NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has begun driving from its landing site, which scientists announced today they have named for the late author Ray Bradbury.
Making its first movement on the Martian surface, Curiosity's drive combined forward, turn and reverse segments. This placed the rover roughly 20 feet (6 meters) from the spot where it landed 16 days ago.
NASA has approved the Curiosity science team's choice to name the landing ground for the influential author who was born 92 years ago today and died this year. The location where Curiosity touched down is now called Bradbury Landing.
"This was not a difficult choice for the science team," said Michael Meyer, NASA program scientist for Curiosity. "Many of us and millions of other readers were inspired in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the possibility of life on Mars."
Today's drive confirmed the health of Curiosity's mobility system and produced the rover's first wheel tracks on Mars, documented in images taken after the drive. During a news conference today at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., the mission's lead rover driver, Matt Heverly, showed an animation derived from visualization software used for planning the first drive.
"We have a fully functioning mobility system with lots of amazing exploration ahead," Heverly said.
Curiosity will spend several more days of working beside Bradbury Landing, performing instrument checks and studying the surroundings, before embarking toward its first driving destination approximately 1,300 feet (400 meters) to the east-southeast.
"Curiosity is a much more complex vehicle than earlier Mars rovers. The testing and characterization activities during the initial weeks of the mission lay important groundwork for operating our precious national resource with appropriate care," said Curiosity Project Manager Pete Theisinger of JPL. "Sixteen days in, we are making excellent progress."
The science team has begun pointing instruments on the rover's mast for investigating specific targets of interest near and far. The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument used a laser and spectrometers this week to examine the composition of rocks exposed when the spacecraft's landing engines blew away several inches of overlying material.
The instrument's principal investigator, Roger Weins of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, reported that measurements made on the rocks in this scoured-out feature called Goulburn suggest a basaltic composition. "These may be pieces of basalt within a sedimentary deposit," Weins said.
Curiosity began a two-year prime mission on Mars when the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft delivered the car-size rover to its landing target inside Gale Crater on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The mission will use 10 science instruments on the rover to assess whether the area has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.
In a career spanning more than 70 years, Ray Bradbury inspired generations of readers to dream, think and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and nearly to 50 books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time.
His groundbreaking works include "Fahrenheit 451," "The Martian Chronicles," "The Illustrated Man," "Dandelion Wine," and "Something Wicked This Way Comes." He wrote the screenplay for John Huston's classic film adaptation of "Moby Dick," and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted 65 of his stories for television's "The Ray Bradbury Theater," and won an Emmy for his teleplay of "The Halloween Tree."
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Re: New Footprints on Mars
Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 8:29 pm
by neufer
I was very surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one thunderstruck, or as if I had seen a ghost. I listened, I looked round me, I could hear nothing, nor see anything. I went up to a rising ground to look farther. I went up the shore and down the shore, but I could see no more prints than that one. I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to check if it might not be my imagination. But there it was, the exact print of a foot, toes, heel and every part of a foot. How it came to be there I did not know, nor could in the least imagine. But after many confusing thoughts, I went home, terrified, looking behind me every two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and imagining every stump at a distance to be a man.
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe
Re: New Footprints on Mars
Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 11:02 am
by Moonlady
The MArtians have strange feetprints...
Re: New Footprints on Mars
Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 12:50 pm
by neufer
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Moonlady wrote:
The MArtians have strange feetprints...
We came, we saw, we left tire sandals.
Re: New Footprints on Mars
Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 1:53 pm
by emc
Curiosity has a number of electronic printed circuit boards (PCBs) telecommunicating, interfacing, regulating, controlling, etc. Each of the circuit boards has various component CAD patterns that are called footprints. The footprints are usually on the PCB surface and connect discrete parts to the conductors (traces or sometimes called "wires") on and inside the PCB. There can also be embedded footprints (inside the circuit board) that help reduce the PCB assembly size and weight.
Re: New Footprints on Mars
Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 10:56 pm
by Moonlady
I like the tire sandals! Very usefull recycling!
Thanks Ed, learned that Curiosity leaves computerfootprints too!
I want bottle sandals, I have only one bottle yet, usually plastic bottles have deposits and they are returned to markets.
I am searching for a thrown away plastic bottle and as long as it's sandal climate, I want to wear them
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has set off from its landing vicinity on a trek to a science destination about a quarter mile (400 meters) away, where it may begin using its drill.
The rover drove eastward about 52 feet (16 meters) on Tuesday, its 22nd Martian day after landing. This third drive was longer than Curiosity's first two drives combined. The previous drives tested the mobility system and positioned the rover to examine an area scoured by exhaust from one of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft engines that placed the rover on the ground.
"This drive really begins our journey toward the first major driving destination, Glenelg, and it's nice to see some Martian soil on our wheels," said mission manager Arthur Amador of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The drive went beautifully, just as our rover planners designed it."
Glenelg is a location where three types of terrain intersect. Curiosity's science team chose it as a likely place to find a first rock target for drilling and analysis.
"We are on our way, though Glenelg is still many weeks away," said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "We plan to stop for just a day at the location we just reached, but in the next week or so we will make a longer stop."
During the longer stop at a site still to be determined, Curiosity will test its robotic arm and the contact instruments at the end of the arm. At the location reached Tuesday, Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) will collect a set of images toward the mission's ultimate driving destination, the lower slope of nearby Mount Sharp. A mosaic of images from the current location will be used along with the Mastcam images of the mountain taken at the spot where Curiosity touched down, Bradbury Landing. This stereo pair taken about 33 feet (10 meters) apart will provide three-dimensional information about distant features and possible driving routes.
Curiosity is three weeks 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.
NASA's Curiosity rover took its first test stroll Wednesday Aug. 22, 2012, and beamed back pictures of its accomplishment in the form of track marks in the Martian soil. Careful inspection of the tracks reveals a unique, repeating pattern, which the rover can use as a visual reference to drive more accurately in barren terrain. The pattern is Morse code for JPL, the abbreviation for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where the rover was designed and built, and the mission is managed.
"The purpose of the pattern is to create features in the terrain that can be used to visually measure the precise distance between drives," said Matt Heverly, the lead rover driver for Curiosity at JPL.
This driving tool, called visual odometry, allows the rover to use images of landscape features to determine if it has traveled as far as predicted, or if its wheels have slipped. For example, when the rover drives on high slopes or across loose soil, it will routinely stop to check its progress. By measuring its distance relative to dozens of prominent features like pebbles or shadows on rocks -- or patterns in its tracks -- the rover can check how much its wheels may have slipped. If Curiosity has not slipped too much, it can then re-plan the next leg of its drive, taking its actual position into account.
"Visual odometry will enable Curiosity to drive more accurately even in high-slip terrains, aiding its science mission by reaching interesting targets in fewer sols, running slip checks to stop before getting too stuck, and enabling precise driving," said rover driver Mark Maimone, who led the development of the rover's autonomous driving software.
The Morse code imprinted on all six wheels will be particularly handy when the terrain is barren. Curiosity won't be able to read the Morse code symbols in the track marks directly, but it will note that the pattern is a high-contrast feature. This will give the rover the anchor it needs in an otherwise featureless terrain.
"Imagine standing in front of a picket fence, and then closing your eyes and shifting to the side. When you open your eyes, you wouldn't be able to tell how many pickets you passed. If you had one picket that was a different shape though, you could always use that picket as your reference," said Heverly. "With Curiosity, it's a similar problem in featureless terrain like sand dunes. The hole pattern in the wheels gives us one 'big picket' to look at."
NASA's Mars Exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity also used visual odometry to ensure accurate driving in difficult terrains. Their wheels had been bolted to their landing platform, leaving holes that left distinguishing marks in their tracks. Those marks proved critical for the visual odometry system on Opportunity when it traversed the relatively featureless terrain at Meridian Planum. Opportunity is still trekking on Mars more than eight years after setting down on the Red Planet.
Curiosity likewise has holes in its wheels, only in the shape of Morse code letters.
"Even though Curiosity didn't need to be bolted down, we wanted to have the holes anyway. The mechanical team suggested multiple smaller holes rather than one large one like the Mars Exploration Rovers had, and one earlier design had spelled out letters in a cleat pattern, so I proposed using a Morse code version," said Maimone. "And the rest is history."
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 to10 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.
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has driven up to a football-size rock that will be the first for the rover's arm to examine.
Curiosity is about 8 feet (2.5 meters) from the rock. It lies about halfway from the rover's landing site, Bradbury Landing, to a location called Glenelg. In coming days, the team plans to touch the rock with a spectrometer to determine its elemental composition and use an arm-mounted camera to take close-up photographs.
Both the arm-mounted Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer and the mast-mounted, laser-zapping Chemistry and Camera Instrument will be used for identifying elements in the rock. This will allow cross-checking of the two instruments.
The rock has been named "Jake Matijevic." Jacob Matijevic (mah-TEE-uh-vik) was the surface operations systems chief engineer for Mars Science Laboratory and the project's Curiosity rover. He passed away Aug. 20, at age 64. Matijevic also was a leading engineer for all of the previous NASA Mars rovers: Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity.
Curiosity now has driven six days in a row. Daily distances range from 72 feet to 121 feet (22 meters to 37 meters).
"This robot was built to rove, and the team is really getting a good rhythm of driving day after day when that's the priority," said Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager Richard Cook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
The team plans to choose a rock in the Glenelg area for the rover's first use of its capability to analyze powder drilled from interiors of rocks. Three types of terrain intersect in the Glenelg area -- one lighter-toned and another more cratered than the terrain Curiosity currently is crossing. The light-toned area is of special interest because it retains daytime heat long into the night, suggesting an unusual composition.
"As we're getting closer to the light-toned area, we see thin, dark bands of unknown origin," said Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "The smaller-scale diversity is becoming more evident as we get closer, providing more potential targets for investigation."
Researchers are using Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) to find potential targets on the ground. Recent new images from the rover's camera reveal dark streaks on rocks in the Glenelg area that have increased researchers' interest in the area. In addition to taking ground images, the camera also has been busy looking upward.
On two recent days, Curiosity pointed the Mastcam at the sun and recorded images of Mars' two moons, Phobos and Deimos, passing in front of the sun from the rover's point of view. Results of these transit observations are part of a long-term study of changes in the moons' orbits. NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which arrived at Mars in 2004, also have observed solar transits by Mars' moons. Opportunity is doing so again this week.
"Phobos is in an orbit very slowly getting closer to Mars, and Deimos is in an orbit very slowly getting farther from Mars," said Curiosity's science team co-investigator Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station. "These observations help us reduce uncertainty in calculations of the changes."
In Curiosity's observations of Phobos this week, the time when the edge of the moon began overlapping the disc of the sun was predictable to within a few seconds. Uncertainty in timing is because Mars' interior structure isn't fully understood.
Phobos causes small changes to the shape of Mars in the same way Earth's moon raises tides. The changes to Mars' shape depend on the Martian interior which, in turn, cause Phobos' orbit to decay. Timing the orbital change more precisely provides information about Mars' interior structure.
Adam Steltzner doesn’t sound much like an ordinary engineer.
For instance, when we asked him if he would talk about Curiosity—and explain why the Mars rover matters to ordinary people--the former rock-n-roller responded "I'm totally down with that."
He really is down with it. Steltzner is the NASA engineer who helped take the country's cool new Curiosity rover to the surface of Mars with moves – and flair – even Evel Knievel would envy.
Steltzner begins, "I'm so thankful to Clara Ma for suggesting the name 'Curiosity.' It embodies a fundamental attribute that defines us as humans. "
“Why do we explore? It’s our nature,” he says. “Human curiosity is why you and I can talk across the country by phone. It's why I'm sitting 60 feet above the ground in a building made of alloys and other high-tech composite materials. We dominate this planet because we wonder what's around the next corner."
When people ask Steltzner "Is the new rover worth 2 ½ billion dollars?" he has a compelling answer:
"It's not 2 ½ billion dollars we stuffed in a trunk and blew into space. It’s thousands of high tech jobs spread over 37 states. It's honing and developing our skills in science, engineering, and math."
He notes that the U.S. has slipped to 14th in science education and 18th in math1 – in a world where we're competing for economic prosperity with nations 1 through 13.
"This mission is an investment in high tech jobs, in inspiring the youth of our country, in stepping up rung by rung toward 1st place. It's the best stimulus you could imagine!"
Okay, curiosity matters--but does it matter more than rock-n-roll? Steltzner played guitar in a rock band for years, so he has the chops to answer this question, too.
"In some sense, exploration and music are both art forms," he says. "They're both expressions of our humanity. But exploration can surprise us more - or at least differently - than music can. Music can surprise us only about what we find in ourselves. Exploration surprises us with what we learn of ourselves and of the universe."
Steltzner says music led him to exploration. During high school he played in a rock band. One night driving home from a gig he noticed that the constellation Orion was in a different place than it had been before.
But why? "I hadn't paid attention during high school classes at all. So I didn't know."
His curiosity made him decide to take an astronomy class. First, though, astronomy had prerequisites such as elementary algebra and conceptual physics. He took them all. "I basically redid my high school education at the community college."
The rest--which includes a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis, a master’s degree from Caltech, a job at JPL, and a daredevil landing on Mars--is history.
After the glory of the Curiosity landing fades, what will this explorer do next?
"Our solar system offers us grand challenges," says Steltzner. "I'd like to see a Mars sample return. I'd like to land on the surface of Europa – the most likely place in the solar system for life. And third, I'd like to float a boat on the methane lakes of Titan."
"The solar system is calling out to us," he says. "The wind's at our back. It's time to explore!"
Curiosity Finishes Close Inspection of Rock Target
NASA's rover Curiosity touched a Martian rock with its robotic arm for the first time on Sept. 22, assessing what chemical elements are in the rock called "Jake Matijevic."
After a short drive the preceding day to get within arm's reach of the football-size rock, Curiosity put its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument in contact with the rock during the rover's 46th Martian day, or sol. The APXS is on a turret at the end of the rover's 7-foot (2.1-meter) arm. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), on the same turret, was used for close-up inspection of the rock. Both instruments were also used on Jake Matijevic on Sol 47 (Sept. 23).
The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, which shoots laser pulses at a target from the top of Curiosity's mast, also assessed what chemical elements are in the rock Jake Matijevic. Using both APXS and ChemCam on this rock provides a cross calibration of the two instruments.
With a final ChemCam laser testing of the rock on Sol 48 (Sept. 24), Curiosity finished its work on Jake Matijevic. The rover departed the same sol, with a drive of about 138 feet (42 meters), its longest yet. Sol 48, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 3:09 p.m. Sept. 24, PDT.
NASA's Curiosity rover mission has found evidence a stream once ran vigorously across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. There is earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but this evidence -- images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels -- is the first of its kind.
Scientists are studying the images of stones cemented into a layer of conglomerate rock. The sizes and shapes of stones offer clues to the speed and distance of a long-ago stream's flow.
"From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep," said Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley. "Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we're actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of it."
The finding site lies between the north rim of Gale Crater and the base of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside the crater. Earlier imaging of the region from Mars orbit allows for additional interpretation of the gravel-bearing conglomerate. The imagery shows an alluvial fan of material washed down from the rim, streaked by many apparent channels, sitting uphill of the new finds.
The rounded shape of some stones in the conglomerate indicates long-distance transport from above the rim, where a channel named Peace Vallis feeds into the alluvial fan. The abundance of channels in the fan between the rim and conglomerate suggests flows continued or repeated over a long time, not just once or for a few years.
The discovery comes from examining two outcrops, called "Hottah" and "Link," with the telephoto capability of Curiosity's mast camera during the first 40 days after landing. Those observations followed up on earlier hints from another outcrop, which was exposed by thruster exhaust as Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory Project's rover, touched down.
"Hottah looks like someone jack-hammered up a slab of city sidewalk, but it's really a tilted block of an ancient streambed," said Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
The gravels in conglomerates at both outcrops range in size from a grain of sand to a golf ball. Some are angular, but many are rounded.
"The shapes tell you they were transported and the sizes tell you they couldn't be transported by wind. They were transported by water flow," said Curiosity science co-investigator Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.
The science team may use Curiosity to learn the elemental composition of the material, which holds the conglomerate together, revealing more characteristics of the wet environment that formed these deposits. The stones in the conglomerate provide a sampling from above the crater rim, so the team may also examine several of them to learn about broader regional geology.
The slope of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater remains the rover's main destination. Clay and sulfate minerals detected there from orbit can be good preservers of carbon-based organic chemicals that are potential ingredients for life.
"A long-flowing stream can be a habitable environment," said Grotzinger. "It is not our top choice as an environment for preservation of organics, though. We're still going to Mount Sharp, but this is insurance that we have already found our first potentially habitable environment."
It's sol 52 and Curiosity is now within spitting distance of its first science destination within Gale crater: a spot the team has named Glenelg.
Curiosity route map to sol 52 - Credit: NASA/JPL/UA/Phil Stooke
Re: Curiosity: Mars Science Laboratory
Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 9:41 pm
by neufer
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Re: Curiosity Finds Old Streambed on Martian Surface
Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 9:06 pm
by JohnD
Thnaks, bystander, for posting that complete report. I need only quote the bits that puzzle me..
A Project Scientist is quoted, "Hottah looks like someone jack-hammered up a slab of city sidewalk, but it's really a tilted block of an ancient streambed" and it has water-worn, rounded pebbles in it to prove that. But the report then talks about an alluvial fan radiating from Pace Vallis, and implies, without actually saying so, that this was where the water came from to deposit this water-washed gravel.
But, this ancient stream bed is cemented into a slab, that is tilted to an extreme angle, in a way that only occurs in geologically aged strata on Earth. It must be very, very old, and must have been buried under many layers itself to be be so compacted. Is NASA getting the chronology wrong?
Which is older? This ancient stream bed or the alluvial fan? Or even Mount Sharp itself?
Is NASA's anxiety to show that water was there, which is proven now, making it minimise the risk that it all went long, long ago?
JOhn
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover checked in on Mars Wednesday using the mobile application Foursquare. This marks the first check-in on another planet. Users on Foursquare can keep up with Curiosity as the rover checks in at key locations and posts photos and tips, all while exploring the Red Planet.
"NASA is using Foursquare as a tool to share the rover's new locations while exploring Mars," said David Weaver, associate administrator for communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This will help to involve the public with the mission and give them a sense of the rover's travels through Gale Crater."
After landing in Gale Crater last month, Curiosity began a planned 23-month mission that includes some of Mars' most intriguing scientific destinations. Curiosity is roving toward Mount Sharp, a mountain about 3 miles (5 kilometers) tall. The rover is conducting experiments along the way, seeking clues in the rocks and soil that would indicate whether Mars ever was capable of supporting microbial life. It is taking and sharing pictures of the trip.
Back here on Earth, Foursquare users will be able to earn a Curiosity-themed badge on the social media platform for check-ins at locations that generate an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Available late this year, this new badge will encourage Foursquare users to explore science centers, laboratories and museums that pique scientific curiosity.
...
Find out more about Mars Curiosity and NASA on Foursquare.
Re: Curiosity: Mars Science Laboratory
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2012 12:51 pm
by JohnD
No one seems to know (how old the Hottah stream bed is), so I'll offer an answer to my own question.
(Wake up at the back there!)
New Scientist today (4/10/12) says that,
"To age the river, the best scientists can do is count nearby craters. This suggests the region is a few BILLION years old." (my capitals)
If it wasn't for the caption that NS provide for their copy of the above pic, I'd be quite depressed.
"A rover runs through it"
John
Re: Curiosity: Mars Science Laboratory
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2012 1:43 pm
by neufer
JohnD wrote:
New Scientist today (4/10/12) says that,
"To age the river, the best scientists can do is count nearby craters. This suggests the region is a few BILLION years old." (my capitals)
If it wasn't for the caption that NS provide for their copy of the above pic, I'd be quite depressed.
"A rover runs through it"
Better an ancient river bed than a modern cesspit.
Chris Peterson wrote:
FloridaMike wrote:
It seems to me we will need a real geologist up there to tease out the details of how / when things were laid down, bonded and finaly lifted up. A rover may be able to do it but it will require so much scouting around I doubt there will ever be the mission time for it.
A real geologist would spend the vast majority of his time keeping the toilets running and just trying to survive. And of course, he'd only be as capable as the instruments he brought along.
No, rovers like this are much, much better than people at tasks like this. And we could send hundreds of them, with many different instruments (and even sample return missions) for the cost of a single manned mission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesspit wrote:
<<A cesspit, or cesspool, is a pit, conservancy tank or covered cistern which can be used to dispose of urine and feces, and more generally of all sewage and refuse. Cesspits were introduced to Europe in the 16th century, at a time when urban populations were growing at a faster rate than in the past. The added burden of waste volume began overloading urban street gutters, where chamber pots were emptied each day. There was no regulation of cesspit construction until the 18th century, when a need to address sanitation and safety concerns became apparent. Cesspits were cleaned out by tradesmen using shovels and horse-drawn wagons. Cesspools were cleaned only at night, to reduce the smell and annoyance to the public. The typical cesspit was cleaned out once every 8 to 10 years. Fermentation of the solid waste collecting in cesspits, however, resulted in dangerous infections and gasses that sometimes asphyxiated cesspit cleaners. Cesspits began to be cleaned out more regularly, but strict regulations for cesspit construction and ventilation were not introduced until the 1800s.
Before construction reforms were introduced in the early 19th century, liquid waste would seep away through the ground, leaving solid waste behind in the cesspit. While this made removal of solid waste easier, the seeping liquid waste often contaminated well water sources, creating public health problems. Municipal reforms required that cesspits be built of solid walls of stone and concrete. This kept liquid waste in the cesspit, forcing cesspits to be cleaned more frequently, on average two or three times per year. Liquid cesspit waste would be removed with pumps by cesspit cleaners, and then solid waste, valuable as fertilizer and for manufacturing ammonia, was removed.
In 1846, French public hygienist Alphone Guérard estimated that 100 cesspits were cleaned in Paris every night, by 200-250 total cesspit cleaners in the city, and out of a total of 30,000 cesspits. The replacement of Paris' cesspit system was challenged for decades by officials not on public hygiene grounds, but on economic ones, based on the desire to conserve human waste as fertilizer rather than disposing of it in a modern sewer system. Paris' sewer system began modernizing in the 1880s, with the conversion of storm sewers for public sewage.>>
NASA's Curiosity rover is in a position on Mars where scientists and engineers can begin preparing the rover to take its first scoop of soil for analysis.
Curiosity is the centerpiece of the two-year Mars Science Laboratory mission. The rover's ability to put soil samples into analytical instruments is central to assessing whether its present location on Mars, called Gale Crater, ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. Mineral analysis can reveal past environmental conditions. Chemical analysis can check for ingredients necessary for life.
"We now have reached an important phase that will get the first solid samples into the analytical instruments in about two weeks," said Mission Manager Michael Watkins of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Curiosity has been so well-behaved that we have made great progress during the first two months of the mission."
The rover's preparatory operations will involve testing its robotic scooping capabilities to collect and process soil samples. Later, it also will use a hammering drill to collect powdered samples from rocks. To begin preparations for a first scoop, the rover used one of its wheels Wednesday to scuff the soil to expose fresh material.
Next, the rover twice will scoop up some soil, shake it thoroughly inside the sample-processing chambers to scrub the internal surfaces, then discard the sample. Curiosity will scoop and shake a third measure of soil and place it in an observation tray for inspection by cameras mounted on the rover's mast. A portion of the third sample will be delivered to the mineral-identifying chemistry and mineralogy (CheMin) instrument inside the rover. From a fourth scoopful, samples will be delivered to both CheMin and to the sample analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, which identifies chemical ingredients.
"We're going to take a close look at the particle size distribution in the soil here to be sure it's what we want," said Daniel Limonadi of JPL, lead systems engineer for Curiosity's surface sampling and science system. "We are being very careful with this first time using the scoop on Mars."
The rinse-and-discard cycles serve a quality-assurance purpose similar to a common practice in geochemical laboratory analysis on Earth.
"It is standard to run a split of your sample through first and dump it out, to clean out any residue from a previous sample," said JPL's Joel Hurowitz, a sampling system scientist on the Curiosity team. "We want to be sure the first sample we analyze is unambiguously Martian, so we take these steps to remove any residual material from Earth that might be on the walls of our sample handling system."
Rocknest is the name of the area of soil Curiosity will test and analyze. The rover pulled up to the windblown, sandy and dusty location Oct. 2. The Rocknest patch is about 8 feet by 16 feet (2.5 meters by 5 meters). The area provides plenty of area for scooping several times. Diverse rocks nearby provide targets for investigation with the instruments on Curiosity's mast during the weeks the rover is stationed at Rocknest for this first scooping campaign.
Curiosity's motorized, clamshell-shaped scoop is 1.8 inches (4.5 centimeters) wide, 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) long, and can sample to a depth of about 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters). It is part of the collection and handling Martian rock analysis (CHIMRA) device on a turret of tools at the end of the rover's arm. CHIMRA also includes a series of chambers and labyrinths for sorting, sieving and portioning samples collected by the scoop or by the arm's percussive drill.
Following the work at Rocknest, the rover team plans to drive Curiosity about 100 yards (about 100 meters) eastward into the Glenelg area and select a rock as the first target for use of its drill.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/1004/Why-a-clean-Mars-rover-is-a-happy-Mars-rover wrote:
The Mars rover Curiosity is putting its dramatic explorations on hold, for tests and essential cleaning:
After all, if it's going to accurately analyze Martian soil, it must shed its Earthly residue.
By Pete Spotts, Christian Science Monitor, October 4, 2012
<<Two months and a just over half a mile into its mission, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is taking time out for tests of key tools for sampling the Martian soil – and, it turns out, for some badly needed scrubbing. Over the next two to three weeks, engineers will direct Curiosity to scoop sand from a stone-dotted mini-dune the team has dubbed Rocknest and to run it through sample-processing hardware dubbed CHIMRA. It's a cleaning approach akin to a camper scouring the last meal's cookware with sand. After the scrubbing, NASA controllers plan to test CHIMRA's ability to feed samples collected by the scoop, and later Curiosity's drill, into two key instrument packages inside the rover’s chassis. The clean-out is in preparation for the rover's main mission: analyzing rocks and soils to see if Gale Crater and its central summit, Mt. Sharp, once hosted an environment that could have supported life.
Curiosity's science team already has started to build a strong case for the presence of significant quantities of water flowing – at least periodically – through the crater billions of years ago. Water is a key ingredient for organic life. Images released last week of rock outcroppings showed clear evidence they were formed from solidified silt and water-tumbled stones. The team's consensus interpretation: The feature represents the remains of a stream bed, perhaps uplifted and exposed by a small meteor that could have struck the spot. The outcroppings appeared to be associated with the leading edge of a broad fan of sediment that on Earth forms as water carries soil and rock down mountainsides to lower elevations, where it spreads in what geologists call alluvial fans. In this case, the fan would have built as water flowed down now-eroded hills that form part of Gale Crater's rim.
After capturing such suggestive images, cleaning and more testing may seem a bit mundane. But it's necessary, says Daniel Limonadi, the lead systems engineer for the rover's sampling and science systems. "Even though we make this hardware super-squeaky clean, just by virtue of being on Earth you get this residual, oily film that is impossible to avoid," he says. It's also impossible for the rover's internal chemistry labs to avoid picking up on that residue in any samples CHIMRA delivers – contaminating the results. "So we're taking the sand samples and effectively using it to rinse out mouths three times and then kind of spit out."
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
The approach has all the subtlety of maracas. Once the scoop – a bit larger than a tablespoon – lifts the sand into CHIMRA, the device will vibrate by design to make sure the abrasive hits all the device's nooks and crannies. In normal operations, the strong vibrations are designed to move samples through sieves – with a final sample for analysis containing a tiny fraction of its original material.
The cleaning itself is expected to take about a week and a half, and when it's over, the scoop will deliver a fourth sample to the rover's internal instruments. One device, called CheMin, uses X-rays to analyze the mineral content of samples, while another, called SAM, uses ovens and solvents to analyze the detailed chemical make-up of the rock, including the presence of compounds containing carbon, one of the key chemical building blocks of life.
But Curiosity's longer stay at Rocknest speaks to the importance the science and engineering teams are placing on what mission manager Michael Watkins describes as "keystone" instruments. "We're being deliberately, incredibly careful," he says. Every time CHIMRA, located on a turret at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm, takes a scoop, the team will be taking videos before, during and after each step of each gargle to ensure "we understand exactly what's going on." The goal is to take the time now to get to know how the instruments, tested on Earth, operate on Mars so these extra steps can be eliminated later in the mission. "We're being extremely slow and prudent here," Mr. Watkins says.>>
While scooping its first samples of Martian soil, NASA’s Curiosity rover captured the image right, which shows what seems to be a small, seemingly metallic sliver or chip of… something… resting on the ground. Is it a piece of the rover? Or some other discarded fleck of the MSL descent mechanisms? Or perhaps an exotic Martian pebble of some sort? Nobody knows for sure yet, but needless to say the soil samples have taken a back seat to this new finding for the time being.
The ChemCam image, although monochrome, reveals some interesting and curiously organic-looking edges on the object… although it could be a bit of something that came loose from the rover itself. Perhaps a bit of plastic wrap or tape from a cable? Or a flake of metal from the back shell?
Or, as MSNBC’s Alan Boyle jokingly (?) suggested, another piece of “Martian macaroni”?
Stay tuned for more info on this intriguing news as it’s available!
Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
P.S. Of course, the now-famous “Sarcastic Rover” had something to say about it on Twitter:
