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NASA Oct. 30 Telecon About Mars Curiosity Progress
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 11:30 a.m.
PDT (2:30 p.m. EDT) on Tuesday, Oct. 30, to provide an update about the
Curiosity rover's mission to Mars' Gale Crater.
The Mars Science Laboratory Project and its Curiosity rover are almost
three months into a two-year prime mission to investigate whether
conditions may have been favorable for microbial life.
Audio and visuals of the event will be streamed live online at:
Visuals will be available at the start of the event at:
For information about NASA's Curiosity mission,
visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mars and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .
Curiosity - Robot Geologist and Chemist in One!
This artist's concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life.Curiosity landed near the Martian equator about 10:31 p.m., Aug. 5 PDT (1:31 a.m. Aug. 6 EDT).
In this picture, the rover examines a rock on Mars with a set of tools at the end of the rover's arm, which extends about 7 feet (2 meters). Two instruments on the arm can study rocks up close. A drill can collect sample material from inside of rocks and a scoop can pick up samples of soil. The arm can sieve the samples and deliver fine powder to instruments inside the rover for thorough analysis.
The mast, or rover's "head," rises to about 6.9 feet (2.1 meters) above ground level, about as tall as a basketball player. This mast supports two remote-sensing science instruments: the Mast Camera, or "eyes," for stereo color viewing of surrounding terrain and material collected by the arm; and, the Chemistry and Camera instrument, which uses a laser to vaporize a speck of material on rocks up to about 23 feet (7 meters) 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.
For more information about Curiosity is at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Rover Collects Fourth Scoop of Martian Soil
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shook a scoopful of dusty sand inside its
sample-handling mechanism on Sol 75 (Oct. 21, 2012) as the third
scrubbing of interior surfaces of the mechanism. The rover team is
instructing the rover to deliver a sieved sample from this scoopful --
the mission's fourth -- onto Curiosity's observation tray on Oct. 22 and
plans to analyze another sample from the same scoopful with the
Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument this week.
Curiosity collected this fourth scoop of soil on Sol 74 (Oct. 20). A
later scoop will become the first delivered to the Sample Analysis at
Mars (SAM) instrument. While continuing with scooping activities at the
"Rocknest" site, the rover also has been examining surroundings with the
Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and Mast Camera (Mastcam) instruments,
and monitoring environmental conditions with the Radiation Assessment
Detector (RAD), Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and
Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instruments of its science payload.
Sol 75, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 8:58 a.m. Oct. 22, PDT (11:58 a.m., EDT).
Laser Hit on Martian Sand Target, Before and After
The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used its laser and spectrometers to examine what chemical elements are in a drift of Martian sand during the mission's 74th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 20, 2012).This pair of images from ChemCam's remote micro-imager shows the target, called "Crestaurum," before and after it was zapped 30 times by the instrument's laser. The dark pit created by the repeated laser hits is about one-eighth of an inch (3 millimeters) across. Crestaurum is within the "Rocknest" patch of windblown dust and sand. It was selected as a target surfaced with fine-grain sand. The distance to the target from the ChemCam instrument at the top of Curiosity's mast was 8 feet and 10 inches (2.7 meters).
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/LPGN/CNRS
Bright Particle in Hole Dug by Scooping of Martian Soil
This image shows part of the small pit or bite created when NASA's Mars rover Curiosity collected its second scoop of Martian soil at a sandy patch called "Rocknest." The bright particle near the center of this image, and similar ones elsewhere in the pit, prompted concern because a small, light-toned shred of debris from the spacecraft had been observed previously nearby (PIA16230). However, the mission's science team assessed the bright particles in this scooped pit to be native Martian material rather than spacecraft debris.This image was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on Curiosity's arm during the 69th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Oct. 15, 2012), about a week after the scoop dug this hole. The view here covers an area of ground about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) across.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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› Full SizeFirst Sample Placed on Curiosity's Observation Tray
The robotic arm on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity delivered a sample of Martian soil to the rover's observation tray for the first time during the mission's 70th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 16, 2012). This image taken later that same sol by the rover's left Mast Camera shows how wind or vibration or both affected the sample after delivery, moving much of it off the tray to the left in this view.The sample came from the third scoopful of material collected at the "Rocknest" patch of windblown dust and sand.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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› Full SizeCuriosity's First Three Bites Into Martian Ground
Three bite marks left in the Martian ground by the scoop on the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity are visible in this image taken by the rover's right Navigation Camera during the mission's 69th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 15, 2012). The third scoopful, collected on that sol, left the bite or pit farthest to the right. Each of the three bites is about 2 inches (5 centimeters) wide.Of the two bites to the left, the lower one is where Curiosity collected its first scoopful of Martian material, on Sol 61 (Oct. 7, 2012). The upper one is the site of the second scooping, on Sol 66 (Oct. 12, 2012). The location for all of these scoops, and two more planned, is a ripple of windblown dust and sand at a location called "Rocknest."
The bright circular part of the rover near the bottom center of this image is the observation tray, which is 3 inches (7.8 centimeters) in diameter.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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