APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)

[APOD Robot]

Curiosity on the Move

Explanation: Curiosity is on the move across Mars -- but where is it going? The car-sized rover's path after 29 Martian days on the surface is shown on the above map. Curiosity is still almost 300 meters from its first major destination, though, a meeting of different types of terrain called Glenelg and visible on the image right. It may take Curiosity two months or so to get to Glenelg as it stops to inspect interesting rocks or landscape features along the way. The above image was taken about one week ago from high up by the HiRISE camera onboard the robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

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[Ann]

Curiosity is going slowly but steadily! Nice APOD.

Can't resist this:

APOD Robot wrote:
Tomorrow's picture: hive stars

Could it be this? Or this?

Ann

[emc]

Ann, You are the bee's knees!

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bee's_knees
Noun
the bee's knees
1. (idiomatic, dated) Something [someone] excellent, outstanding.
We had strawberry shortcake for breakfast on Saturday and the kids thought it was the bee’s knees.

Maybe our leaders are branching out tomorrow… they’ve been known to do that…

[emc]

Curiosity is a cool name for this Martian endeavor.
Actually, it pretty well outlines every extraterrestrial mission.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/marsrover.cfm#2
Rovers get names just like pets - and their names often say a lot about them. The Mars Science Laboratory rover got its name, "Curiosity," from student Clara Ma (as seen in this photo with the rover)

who as a sixth grader entered an essay contest to name the next Mars rover. Ma's essay beat out 9,000 others and she not only got to name the rover, but she also got a special tour of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and signed Curiosity before it was sent to Mars.

[Chris Peterson]

Can't resist this:

APOD Robot wrote:
Tomorrow's picture: hive stars

Could it be this? Or this?

Neither, I think. I predict something closely associated with a recent informal poll.

[Ann]

You're probably right, Chris. Even so, thanks a billion for your kind words, Ed!

And thank yo so much for your delightful post about Clara Ma!

Ann

[ThomasSanDiego]

Strange name, Glenelg. It is the same backwards. There must be a story behind this. A Ray Bradbury story?

[GKoh]

I wonder, is there an image of this shot without little bubbles covering up the actual rover??

At the resolution noted, the 'car sized' Curiosity could easily be seen as more than a mere pinpoint dot for the curious eye to see! It might even be possible that the tracks could be seen as faint tiny lines? How cool would that be!

[ta152h0]

Would it be of some scientific value to go visit the crash site of the rovers rocket propelled descent vehicle ? probably churned up a pretty good crater and deeper than anything Curiosity could dig up .......or not

[bystander]

I wonder, is there an image of this shot without little bubbles covering up the actual rover??

At the resolution noted, the 'car sized' Curiosity could easily be seen as more than a mere pinpoint dot for the curious eye to see! It might even be possible that the tracks could be seen as faint tiny lines? How cool would that be!

[url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA16141][b][i]A Rover's Journey Begins[/i][/b][/url] [i](Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)[/i]

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http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?p=183134#p183134

[pstamler]

I'm told Gleneig is the source of an excellent single-malt.

[flash]

Strange name, Glenelg. It is the same backwards. There must be a story behind this. A Ray Bradbury story?

From http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/m ... 6065b.html:

The science team thought the name Glenelg was appropriate because, if Curiosity traveled there, it would visit the area twice -- both coming and going -- and the word Glenelg is a palindrome. After Glenelg, the rover will aim to drive to the base of Mount Sharp.

[ta152h0]

and when it comes back, it will be Prahs Tnuom, which coincidently swounds greek to me. Pass me an ice cold one, please.
W

[Boomer12k]

I just can't wait for pictures of Deja Thoris....

Keep on Truckin', Curiosity!!!

:---[===] *

[APODFORIST]

Would it be of some scientific value to go visit the crash site of the rovers rocket propelled descent vehicle ? probably churned up a pretty good crater and deeper than anything Curiosity could dig up .......or not

Apropos descent stage: Did the descent stage still had fuel inside after the crash or did it try to climb sidewards as high as possible until the fuel was empty?

[bystander]

Would it be of some scientific value to go visit the crash site of the rovers rocket propelled descent vehicle ? probably churned up a pretty good crater and deeper than anything Curiosity could dig up .......or not

Apropos descent stage: Did the descent stage still had fuel inside after the crash or did it try to climb sidewards as high as possible until the fuel was empty?

The descent stage boosted away from Curiosity until it ran out of fuel and then crashed.

http://www.uahirise.org/ESP_028269_1755
http://www.uahirise.org/releases/msl-tracks.php
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16143

[BMAONE23]

It certainly didn't get very far. Like the Eagle all those years ago, it must have had only seconds of fuel remaining

[neufer]

It certainly didn't get very far.
Like the Eagle all those years ago, it must have had only seconds of fuel remaining

There was 140.6kg of hydrazine fuel left so it probably could have hovered for about a minute if necessary.

[ta152h0]

didn't go very far in that minute without that one ton ballastand I would guess it tilted right away and flew into the ground, horizontally. Interesting subject for a Dynamics 201 class.