Explanation: What does the Curiosity rover look like on Mars? To help find out, NASA engineers digitally synthesized multiple navigation camera images taken last week into what appears to be the view of a single camera. Besides clods of Martian dirt, many of Curiosity's science instruments are visible and appear in good shape. Near the middle of the rover is an augmented realitytag intended to enable smartphones to provide background information. Far in the distance is a wall of Gale Crater. As Curiosity will begin to roll soon, its first destination has now been chosen: an intriguing intersection of three types of terrain named Glenelg.
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
This picture shows an alien world - the mountains of the crater rim are fantastic, though they seem a bit over elevated in this mosaic. Black and white makes it more beautiful.
<<A rumble seat, dicky seat, dickie seat or dickey seat, also called mother-in-law seat, is an upholstered exterior seat which hinges or otherwise opens out from the rear deck of a pre-World War II automobile, and seats one or more passengers. An 1899 Century Dictionary describes a rumble as " A seat for servants in the rear of a carriage". Roadster, Coupe and Cabriolet auto body styles were offered with either a luggage compartment or a rumble seat in the deck. Models equipped with a rumble seat were often referred to as a sport coupe or sport roadster. Rumble seat passengers were essentially seated out in the elements, and received little or no protection from the regular passenger compartment top. Folding tops and side curtains for rumble seats were available for some cars (including the Ford Model A) but never achieved much popularity. It is possible that the last American-built cars with a rumble seat were the 1939 Ford and 1939 Dodge and Plymouth.>>
This is the first image taken by the Navigation cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover. It shows the shadow of the rover's now-upright mast in the center, and the arm's shadow at left. The arm itself can be seen in the foreground.
The navigation camera is used to help find the sun -- information that is needed for locating, and communicating, with Earth. After the camera pointed at the sun, it turned in the opposite direction and took this picture. The position of the shadow helps confirm the sun's location.
The "augmented reality" or AR tag seen in the foreground can be used in the future with smart phones to obtain more information about the mission.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
Curiosity rover ramps up for road trip to Glenelg
Posted on August 18, 2012 by astrobob
<<Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to Glenelg we go! Scientists with the Mars mission have chosen Curiosity’s first exploration destination, a little place nicknamed Glenelg (after a village in Scotland) near the base of an alluvial fan of sedimentary rocks, dirt and sand. Alluvial fans are common on Earth as streams flowing from mountains or canyons gradually spread out and deposit rocks and sand in great fans onto the flatter plains below.
Curiosity landed near the base of a similar fan-deposit on Mars; scientists will drive the rover further downhill to where the water might have collected. They’ll be looking for things like salts that are dissolved by water but later precipitate as solids when the water evaporates.
Glenelg. Notice anything peculiar about it? It’s a palindrome, a word or phrase that reads the same way in either direction. Fun examples include “kayak”, “evil olive”, “tangy gnat”, “radar” and “Oh, cameras are macho”. NASA folks selected Glenelg because the rover will be visiting the area twice – both coming and going – before it turns around and heads to the base of Mt. Sharp.
The rover will travel 400 meters to the east-southeast of its landing spot to reach Glenelg; its first drilling target will be a section of layered bedrock (likely sedimentary rock deposited by or in water). Prior to departure, the team in charge of ChemCam will zap a 3-inch rock 10 feet away named N165 with a powerful laser. The resulting spark of vaporized rock will be examined with a spectroscope to determine the minerals that make up the rock. The rover will also exercise its wheels in the coming days before moving out.>>
At the Astronomy picture of the day site they say "Near the middle of the rover is an augmented reality tag intended to enable smartphones to provide background information." Does anyone know what they are trying to say here? As far as I know there are no celluar networks on Mars and no cell phones to access them.
quigley wrote:
Can anyone tell me why Mt. Sharp did not erode over the eons as did the rest of the crater's sedimentary deposits?
My best guess is this:
After the crater was created the lowest spot (where the mineralized water pooled) was just around the central crater peak.
Consequently, the hardest, most mineralized, sandstone developed right around the central crater peak including those last layers lain well above the original crater rim.
When the inundation period finally ended the softer sandstone above the original crater rim dried up and blew away leaving only a hard sandstone mountain covering/encrusting the original central crater peak.
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
Curiosity on Mars: Still Life with Rover
