Author Topic: LIVE: MSL Curiosity Post Landing SOL 1 onwards Update Thread  (Read 1026441 times)

Offline Chris Bergin

Hardware on the ground!
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Offline Chris Bergin

Heh, thanks Mikes - I knew that...... ;)
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Offline Chris Bergin

Last one is SkyCrane.
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Offline ugordan

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Damn! Look at how dark the rover is. It must be absolutely covered in dust.

Offline Dappa

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Skycrane crashed 650m from Curiosity,
back shell is 615m away,
heatshield 1200m.
« Last Edit: 08/07/2012 05:20 pm by Dappa »

Offline Chris Bergin

I like this guy, so proud of his hardware. Reminds me of the orbiter guys.

Geology questions at the moment.
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Offline Chris Bergin

Dust covers on MAHLI are transparent covers, but has dust on it. Will be opened and closed when required (as they can be).
« Last Edit: 08/07/2012 05:49 pm by Chris Bergin »
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Offline Jeff Lerner

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I guess any Ballast impacts would be too small to see in those pictures ??

Offline marsman2020

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I don't know if I would read a lot into the stowed NavCam images.  Not being on the current team, I won't speculate as to what's going on - I don't have any more information then anyone else here in that respect.

NASA has lots of experience with dust and Martian landers. It's not anything that hasn't been considered in the design process.

As marsman2020 explained in depth in another thread, it was considered, but the real extent of the issue wasn't realized (it was underestimated) until Phoenix landed, well into MSL development.

The rover was always intended to operate in a potentially dusty environment - look at the MER rovers, they are caked. 

I guess I should elaborate just a little more - prefaced that I was "only" the person building the covers, not the one making the decision to have them.

There was one picture from Phoenix that showed a pebble on top of one of the landing leg pads, and a coating of sticky looking dust on the legs themselves.  There was also better knowledge of the flow field and resulting ground pressure from the descent stage engines at that point.  The new concern was mostly with the hardware that could be directly hit by reflected flow from the engines - and the HazCams are in the worst spot of anything, right at the belly.  An assessment was made of all the hardware on the vehicle, and as far as I am aware everything else was determined to be tolerant to the environments likely to be created during touchdown, even with the new concerns - already being designed to operate in a dusty environment.  Because of their position, the HazCams were not. So covers it was.
« Last Edit: 08/07/2012 05:32 pm by marsman2020 »

Offline Dappa

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I guess any Ballast impacts would be too small to see in those pictures ??
They're probably too far away to be in the picture, it was stated that they are too far away to drive to.

Offline Chris Bergin

"This is the start of our mission" - for the ground team. Control Rooms are less crowed as it's late at night when they are mainly working on the rover.

North wall of Gale in that color image.

Mast cam first image will be of a calibration target and some circles (Tiers) at lower levels.

MSL sends status to a shift that starts at 11pm at night.
« Last Edit: 08/07/2012 05:39 pm by Chris Bergin »
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Offline ugordan

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The rover was always intended to operate in a potentially dusty environment - look at the MER rovers, they are caked. 

I understand that, I was talking only about the dust hazard during landing. Looking at the new MAHLI and navcam images as well as the darkness of the rover in HiRISE images, it looks like it got absolutely caked in seconds.

Offline Chris Bergin

MAHLI guy getting emotional again :) Knows two of his cameras are working.

Will be adjusting the data rate for ODY and MRO - the latter will be upped to 2mb per second.

Hard to tell how much dust they have on the camera covers. Designed to be tolerant to dust. Self inspect images will tell them a lot.

Hazcam might of spotted SkyCrane crashing?! "We can't rule it out".
« Last Edit: 08/07/2012 05:48 pm by Chris Bergin »
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Offline Chris Bergin

Mast cam might be able to spot some of the hardware if the topography is right.

Mast cam images will be tomorrow. Probably not of any terrain.
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Offline Brian Copp

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One of the reporters mentioned something about a test that didn't go well? What's that all about?

Offline Dappa

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One of the reporters mentioned something about a test that didn't go well? What's that all about?
It was about the REMS, I believe it didn't act exactly the way that was expected the second time it was operated. Was mentioned by Mike shorty after the presser started, but I don't remember details.
« Last Edit: 08/07/2012 05:55 pm by Dappa »

Offline Robert Thompson

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Are there prevailing wind directions that were accounted for in choosing where to crash the descent stage.

Offline Herb Schaltegger

Are there prevailing wind directions that were accounted for in choosing where to crash the descent stage.

This was discussed in the press conferences yesterday. The main direction the science team gave to the engineering team was "away from the science." Since they are going drive the rover generally south towards the center of the crater, the descent stage was directed basically northwards.
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Offline John44

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Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover Post-Landing News Briefing - Sol 2 Update
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7765

Offline knotnic

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Damn! Look at how dark the rover is. It must be absolutely covered in dust.

The HiRise image was very oblique (41 deg angle I think) and pointed at the shadowed side of the rover.  So hopefully it's not as dark as it looks. 

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