'Curiosity' - NASA Mars Rover - Due to land 5th Aug 2012

[mrmr96]

FunkyNige said:

Didn't realise they were doing these, but there's a weekly video roundup of what it's been up to this week
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj86ZqkxNpQ&lis...

Introduced by the mohawk guy this week, seems a simple way of keeping up to speed with what's going on. NASA do seem to be pushing the social media hard to let everyone know exactly what they're up to on this trip.

Excellent! Cheers for that. I've added the JPL News channel to my Youtube Subscriptions. Nice one

ETA here's a link directly to the page with *just* the Curiosity updates#:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE8C83FF0367...

Edited by mrmr96 on Friday 31st August 23:33

[mrmr96]

I'm sorry I posted about Will I Am now. This is a science thread, in the science section. Can we leave personal opinions on musicians out now please?

Here's the latest news from Mars:

"Rover Completes Longest Drive Yet
Wed, 05 Sep 2012 05:00:51 PM GMT

Curiosity completed a drive of 100 feet (30.5 meters) during the mission's Sol 29, on Sept. 4, 2012, traveling southeastward with a dogleg move partway through the drive to skirt some sand. This was the mission's longest drive so far and brought total driving distance to 358 feet (109 meters).

A Navigation Camera image with a wheel track from the Sol 29 drive is in the mission's collection of raw images, at http://1.usa.gov/OWxGIT .

Curiosity continues to work in good health. Sol 29, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 2:37 a.m. Sept. 5, PDT."

Who knew it had been so far already?

This is not the latest image, but it's one which illustrates the latest leg of the journey:

[mrmr96]

Eric Mc said:

It's going the wrong way! I want it to head towards those mountains.

The latest Sky at Night programme is mainly about Curiosity. It's still on iPlayer for the moment.

Apparently it's going to Glenelg first:
http://curiositywatch.com/curiosity-starts-her-fir...

To do some drilling, and then off to Mt Sharp:
http://curiositywatch.com/curiositys-next-steps-3d...

[mrmr96]

Latest JPL Update on Curiosity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRod4vTyzkg

ETA Love this stuff. It's great that Nasa has such a good website/communication strategy, so that we (geeks) can get updates without relying on the TV or newspapers.

Edited by mrmr96 on Friday 7th September 08:15

[mrmr96]

Another "personal" story of a small fabrication workshop in Illinois which was contracted to get involved:
http://www.wimp.com/gearfactory/

[mrmr96]

Latest JPL Rover Report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQiB2Nkj6ng

[mrmr96]

Also, by way of contrast, this shows how "Spirit" got onto Mars:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/XRCIzZHpFtY?rel=0

[mrmr96]

Blackpuddin said:

Erm… according to this
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-09/11/cur...
there's been a bit of a boo-boo. It looks like we've polluted Mars. Hmm.

Holy st! That sounds important!

"Worried scientists at Nasa now estimate that there may be as many as 250,000 bacterial spores that could have survived both the journey to Mars and the landing."

[mrmr96]

FunkyNige said:

InsigniaSRI said:

A quick two-part question for the clever people although it may well be a stupid one! but when the rover made its descent to land it used a parachute? would this be off the shelf or to order? and how would they know how big/wide it would need to be to give it a soft landing?

thankyou

It used a special one-off, never made before parachute that had to open at supersonic speeds and slow it right down, as landing on Mars is such a unique challenge (travelling pretty fast when you get there, not much atmosphere to slow you down) there wouldn't be an off the shelf parachute available (or any need for one other than landing on Mars).

Here's part 1 of a video (5 mins) all about how they tested it -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7vf2HUMMdo

Knowing how big it would need to be is relatively straightforward (for rocket scientists) as you know how quickly you're travelling to start with, you know how much air there is to fill the parachute (not a lot on Mars) and you know how quickly you want to travel at the end.

It used much more than a parachute to land though, in fact it's one of the most audacious feats of engineering that's happened in my lifetime I would think.
It's known as the 7 minutes of terror, here's another video (5 mins) explaining it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV6w_ju9kMo

Edited by FunkyNige on Wednesday 19th September 19:37

Great answer.

[mrmr96]

Does anyone know anything about the latest on the possible bacterial contamination issue?

[mrmr96]

BBC News Story today:
"Curiosity Mars rover picks up the pace"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-1965...

[mrmr96]

Curiosity makes first contact! with a rock... still cool though!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2TebJUvMgU

[mrmr96]

Simpo Two said:

An astronaut could have done all that in 15 minutes (walked 950 feet and picked up a rock), and made instant on-the-spot decisions as well. That is why astronauts are better than robots. You just need to get them there...

Yeah, not really. Once the astronaught has walked up to the rock, what does he do then? He still needs to take the photos and samples and pop them, uncontaminated, into some kind of mobile lab. The robot is better suited to this IMO. Look at how DNA is tested on earth. We could use scientists but we use robots for moving and testing samples because they are better.

[mrmr96]

Eric Mc said:

Oh no - an errant "c".

It was that lager shandy I had last night.

People in glass houses...

Eric Mc said:

I'm never sure when people spell "astronaut" as "astronaught" whether they have made a genuine spelling mistake or are trying to be ironic.

[mrmr96]

It would be an amazing fluke if this bit of "stuff" on the floor hadn't just fallen off the robot! Even if it were part of another failed mission from earth, surely the changes of Curiosity happening to park on top of it would be fairly remote?!

I imagine that the scientists are trying to work out which bit has fallen off, as that's vastly the most likely answer.

[mrmr96]

Oily Nails said:

Curiosity rolled through a Martian cowpat?

I assume that's the sample which has been dumped?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLmHedIEbus&fea...

[mrmr96]

Caruso said:

Organics in the soil is my prediction.

Lets hope it's real and not contamination from earth: http://www.curiositywatch.com/curiosity-may-contam...

[mrmr96]

Caruso said:

Simpo Two said:

But most Christians are hypocrites, therefore logic does not apply. And religion is remarkably free of logic anyway.

I would dispute that, religion is full of it's own self referential logic, albeit based often on a single unsound premise.

Chaps, this isn't the thread for that. Cheers.

[mrmr96]

Oakey said:

Apparently they've found something but aren't saying yet until the tests confirm whatever 'it' is.

http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165513016/big-news-f...

Any update on when they may release more? Any timescales being bandied about?

[mrmr96]

RealSquirrels said:

it's a bit of a joke though, they';ve approved the mission but don't yet have any science in mind.

backwards way to do it - identify the scientific need first, and then decide on what mission to have.

I think this is a naiive comment.

If you had an unlimited budget then of course you'd choose your science and then just make it happen.
In the real world you'll get a budget, which will determine the payload capacity which in turn places limitations on what experiments you can take up there.

So now the mission is approved they can work on prioritising what experiments to send up there, and how to make best use of their budget.