Countdown to curiosity.

[Kylara]

You can follow the Curiosity Rover on twitter

@MarsCuriosity

Please tell me it posts in binary, that would just make my day

 

[Dave]

I missed the fact that it had landed because of all the Olympic hype. I was waiting for it to land on, and to flatten a Martian cat.

Could someone give me a quick run-through of the mission objectives? Are they searching for liquid water this time? Have they got a more reliable test for "life"? Is it going to dig? How long is it going to be working and where is it going to travel?

PS. I could Google and find all that out myself, but I'm lazy and it would be of interest to everyone if someone already knows.

 

[RJM Corbet]

One thing I know it has it's own plutonium power source, so it's not going to be dependant on the solar panels that got dusted up on previous rovers ...

EDIT: Sorry Moonbat, I see you've mentioned the fact already

 

[Kylara]

I know I posted this earlier in the thread but this was too good an opportunity to miss...how long you ask? No solar panels? hehehe http://xkcd.com/695/ (there's a mouseover too :wink: )

And here is the Curiosity one http://xkcd.com/1091/

 

[Abernovo]

I missed the fact that it had landed because of all the Olympic hype. I was waiting for it to land on, and to flatten a Martian cat.

Could someone give me a quick run-through of the mission objectives? Are they searching for liquid water this time? Have they got a more reliable test for "life"? Is it going to dig? How long is it going to be working and where is it going to travel?

PS. I could Google and find all that out myself, but I'm lazy and it would be of interest to everyone if someone already knows.

Hi, Dave. Shamelessly nicked off their wiki page, but the goals of the Curiosity Rover are to:

Determine the mineralogical composition of the Martian surface and near-surface geological materials.

Attempt to detect chemical building blocks of life (biosignatures).

Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils.

Assess long-timescale Martian atmospheric evolution processes.

Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide.

Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic radiation, cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons.

The fifth goal does indeed involve looking for water, although more in regards to examining its function in the Martian environment, I suspect.

Kylara, I like the cartoon. Still, xkcd is usually good for a chuckle.

 

[Gary Compton]

PS. I could Google and find all that out myself, but I'm lazy and it would be of interest to everyone if someone already knows.

Sends memo to Brian, "Change other admin name to Lazy Dave."

 

[Ursa major]

Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils.

Assess long-timescale Martian atmospheric evolution processes.

There was a guy (from UCL?) on the TV explaining that the site was chosen because the scientists believe the accessible strata of a mountain in the crater where Curiosity has landed will allow the various strata from 3bn years ago up to more recent times to be examined.

 

[Vertigo]

There was a guy (from UCL?) on the TV explaining that the site was chosen because the scientists believe the accessible strata of a mountain in the crater where Curiosity has landed will allow the various strata from 3bn years ago up to more recent times to be examined.

Yes, as I understand it, that's exactly why they are in that crater. It is thought that if there had been significant amounts of water this area would have been underwater. So they will be examining the rock in the various strata and looking for,I think, carbonates which, I think, could only be there if there had been life in the past. So instead of looking for life there now, they are looking for chemical traces of life in the past; chemical compounds that could only occur as a side effect of life.

But as Aber's post states that is just one of the objectives, though of course it is the main one the media talk about.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Carbonates is right.

 

[Miggy]

Dinosaurs on Mars trust me

 

[Vertigo]

Carbonates is right.

Phew, I was worried I might have had that one wrong

I can't wait to see the high res pictures when they get the main camera going later in the week. The higher perspective should make the pictures much better and more natural to the eye. As opposed to the very low perspective of the earlier and much smaller rovers.

 

[mosaix]

I would like to offer my congratulations to the scientists and technicians at NASA and elsewhere who got that thing down in one piece. This is just phenomenal space science on their part - and bang on target too.

From across the pond America seems like an odd place at times but American society is capable of some awe inspiring achievements when it puts its mind to it.

This thing is powered for up to 14 years, lets hope the politicians provide the funding to keep it going for as long as possible.

 

[Ursa major]

Dinosaurs on Mars trust me

Does anyone/anything else trust you?

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Oh, hello. You humans are at it again are you.

Chucking your space junk onto our planet. Well at least this one was a bit quieter than the last one and didn't go bouncing all over the shop before it accidentally smashed into that baseball bat. (That was great fun: we had a fine time kicking around afterwards).

Well it was until the dirty great rocketty thing eventually gave up the ghost and plummeted down.

We'll probably leave this one alone as it's away from the populace and to interfere with it would be more trouble than its worth. Still, if it starts all that drilling and scraping like the other little wheely thing did we may have to go and sort it out.

Don't worry though, we'll chuck it back if it gets too annoying.

 

[Metryq]

 

[Vertigo]

A truly alien landscape! The star shaped feature on the ground just above the rover on the right of the picture (partly of the image) is the blast area from the thrusters of the sky crane.

They are starting to get some of the first images from Curiosity. Still a lot to do before they get going. Including installing a completely new set of programs over the weekend. They will be ditching all the landing software and installing the driving/exploring software. What they are rather cutely calling the 'brain transplant'!

However there are some interesting images already, as well as the one above. Including one image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the heat shield, parachute, sky crane and Curiosity herself. Or at least the impact zones. The dark area is where the lighter surface material has been distubed exposing the darker underlying material.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/images/Milkovich-1ANNOTATED-pia16001-br2.jpg

For those interested this is the Curiositey home page: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/
This is the press release images page: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?s=1

From the home page there is even a video of the release of the heatshield taken by Curiosity herself!

This is a short two minute summary video of where things are at now: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/videos/index.cfm?v=68

What can I say? So cool!

 

[Metryq]

What—no interactive page where Web users can control Curiosity themselves? (Can you imagine the havoc?)

 

[Vertigo]

Yay, I bags drive over the sand dunes!

I really am very excited about this mission. The previous ones have been great but frankly most of the data coming back has been scientific. Fantastic stuff for scientists and masses discovered. But not quite so exciting for the layman. This beasty can send us videos of it's travels. There is going to be so much more that can easily be appreciated by the layman on this one.

 

[alchemist]

 

[Vertigo]

Are you following it on the MSL site Alc? Some of the high res pictures they've been getting back are awsome. They should have finished the brain transplant by now, I think, so things should start getting interesting!