Tag Archives: MarsLanding

Curiosity rover flaunts its battle scar, wind sensor is bruised (but not broken)

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Curiosity rover flaunts its battle scar, wind sensor is bruised but not broken

You can't win 'em all. Such is the case with the Curiosity rover, anyway, as diagnostics have revealed that its wind sensors have sustained damage. NASA engineers aren't fully sure what caused this minor setback to the otherwise successful landing, but hypothesize that stones might've been kicked up during the rocket-powered landing, which then struck the sensor's wiring. Fortunately, there's already someone on the job, as Javier Gomez-Elvira is investigating the damage with the intent of restoring the lost functionality. Another NASA scientist, Ashwin Vasavada, believes the issue is rather minor: "It degrades our ability to detect wind speed and direction when the wind is blowing from a particular direction, but we think we can work around that."

The broken instrument was initially discovered as part of NASA's routine power-cycling of all instrumentation, so as to determine an overall bill of health for the rover. Now that Curiosity has earned its battle scars, it can hold its head high during its journey to Glenelg and Mount Sharp.

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Curiosity rover flaunts its battle scar, wind sensor is bruised (but not broken) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 19:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Curiosity landing video assembled from high-res images (video)

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NASA releases a choppy HD movie of Curiosity touching down

A new video has been compiled by Spaceflight101.com showing Curiosity's final minutes of terror in glorious HD (though a dearth of frames and lack of stabilization make it a bit herky-jerky). It's an assembly of all the high-res photos taken by the buggy on the way down to its now familiar perch, rolling at the not-exactly-HFR speed of 4 fps, but still trumping a previous low-res thumbnail version. It gives a much clearer, rover's-eye-view of the journey, starting with the heat shield ejection and finishing with the dusty, butterfly-like touchdown. Check it out below the break to see the precarious descent -- and don't forget your Dramamine.

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Curiosity landing video assembled from high-res images (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASA maps out proposed travel plans for Curiosity, decides to head for the hills

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NASA maps out proposed travel plans for Curiosity, decides to head for the hills

As the vista on Mars gradually gets ever clearer, and the system checks continue to show that the rover is in good stead, the team behind Curiosity will be increasingly eager to stretch its legs wheels. The first trip might be just a cautious few meters, but plans for a more adventurous jaunt have just been revealed. The first location in Curiosity's sights is an area referred to as Glenelg, which, based on initial pictures, offers three different geological characteristics, as well as potentially being an area where water used to be present. The site is only 1,300 feet (400 meters) from where the rover landed, but it could still take several weeks to get there. This is merely a quick dash compared to the next leg of its journey, which sees Curiosity heading out to an area called Mount Sharp -- a large mound of layered rock which is hoped to contain visible geology potentially dating back millions of years. With seven kilometers (4.4 miles) lying between the rover and the mountain's foothills, it'll be a much longer journey, but one that could provide the first real evidence of the planet's ability to host, or have hosted, life.

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NASA maps out proposed travel plans for Curiosity, decides to head for the hills originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Aug 2012 09:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Curiosity survives brain transplant, prepares for first drive

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Curiosity survives 'brain transplant,' prepares for first drive

If you thought your OTA update took too long, how about four days? That's how long the Curiosity "brain transplant" took, and is now finally complete. This now means that the main computers have switched over from landing mode, to surface mode -- and thus we hope -- meaning the rover's good to go. That said, it's still a painfully slow process, with Curiosity's wheels likely remaining steadfastly motionless for at least another week -- and even then we're looking at a trip of just a few meters. When it comes to interplanetary travel, though, slow and steady definitely wins the race -- in the meantime, you can soak up the view.

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Curiosity survives brain transplant, prepares for first drive originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 08:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Visualized: Mars’ Gale Crater in seamless 360 degrees

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Visualized Mars' Gale Crater in seemless 360 degrees

Have you been lapping up every pixel Curiosity sends back, but wishing you could somehow see those panoramas as nature intended? Well, thanks to kind 360 Cities user Andrew Bodrov, you can. The controls take a little getting used to, but persevere and you'll be rewarded with a view as if you were atop Curiosity itself. We're already imagining the fun if this was in the next Google Maps update, who knows what might turn up. Land on the source for the mind-blow.

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Visualized: Mars' Gale Crater in seamless 360 degrees originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 06:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Life on Mars: One week of Curiosity

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Life on Mars One week of Curiousity

Is there life on Mars? NASA's latest mission to the red planet might well answer that question, or perhaps the more pertinent question, was there life on Mars. At 10:02 AM EST on November 26th last year, the space agency's Mars Science Laboratory (to give the mission its full name) set off on its eight-month journey to the red planet. The most advanced equipment ever sent to the planet -- and the biggest-ever rover -- should allow exploration of some of the most interesting regions, over far larger distances than ever previously covered. On arrival, after negotiating a tricky landing, the mobile laboratory (that's Curiosity) will spend a Martian year (687 Earth days) analyzing rock samples and seeking evidence of conditions suitable for microbial life or -- we can live in hope -- actual evidence of the same. After the break, we take a look at some of the key events over the first seven days on the planet's surface.

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Life on Mars: One week of Curiosity originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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