Author Topic: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread  (Read 1026428 times)

Offline Bubbinski

They're able to store data in much of the flash memory on side A:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1437

Looking forward to tomorrow!  Press conference at 10 am Pacific/11 am Mountain.  I'll try to keep up as best I can.
I'll even excitedly look forward to "flags and footprints" and suborbital missions. Just fly...somewhere.

Online Galactic Penguin SST

They're able to store data in much of the flash memory on side A:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1437

Looking forward to tomorrow!  Press conference at 10 am Pacific/11 am Mountain.  I'll try to keep up as best I can.

Press conference now underway.
Astronomy & spaceflight geek penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Current Priority: Chasing the Chinese Spaceflight Wonder Egg & A Certain Chinese Mars Rover

Online Galactic Penguin SST

Oooh Curiosity found clay minerals (phyllosillicates) at "Yellowknife Bay" (or more explicitly on the bed rock target known as "John Klein")! That almost certainly means the rock was in a fresh water environment a long time ago. Yummy yummy yummy......  8)

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia16830.html

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20130312.html
« Last Edit: 03/12/2013 04:08 pm by Galactic Penguin SST »
Astronomy & spaceflight geek penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Current Priority: Chasing the Chinese Spaceflight Wonder Egg & A Certain Chinese Mars Rover

Offline Norm38

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #923 on: 03/12/2013 04:53 pm »
CNN is reporting right now that NASA is holding a press conference on the analysis of the first powdered rock sample, and that "Mars may once have supported life".  What did I miss?
« Last Edit: 03/12/2013 05:01 pm by Norm38 »

Offline Danderman

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #924 on: 03/12/2013 05:16 pm »
Did the analysis provide an isotope breakdown of the carbon that was found?

Offline John44

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #925 on: 03/12/2013 05:38 pm »
NASA News Conference on Curiosity Rover Mars Rock Analysis - March 12
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8126

Offline JohnFornaro

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #926 on: 03/12/2013 06:06 pm »
A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "From what we know now, the answer is yes."

Realizing that "could have" doesn't mean "did" at all, I ask:  On the basis of this one sample, is it safe to say, catagorically, that Mars "could have" supported a habitable environment, in certain areas?

Followup question:  Where would those "certain areas" be?

Closing question:  What is the next piece of data that would change "could have" to "did"?
Sometimes I just flat out don't get it.

Offline hop

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #927 on: 03/12/2013 06:38 pm »
Did the analysis provide an isotope breakdown of the carbon that was found?
The only isotope ratio mentioned was deuterium/hydrogen, which was  lower than rocknest. They didn't really elaborate, but this is what you'd expect if the water was from a time before so much of the H had a chance to escape.

As usual, the entire press conference is available on JPLs ustream
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/29927128 and the JPL version of the press release links all the graphics

Offline iamlucky13

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #928 on: 03/12/2013 07:45 pm »
Getting back to the engineering for a bit...

From http://go.nasa.gov/Vws8Lb

Quote
"...Also, we need to go through a series of steps with the B-side, such as informing the computer about the state of the rover -- the position of the arm, the position of the mast, that kind of information."

This is intriguing me. Obviously, there's no external means to determine the position of the arm etc. (I AM ruling out the possibility of reconstructing the positions from the pictures that were beamed back before the rover went into safe mode, and any potential for the orbiters to suddenly provide spy satellite quality images)

Now, given that there's no external means of position determination, the rover has to get this information from onboard instrumentation. If the B side is up and running, shouldn't it automatically read these parameters? I mean there's got to be a subroutine that does this, because the rover's semi-autonomous. Furthermore, when the rover goes into safe mode, doesn't it bring the arm and mast into a least risk position as it does (so the state would be pre-defined and known -- unless of course, this step didn't happen)?

Or do they imply that they've got to copy the relevant information from the A-side? Because that might be problematic...

It sounds like they're going through a cautious, multi-step recovery process along the lines of:

1.) Figure out what's working
2.) Enable side B and transfer basic functions to it
3.) Test function of B side
4.) Load operational parameters (such as arm position)
5.) Test rover operation

They didn't say how they recover the operational parameters. Presumably their first option is to read them from the side B memory, but if they had a memory fault, they want to be sure the parameters are accurate. The next fallback is probably to use the last known parameters, which they almost certainly keep track of back on earth either by the rover reporting them back to earth as the means of confirming each instruction was completed properly, or by reconstructing them from instructions that were confirmed in a simpler manner. They might also verify position from the cameras.

They may or may not be able to read the position of the arm directly. Position is usually measured by electronic encoders (basic concept is usually counting very finely etched marks on a scale and adding them up), but most encoders do not read absolute position...the controller has to add up travel to determine position since they last synched to a known location like the MAHLI calibration target, so that position would be a stored value as I refer to above.

Offline Bubbinski

Does this discovery make it more likely that Gale Crater will be the landing site for the next rover and/or Martian Sample Return mission?

Also: can the powder around the drill holes Curiosity's made so far be collected on a later sample return mission?  Are there any plans for that?
« Last Edit: 03/13/2013 02:28 am by Bubbinski »
I'll even excitedly look forward to "flags and footprints" and suborbital missions. Just fly...somewhere.

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #930 on: 03/13/2013 03:18 am »
Does this discovery make it more likely that Gale Crater will be the landing site for the next rover and/or Martian Sample Return mission?

Also: can the powder around the drill holes Curiosity's made so far be collected on a later sample return mission?  Are there any plans for that?

Put it this way, I don't think it does Gale Crater's chances any harm!  It was already fairly high.

I suspect any MSR mission would collect new samples.  The power could have down away by then, or being contaminated.  Also researchers will prefer core to powder.
« Last Edit: 03/13/2013 03:23 am by Dalhousie »
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline hop

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #931 on: 03/13/2013 05:02 am »
Also: can the powder around the drill holes Curiosity's made so far be collected on a later sample return mission?  Are there any plans for that?
No. The samples are dumped in a compartment inside the rover which isn't accessible from the outside. You wouldn't want to return those anyway, since they would be all mixed up and have been heated  (for SAM samples) and possibly contaminated by MSL or the modern Mars environment anyway.

There was a sample cache in the plan at one point, but it was de-scoped. I believe Blackstar posted some informative stuff about that a while back in one of the MSL threads.

Offline Star One

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #932 on: 03/13/2013 08:50 am »
Does this discovery make it more likely that Gale Crater will be the landing site for the next rover and/or Martian Sample Return mission?

Also: can the powder around the drill holes Curiosity's made so far be collected on a later sample return mission?  Are there any plans for that?

I would add does this make it more likely that this will be where the EXOMars rover will be sent as well?

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #933 on: 03/13/2013 10:58 pm »
Does this discovery make it more likely that Gale Crater will be the landing site for the next rover and/or Martian Sample Return mission?

Also: can the powder around the drill holes Curiosity's made so far be collected on a later sample return mission?  Are there any plans for that?

I would add does this make it more likely that this will be where the EXOMars rover will be sent as well?

I think that would be overkill.  I imagine the ExoMars rover would go somewhere else interesting - Nilli Fossae perhaps.  That way we could have two well-dcomented sites to follow up with a sample return mission.
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline fthurber

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #934 on: 03/14/2013 04:03 pm »

Mawrth Vallis would be my preferred location...lots of different types of clays without too much roving.

Offline robertross

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #935 on: 03/15/2013 10:21 pm »
03.15.2013
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Moon, Mars Science Conference Events to be Streamed

NASA's Mars Curiosity and lunar GRAIL missions, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will be among those discussed during the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston on March 18 to 22.
Science briefings for Curiosity and GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) will be streamed live by JPL on Ustream, as follows:

--Mars Curiosity: Monday, March 18, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT), online at http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl .

--GRAIL and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: Tuesday, March 19, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT), online at: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 .

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

The briefings, along with others from the conference, will also be streamed by the conference organizer, the Lunar and Planetary Institute of Houston, at: http://www.livestream.com/lpsc2013 . The institute is managed by the Universities Space Research Association, a national, nonprofit consortium of universities chartered at NASA's request in 1969 by the National Academy of Sciences.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1445

Offline catdlr

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #936 on: 03/15/2013 10:40 pm »
Image Advisory: 2013-097                                                                    March. 15, 2013

Panorama From NASA Mars Rover Shows Mount Sharp



The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-097&cid=release_2013-097

PASADENA, Calif. -- Rising above the present location of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, higher than any mountain in the 48 contiguous states of the United States, Mount Sharp is featured in new imagery from the rover.

A pair of mosaics assembled from dozens of telephoto images shows Mount Sharp in dramatic detail. The component images were taken by the 100-millimeter-focal-length telephoto lens camera mounted on the right side of Curiosity's remote sensing mast, during the 45th Martian day of the rover's mission on Mars (Sept. 20, 2012).

This layered mound, also called Aeolis Mons, in the center of Gale Crater rises more than 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the crater floor location of Curiosity. Lower slopes of Mount Sharp remain a destination for the mission, though the rover will first spend many more weeks around a location called "Yellowknife Bay," where it has found evidence of a past environment favorable for microbial life.

A version of the mosaic that has been white-balanced to show the terrain as if under Earthlike lighting, which makes the sky look overly blue, is at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16768 . White-balanced versions help scientists recognize rock materials based on their terrestrial experience. The Martian sky would look like more of a butterscotch color to the human eye. A version of the mosaic with raw color, as a typical smart-phone camera would show the scene, is at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16769 .

In both versions, the sky has been filled out by extrapolating color and brightness information from the portions of the sky that were captured in images of the terrain.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project is using Curiosity and the rover's 10 science instruments to investigate environmental history within Gale Crater, a location where the project has found that conditions were long ago favorable for microbial life.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, and built the rover.

For more information about the mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

Follow the mission on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
[email protected]


- end -
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Offline jacqmans

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #937 on: 03/18/2013 04:57 pm »
News release: 2013-099                                                                    March. 18, 2013

Curiosity Mars Rover Sees Trend in Water Presence

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-099&cid=release_2013-099

THE WOODLANDS, Texas - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has seen evidence of water-bearing minerals in rocks near where it had already found clay minerals inside a drilled rock.

Last week, the rover's science team announced that analysis of powder from a drilled mudstone rock on Mars indicates past environmental conditions that were favorable for microbial life. Additional findings presented today (March 18) at a news briefing at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, suggest those conditions extended beyond the site of the drilling.

Using infrared-imaging capability of a camera on the rover and an instrument that shoots neutrons into the ground to probe for hydrogen, researchers have found more hydration of minerals near the clay-bearing rock than at locations Curiosity visited earlier.

The rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) can also serve as a mineral-detecting and hydration-detecting tool, reported Jim Bell of Arizona State University, Tempe. "Some iron-bearing rocks and minerals can be detected and mapped using the Mastcam's near-infrared filters."

Ratios of brightness in different Mastcam near-infrared wavelengths can indicate the presence of some hydrated minerals. The technique was used to check rocks in the "Yellowknife Bay" area where Curiosity's drill last month collected the first powder from the interior of a rock on Mars. Some rocks in Yellowknife Bay are crisscrossed with bright veins.

"With Mastcam, we see elevated hydration signals in the narrow veins that cut many of the rocks in this area," said Melissa Rice of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "These bright veins contain hydrated minerals that are different from the clay minerals in the surrounding rock matrix."

The Russian-made Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument on Curiosity detects hydrogen beneath the rover. At the rover's very dry study area on Mars, the detected hydrogen is mainly in water molecules bound into minerals. "We definitely see signal variation along the traverse from the landing point to Yellowknife Bay," said DAN Deputy Principal Investigator Maxim Litvak of the Space Research Institute, Moscow. "More water is detected at Yellowknife Bay than earlier on the route. Even within Yellowknife Bay, we see significant variation."

Findings presented today from the Canadian-made Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on Curiosity's arm indicate that the wet environmental processes that produced clay at Yellowknife Bay did so without much change in the overall mix of chemical elements present. The elemental composition of the outcrop Curiosity drilled into matches the composition of basalt. For example, it has basalt-like proportions of silicon, aluminum, magnesium and iron. Basalt is the most common rock type on Mars. It is igneous, but it is also thought to be the parent material for sedimentary rocks Curiosity has examined.

"The elemental composition of rocks in Yellowknife Bay wasn't changed much by mineral alteration," said Curiosity science team member Mariek Schmidt of Brock University, Saint Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

A dust coating on rocks had made the composition detected by APXS not quite a match for basalt until Curiosity used a brush to sweep the dust away. After that, APXS saw less sulfur.

"By removing the dust, we've got a better reading that pushes the classification toward basaltic composition," Schmidt said. The sedimentary rocks at Yellowknife Bay likely formed when original basaltic rocks were broken into fragments, transported, re-deposited as sedimentary particles, and mineralogically altered by exposure to water.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to investigate whether an area within Mars' Gale Crater has ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life. Curiosity, carrying 10 science instruments, landed seven months ago to begin its two-year prime mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more about the mission, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl and http://www.nasa.gov/msl .

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .


Jacques :-)

Offline Star One

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #938 on: 03/18/2013 08:30 pm »
Quote
A new glitch on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has forced the vehicle to stay in safe mode longer than planned, stalling science operations for another couple of days, scientists said today (March 18).

http://www.space.com/20273-curiosity-mars-rover-safe-mode.html

Offline hop

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Re: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread
« Reply #939 on: 03/19/2013 12:42 am »
For anyone who missed the LPSC press briefing associated with the PR jacqmans posted above, you can watch it here:
http://www.livestream.com/lpsc2013/video?clipId=pla_5f897671-5a33-43d2-991f-d6b0e2a3a340

Or on the JPL ustream channel: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/30076916

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