Mars Rover Curiosity in Artist's Concept, Close-up
This artist concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life. Curiosity is being tested in preparation for launch in the fall of 2011.In this picture, the mast, or rover's "head," rises to about 2.1 meters (6.9 feet) above ground level, about as tall as a basketball player. This mast supports two remote-sensing instruments: the Mast Camera, or "eyes," for stereo color viewing of surrounding terrain and material collected by the arm; and, the ChemCam instrument, which is a laser that vaporizes material from rocks up to about 9 meters (30 feet) away and determines what elements the rocks are made of.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
More information about Curiosity is at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The left eye of the Mast Camera (Mastcam)
on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the camera on the
rover's arm, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), during the 30th Martian
day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Sept. 5, 2012).
Image
credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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Camera on Curiosity's Arm as Seen by Camera on Mast
The left eye of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the camera on the rover's arm, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), during the 30th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Sept. 5, 2012). MAHLI is one of the tools on a turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm. When this image was taken, the arm had raised the turret to about the same height as the camera on the mast. The Mastcam's left eye has a 34-millimeter focal length lens.The image shows that MAHLI has a thin film or coating of Martian dust on it. This dust accumulated during Curiosity's final descent to the Martian surface, as the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's descent stage (or sky crane) engines were disrupting the surface nearby.
Effects of the dust were seen in the first image taken of Mars by MAHLI, on the day after landing (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15691). The MAHLI lens is protected from dust accumulation by a transparent dust cover. If the dust cover were clean, the images would appear as clear as if the cover were open.
The reddish circle near the center of the Mastcam Sol 30 image is the window of MAHLI's dust cover, with a diameter a little less than a soda can's diameter. Inside the lens, each of the nine glass lens elements and the front sapphire window are bonded or cemented in place by a red-colored silicone RTV (room temperature vulcanizing) material. This is a space-qualified "glue" that holds the lens elements in place. When the MAHLI is viewed from certain angles, this material gives one the impression that the inside of the lens is red.
The mechanism at the right in this image is Curiosity's dust removal tool, a motorized wire brush.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
PASADENA, Calif. -- After driving more than a football field's length
since landing, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is spending several days
preparing for full use of the tools on its arm.
Curiosity extended its robotic arm Wednesday in the first of six to 10
consecutive days of planned activities to test the 7-foot (2.1-meter)
arm and the tools it manipulates.
"We will be putting the arm through a range of motions and placing it at
important 'teach points' that were established during Earth testing,
such as the positions for putting sample material into the inlet ports
for analytical instruments," said Daniel Limonadi of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., lead systems engineer for
Curiosity's surface sampling and science system. "These activities are
important to get a better understanding for how the arm functions after
the long cruise to Mars and in the different temperature and gravity of
Mars, compared to earlier testing on Earth."
Since the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft placed Curiosity inside
Mars' Gale Crater on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT), the rover has driven a
total of 358 feet (109 meters). The drives have brought it about
one-fourth of the way from the landing site, named Bradbury Landing, to a
location selected as the mission's first major science destination,
Glenelg.
"We knew at some point we were going to need to stop and take a week or
so for these characterization activities," said JPL's Michael Watkins,
Curiosity mission manager. "For these checkouts, we need to turn to a
particular angle in relation to the sun and on flat ground. We could see
before the latest drive that this looked like a perfect spot to start
these activities."
The work at the current location will prepare Curiosity and the team for
using the arm to place two of the science instruments onto rock and
soil targets. In addition, the activities represent the first steps in
preparing to scoop soil, drill into rocks, process collected samples and
deliver samples into analytical instruments.
Checkouts in the next several days will include using the turret's Mars
Hand Lens Imager to observe its calibration target and the
Canadian-built Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer to read what chemical
elements are present in the instrument's calibration target.
"We're still learning how to use the rover. It's such a complex machine
-- the learning curve is steep," said JPL's Joy Crisp, deputy project
scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory Project, which built and
operates Curiosity.
After the arm characterization activities at the current site, Curiosity
will proceed for a few weeks eastward toward Glenelg. The science team
selected that area as likely to offer a good target for Curiosity's
first analysis of powder collected by drilling into a rock.
"We're getting through a big set of characterization activities that
will allow us to give more decision-making authority to the science
team," said Richard Cook, Mars Science Laboratory project manager at
JPL.
Curiosity is one month into a two-year prime mission on Mars. It will
use 10 science instruments to assess whether the selected study area
ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.
JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington.
More information about Curiosity is online at:
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NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
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