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APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:06 am
by 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.
[/b]
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:38 am
by 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
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 12:02 pm
by 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…
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 12:53 pm
by 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.
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 1:20 pm
by Chris Peterson
Ann wrote: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.
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 3:15 pm
by 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
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 3:37 pm
by ThomasSanDiego
Strange name, Glenelg. It is the same backwards. There must be a story behind this. A Ray Bradbury story?
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 3:55 pm
by 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!
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:05 pm
by 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
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:13 pm
by bystander
GKoh wrote: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!
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?p=183134#p183134
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 7:30 pm
by pstamler
I'm told Gleneig is the source of an excellent single-malt.
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:00 pm
by flash
ThomasSanDiego wrote: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.
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:25 pm
by 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
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 12:56 am
by Boomer12k
I just can't wait for pictures of Deja Thoris....
Keep on Truckin', Curiosity!!!
:---[===] *
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 3:37 pm
by APODFORIST
ta152h0 wrote: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?
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 7:10 pm
by bystander
APODFORIST wrote:ta152h0 wrote: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
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 7:26 pm
by BMAONE23
It certainly didn't get very far. Like the Eagle all those years ago, it must have had only seconds of fuel remaining
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 10:08 pm
by neufer
BMAONE23 wrote:
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.
Re: APOD: Curiosity on the Move (2012 Sep 10)
Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:34 am
by 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.
