RELEASE: 12-264
NEWEST NASA MARS MISSION CONNECTS PAST AND FUTURE
WASHINGTON -- NASA's newest Mars mission, landing in three days, will
draw on support from missions sent to Mars years ago and will
contribute to missions envisioned for future decades.
"Curiosity is a bold step forward in learning about our neighboring
planet, but this mission does not stand alone. It is part of a
sustained, coordinated program of Mars exploration," said Doug
McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA
Headquarters in Washington. "This mission transitions the program's
science emphasis from the planet's water history to its potential for
past or present life."
As the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft places the Curiosity rover
on the surface of Mars next week, NASA will be using the Mars Odyssey
orbiter, in service since 2001, as a relay for rapidly confirming the
landing to Curiosity's flight team and the rest of the world. Earth
will be below the Mars horizon from Curiosity's perspective, so the
new rover will not be in direct radio contact with Earth. Two newer
orbiters also will be recording Curiosity's transmissions, but that
data will not be available on Earth until hours later.
When Curiosity lands beside a mountain inside a crater at about 1:31
a.m. EDT, Aug. 6 (10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5), the 1-ton rover's two-year
prime mission on the surface of Mars will begin. However, one of the
rover's 10 science instruments, the Radiation Assessment Detector
(RAD), already has logged 221 days collecting data since the
spacecraft was launched on its trip to Mars on Nov. 26, 2011.
"Our observations already are being used in planning for human
missions," said Don Hassler of Southwest Research Institute in
Boulder, Colo., principal investigator for Curiosity's RAD.
The instrument recorded radiation spikes from five solar flare events
spewing energetic particles from the sun into interplanetary space.
Radiation from galactic cosmic rays, originating from supernova
explosions and other extremely distant events, accounted for more of
the total radiation experienced on the trip than the amount from
solar particle events. Inside the spacecraft, despite shielding
roughly equivalent to what surrounds astronauts on the International
Space Station, RAD recorded radiation amounting to a significant
contribution to a NASA astronaut's career-limit radiation dose.
Curiosity's main assignment is to investigate whether its study area
ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial
life. To do that, it packs a science payload weighing 15 times as
much as the science instruments on previous Mars rovers. The landing
target, an area about 12 miles by 4 miles (20 kilometers by 7
kilometers), sits in a safely flat area between less-safe slopes of
the rim of Gale Crater and the crater's central peak, informally
called Mount Sharp. The target was plotted to be within driving
distance of layers on Mount Sharp, where minerals that formed in
water have been seen from orbit.
"Some deposits right inside the landing area look as though they were
deposited by water, too," said John Grotzinger of the California
Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, project scientist for
Curiosity. "We have a great landing site that was a strong science
contender for earlier missions, but was not permitted for engineering
constraints because no earlier landing could be targeted precisely
enough to hit a safe area inside Gale Crater. The science team feels
very optimistic about exploration of Mount Sharp and the surrounding
region that includes the landing ellipse."
Mission engineers designed a sky crane maneuver, lowering Curiosity on
nylon cords from a rocket backpack because the rover is too heavy to
use the airbag system developed for earlier rovers. "We know it looks
crazy," said Adam Steltzner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
in Pasadena, leader of the team that developed the system. "It really
is the result of careful choices." By designing the aeroshell
enclosing Curiosity to create lift and be steerable, engineers were
able to build a system that lands much more precisely instead of
dropping like a rock.
JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the Mars Science Laboratory for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
For more information about the mission is available at:
http://www.nasa.gov/marsand
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/You can follow the mission on Facebook and on Twitter at:
http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosityand
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity
