thrilling ‘touchdown’ of Curiosity on Mars on the boldest mission yet by humans to the Red Planet – Seeking Signs of Life beyond Earth!

The Curiosity Mars Science Lab rover is by far the hardest and most complex robotic mission that NASA has ever attempted. She marks a quantum leap beyond anything tried before in terms of the technology required to land this 2000 pound beast and the science she’ll carry out for a minimum 2 year prime mission.

So watch this harrowing video (above) – Outlining how Curiosity slams into the Martian atmosphere at 13200 MPH and comes to rest at 0 MPH after surviving the “7 Minutes of Terror” with an unprecedented guided entry, rocket powered descent, neck snapping supersonic parachute deployment and never before used Sky Crane maneuver – and be sure you’re safely seated !

The car-sized Curiosity has entered the final 72 hours of careening towards a crater floor on Mars.

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).

“It looks a little crazy !” said Adam Steltzner, MSL Entry, Descent and Landing Lead engineer JPL , at today’s (Aug. 2) pre-landing briefing for reporters at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. “But it’s the least crazy compared to other methods we evaluated.”

“Everything looks good for Sunday night. Over 300 Years of human individual contributions went into the MSL EDL system. We pull 10 Earth G’s or more of acceleration during first contact with the Martian atmosphere.”

See the detailed EDL graphic below –
Image caption: Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) Timeline – click to enlarge for full image. Credit: NASA

Curiosity is the first mobile soil and rock sampling and chemistry lab dispatched to Mars. It’s also the first astrobiology mission to Mars since the twin Viking missions of the 1970’s.

“We are about to land a small compact car on Mars with a trunk load of instruments. It’s an amazing feat, exciting and daring. It’s fantastic,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters at the JPL briefing.

“It’s an extreme pleasure to be here. MSL has a huge reach, to the past, the future and around the world. Since the heatshield is nearly the size of the Orion heat shield, we’ll also learn an enormous amount about how we’ll land humans on Mars.”

“MSL is a workhorse for the future,” McCuistion emphasized.

Curiosity will search for the ingredients of life in the form of organic molecules – the carbon based molecules which are the building blocks of life as we know it. The one-ton behemoth is packed to the gills with 10 state-of-the-art science instruments including a 7 foot long robotic arm, scoop, drill and laser rock zapper.

Watch NASA TV online for live coverage of the Curiosity landing on Aug 5/6:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov or www.nasa.gov

Ken Kremer

Posted on by Ken Kremer

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

It’s 4 Days to Mars – and NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) spacecraft is now flying under the control of the crafts autonomous entry, descent and landing timeline and picking up speed as she plunges ever faster to the Red Planet and her Rendezvous with Destiny.

“Timeline activated. Bleep-bop. I’m running entry, descent & landing flight software all on my own. Countdown to Mars: 5 days,” Curiosity tweeted Tuesday night.

See below an EDL explanatory infographic timeline outlining the critical sequence of events which must unfold perfectly for Curiosity to safely survive the “7 Minutes of Terror” set to begin on the evening of August 5/6.

Aug. 1 TV Viewing Alert – 11:30 PM EDT – see NASA Science Chief John Grunsfeld tonight (Wed, Aug. 1) on the Colbert Report


Image Caption: Curiosity EDL infographic – – click to enlarge

And the excitement is building rapidly for NASA’s biggest, boldest mission ever to the Red Planet as the flight team continues to monitor Curiosity’s onboard systems and flight trajectory. Yesterday, the flight team successfully carried out a memory test on the software for the mechanical assembly that controls MSL’s descent motor, configured the spacecraft for its transition to entry, descent and landing approach mode, and they enabled the spacecraft’s hardware pyrotechnic devices.

Curiosity remains healthy and on course. If fine tuning for the targeted landing ellipse is needed, the next chance to fire on board thrusters to adjust the trajectory is Friday, Aug. 3.

The 4th of 6 possible Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) firings was just accomplished on Sunday, July 29 – details here.

The car sized Curiosity rover is scheduled to touchdown on Mars at about 1:31 a.m. EDT (531 GMT) early on Aug. 6 (10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5) inside Gale Crater and next to a 3 mile (5 km) mountain taller that the tallest in the US.

Gale Crater is 154 km (96 mi) in diameter and dominated by a layered mountain rising some 5 km (3 mi) above the crater floor which exhibits exposures of minerals that may have preserved evidence of past or present Martian life.

Curiosity is packed with 10 state-of-the-art science experiments that will search for organic molecules and clay minerals, potential markers for signs of Martian microbial life and habitable zones.

Watch NASA TV online for live coverage of the Curiosity landing on Aug 5/6:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov or www.nasa.gov

Ken Kremer

Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

Google’s 5 Most Memorable Space Doodles

Google’s one of those tech companies that makes a big deal about space exploration.

There’s not only the Google Lunar X-Prize, or its maps of the Moon and Mars, or memorable April Fool’s pranks such as the lunar Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering (G.C.H.E.E.S.E.)

The Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant often puts space front and center in its periodic “Google Doodles”, which are variations of its logo shown on the site. Google’s been pencilling those since 1998. Over the years the sketches have become more elaborate – and sometimes animated!

After reviewing the space doodles featured on Google’s Doodle site, here are five of the most memorable of them:

May 1-5, 2000 – Google Aliens series

 

This appears to be the first set of space-themed Google Doodles. The drawings are simple – for the most part, they show a UFO flying past or landing on the Google logo. Still, running them in a series over several days was smart, as it encouraged Internet users to visit the young search engine several days in a row to see what was happening next. More eyes on the page is always good for advertising.

Jan. 15, 2004 – Spirit lands on Mars

Mars landings are always big media events, and NASA was in the midst of a bonanza of attention in 2004 as both Spirit and Opportunity successfully touched down on the Red Planet. Thousands of Google users would have been searching out the rovers’ latest exploits. Commemorating Spirit’s landing in a doodle, just as that excitement was at a fever pitch, was a great way for Google to highlight the ability for users to seek out information about the rovers on its own site.

Aug. 9, 2010 – Anniversary of Belka and Stelka spaceflight

The best Google Doodles are those that show you what you don’t know before. In this case, few outside the space community are likely aware of who Belka and Stelka were, and where their spaceflight fits in history. (They were among a series of animal flights flown in the 1960s to determine the risks of space travel to humans.) From Google’s perspective, running a doodle one needs to learn more about encourages users to click on it, generating more page views.

June 15, 2011 – Total lunar eclipse, featuring Slooh

This is a brilliant example of cross-promotion. Astronomy geeks are well-aware of Slooh, a site that turns telescopes to celestial events such as the recent Venus transit of the sun. Google brought the site to the masses through promoting Slooh’s June 15, 2011 lunar eclipse feed right on the home page; the colour of the moon in the logo changed as the eclipse progressed. Google also showed the eclipse on its YouTube channel and on Google Earth, and promoted the Slooh Android app (also hosted by Google.) Slooh mentioned Google’s participation on its own website, too.

Nov. 8, 2011 – Edmond Halley’s birthday

Commemorating Edmond Halley’s birthday is not unique in itself, as Google has singled out other astronomers for the honour – see Ruby Payne-Scott and Johann Gottfried Galle, for example. What makes this sketch memorable is you can barely see the “Google” logo in the doodle. This is a company that is so confident in its brand that it is willing to let its readers fill in the blanks by imagination. (Astute readers will notice Scott’s doodle follows the same principle, but Halley’s doodle did run first.)

What other doodles should Universe Today readers check out? Share your thoughts in the comments.

All images are from Google’s Doodle website.

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 Ken Kremer

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

Video Caption: Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, actor William Shatner, guides viewers through the video titled, “Grand Entrance,” showing NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab mission from atmospheroic entry through descent, and after landing on the Red Planet on August 6 2012.

As NASA engineers and scientists make final preparations for the Red Planet landing of NASA’s most difficult planetary science mission to date – the Curiosity Mars Science Lab – inside Gale Crater on the night of August 5/6, Star Trek actors William Shatner and Wil Wheaton lend their voices to a pair of new mission videos titled “Grand Entrance”

The video duet describes the thrilling story of how Curiosity will touch down on Mars and guides viewers through the nail biting “7 Minutes of Terror” – from entry into the Martian atmosphere at over 13,000 MPH and then how the rover must slow down through descent, set down for a soft and safe landing and ultimately how Curiosity will search for signs of life. Continue reading “Curiosity’s Grand Entrance with Star Trek’s William Shatner and Wil Wheaton – Video Duet”

Posted on by Ken Kremer

Curiosity Completes Crucial Course Correction – 1 Week from Mars !

Image Caption: Course correcting thruster firings on July 29 successfully placed Curiosity on target to touchdown beside Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater on Mars on Aug 6 in search of signs of a habitable environment. Credit: NASA

Now just 1 week out from landing beside a 3 mile high (5 km) layered Martian mountain in search of life’s ingredients, aiming thrusters aboard the cruise stage of NASA’s car sized Curiosity Mars Science Lab successfully fired to set the rover precisely on course for a touchdown on Mars at about 1:31 a.m. EDT (531 GMT) early on Aug. 6 (10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5).

Two precise and brief thruster bursts lasting about 7 seconds were successfully carried out just hours ago earlier today at 1 a.m. on July 29, EDT (10 p.m. PDT on July 28). The effect was to change the spacecraft’s velocity by about 1/40 MPH or 1 cm/sec as it smashes into Mars at about 13,200 mph (5,900 meters per second).

This was the fourth and possibly last of 6 interplanetary Trajectory Correction Manuevers (TCM’s) planned by mission engineers to steer Curiosity since departing Earth for the Red Planet.

If necessary, 2 additional TCM’s could be implemented in the final 48 hours next Saturday and Sunday before Curiosity begins plunging into the Martian atmosphere late Sunday night on a do or die mission to land inside the 100 mile wide Gale Crater with a huge mountain in the middle. All 6 TCM maneuvers were preplanned long before the Nov 26, 2011 liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Without this course correction firing, MSL would have hit a point at the top of the Martian atmosphere about 13 miles (21 kilometers) east of the target entry point. During the preprogrammed Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) sequence the vehicle can steer itself in the upper atmosphere to correct for an error amounting to a few miles.

On landing day, MSL can steer enough during its flight through the upper atmosphere to correct for missing the target entry aim point by a few miles and still land on the intended patch of Mars real estate. The mission’s engineers and managers rated the projected 13-mile miss big enough to warrant a correction maneuver.

“The purpose of this maneuver is to move the point at which Curiosity enters the atmosphere by about 13 miles,” said Tomas Martin-Mur of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., chief of the mission’s navigation team. “The first look at telemetry and tracking data afterwards indicates the maneuver succeeded as planned.”


Image Cation: 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

As of today (July 30), Curiosity has traveled about 97% of the overall journey to Mars or about 343 million miles (555 million kilometers) of its 352-million-mile (567-million-kilometer) total flight distance.

“I will not be surprised if this was our last trajectory correction maneuver,” Martin Mur said of the TCM-4 firing. “We will be monitoring the trajectory using the antennas of the Deep Space Network to be sure Curiosity is staying on the right path for a successful entry, descent and landing.”

Curiosity will use an unprecedented rocket powered descent stage and a helicopter like sky crane to set down astride the sedimentary layers of Mount Sharp.

She will then conduct a minimum 2 year prime mission with the most sophisticated science instrument package ever dispatched to Mars to determine if a habitable zone ever existed on this region of Mars.

Curiosity will search for the ingredients of life in the form of organic molecules – the carbon based molecules which are the building blocks of life as we know it. The one-ton behemoth is packed to the gills with 10 state of the art science instruments including a 7 foot long robotic arm, scoop, drill and laser rock zapper.

As Curiosity dives down to Mars surface on Aug. 6, 3 spacecraft from NASA and ESA are now positioned in orbit around the Red Planet and are ready to relay and record signals from the “7 Minutes of Terror” – Read the details in my article – here

Watch NASA TV online for live coverage of the Curiosity landing on Aug 5/6:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov or www.nasa.gov

Ken Kremer

Posted on by Ken Kremer

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

Image Caption: NASA’s Mars Odyssey will relay near real time signals of this artist’s concept depicting the moment that NASA’s Curiosity rover touches down onto the Martian surface. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and ESA’s Mars Express (MEX) orbiter will also record signals from Curiosity for later playback, not in real time. Credit: NASA

It’s now just T minus 9 Days to the most difficult and complex Planetary science mission NASA has ever attempted ! The potential payoff is huge – Curiosity will search for signs of Martian life

The key NASA orbiter at Mars required to transmit radio signals of a near real-time confirmation of the August 5/6 Sunday night landing of NASA’s car sized Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) rover is now successfully in place, and just in the nick of time, following a successful thruster firing on July 24.

Odyssey will transmit the key signals from Curiosity as she plunges into the Martian atmosphere at over 13,000 MPH (21,000 KPH) to begin the harrowing “7 Minutes of Terror” known as “Entry, Descent and Landing” or EDL – all of which is preprogrammed !

Engines aboard NASA’s long lived Mars Odyssey spacecraft fired for about 6 seconds to adjust the orbiters location about 6 minutes ahead in its orbit. This will allow Odyssey to provide a prompt confirmation of Curiosity’s landing inside Gale crater at about 1:31 a.m. EDT (531 GMT) early on Aug. 6 (10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5) – as NASA had originally planned.

Without the orbital nudge, Odyssey would have arrived over the landing site about 2 minutes after Curiosity landed and the signals from Curiosity would have been delayed.

A monkey wrench was recently thrown into NASA relay signal plans when Odyssey unexpectedly went into safe mode on July 11 and engineers weren’t certain how long recovery operations would take.

“Information we are receiving indicates the maneuver has completed as planned,” said Mars Odyssey Project Manager Gaylon McSmith of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “Odyssey has been working at Mars longer than any other spacecraft, so it is appropriate that it has a special role in supporting the newest arrival.”

Odyssey has been in orbit at Mars since 2001 conducting orbital science investigations.

Read my review article on Odyssey’s science discoveries – here

Odyssey serves as the primary communications relay for NASA’s other recent surface explorers – Opportunity, Spirit and Phoenix. Opportunity recently passed 3000 Sols of continuous operations.

Two other Mars orbiters, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express, also will be in position to receive radio transmissions from the Mars Science Laboratory during its descent. However, they will be recording information for later playback, not relaying it immediately, as only Odyssey can.

“We began optimising our orbit several months ago, so that Mars Express will have an orbit that is properly “phased” and provides good visibility of MSL’s planned trajectory,” says Michel Denis, Mars Express Spacecraft Operations Manager.

Mars Express has been orbiting the planet since December 2003.


Image Caption: Mars Express supports Curiosity MSL. Credit: ESA

“NASA supported the arrival of Mars Express at Mars in 2003, and, in the past few years, we have relayed data from the rovers Spirit and Opportunity,” says ESA’s Manfred Warhaut, Head of Mission Operations.

“Mars Express also tracked the descent of NASA’s Phoenix lander in 2008 and we routinely share our deep space networks.

“Technical and scientific cooperation at Mars between ESA and NASA is a long-standing and mutually beneficial activity that helps us both to reduce risk and increase the return of scientific results.”

Watch NASA TV online for live coverage of Curiosity landing: mars.jpl.nasa.gov or www.nasa.gov

Ken Kremer

Posted on by Jason Major

Bolt from the Blue: Giant Flash of Lightning Seen in Saturn’s Storm

An enormous storm that wrapped its way around Saturn’s northern hemisphere during the first half of 2011 wasn’t just a churning belt of high-speed winds; it also generated some monster flashes of lightning as well — one of which was captured on camera by the Cassini spacecraft!

Check it out…


The image above was created from Cassini raw images acquired in red, green, and blue color channels and assembled to create a somewhat “true-color” image of Saturn. The image shows the storm as it looked on February 25, 2011, a couple of months after it was first noticed by amateur astronomers on the ground. (The circle at upper left illustrates the comparative size of Earth.)

Read: Studying Saturn’s Super Storm

These images were acquired by Cassini almost two weeks later, on March 6, the first showing a bright blue flash of lightning within the storm, along the eastern edge of a large eddy. The second image, taken 30 minutes later, does not have any visible flash.

Because the flash was only visible in blue light (and there was no red channel data) the images are false color. Near-infrared replaced the visible red channel.

Based on the image resolution (12 miles/20 km per pixel) the size of the lightning flash is estimated to be about 120 miles (200 km) wide — as large as the strongest lightning seen on Earth. And like on Earth, Saturn’s lightning is thought to originate deeper in the atmosphere, at the level where water droplets freeze.

Although the 2011 northern storm was a great feature to observe, this wasn’t the first time lightning had been spotted on Saturn. Cassini had observed flashes on the ringed planet in August of 2009 as well, allowing scientists to create the first movie of lightning flashing on another planet.

Since its arrival at Saturn in 2004, Cassini has detected 10 lightning storms on Saturn — although with up to 10 flashes per second and eventually covering an area of 2 billion square miles (4 billion sq. km) the 2011 storm was by far the largest ever seen.

Image credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute. Top composite by J. Major. Video: JPL

Posted on by Jason Major

Why Doesn’t Earth Have More Water?

Water, water everywhere… Coleridge’s shipbound ancient mariners were plagued by a lack of water while surrounded by a sea of the stuff, and while 70% of Earth’s surface is indeed covered by water (of which 96% is salt water, hence not a drop to drink) there’s really not all that much — not when compared to the entire mass of the planet. Less than 1% of Earth is water, which seems odd to scientists because, based on conventional models of how the Solar System formed, there should have been a lot more water available in Earth’s neck of the woods when it was coming together. So the question has been floating around: why is Earth so dry?

According to a new study from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, the answer may lie in the snow.

The snow line, to be exact. The region within a planetary system beyond which temperatures are cold enough for water ice to exist, the snow line in our solar system is currently located in the middle of the main asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Based on conventional models of how the Solar System developed, this boundary used to be closer in to the Sun, 4.5 billion years ago. But if that were indeed the case, then Earth should have accumulated much more ice (and therefore water) as it was forming, becoming a true “water world” with a water mass up to 40 percent… instead of a mere one.

As we can see today, that wasn’t the case.

“Planets such as Uranus and Neptune that formed beyond the snow line are composed of tens of percents of water. But Earth doesn’t have much water, and that has always been a puzzle.”

– Rebecca Martin, Space Telescope Science Institute 

A study led astrophysicists Rebecca Martin and Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute took another look at how the snow line in our solar system must have evolved, and found that, in their models, Earth was never inside the line. Instead it stayed within a warmer, drier region inside of the snow line, and away from the ice.

“Unlike the standard accretion-disk model, the snow line in our analysis never migrates inside Earth’s orbit,” Livio said. “Instead, it remains farther from the Sun than the orbit of Earth, which explains why our Earth is a dry planet. In fact, our model predicts that the other innermost planets, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, are also relatively dry. ”

Read: Rethinking the Source of Earth’s Water

The standard model states that in the early days of a protoplanetary disk’s formation ionized material within it gradually falls toward the star, drawing the icy, turbulent snow line region inward. But this model depends upon the energy of an extremely hot star fully ionizing the disk — energy that a young star, like our Sun was, just didn’t have.

“We said, wait a second, disks around young stars are not fully ionized,” Livio said. “They’re not standard disks because there just isn’t enough heat and radiation to ionize the disk.”


“Astrophysicists have known for quite a while that disks around young stellar objects are NOT standard accretion disks (namely, ones that are ionized and turbulent throughout),” added Dr. Livio in an email to Universe Today. “Disk models with dead zones have been constructed by many people  for many years. For some reason, however, calculations of the evolution of the snow line largely continued to use the standard disk models.”

Without fully ionized disk, the material is not drawn inward. Instead it orbits the star, condensing gas and dust into a “dead zone”  that blocks outlying material from coming any closer. Gravity compresses the dead zone material, which heats up and dries out any ices that exist immediately outside of it. Based on the team’s research it was in this dry region that Earth formed.

The rest, as they say, is water under the bridge.

The team’s results have been accepted for publication in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Read the release on the Hubble news site here, and see the full paper here.

Lead image: Earth as seen by MESSENGER spacecraft before it left for Mercury in 2004. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington. Disk model image: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI). Earth water volume image:  Howard Perlman, USGS; globe illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (©); Adam Nieman.