''Curiosity'' rover. Curiosity is a car-sized robotic rover exploring Gale Crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL).[3] Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011, at 10:02 EST aboard the MSL spacecraft and successfully landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:17 UTC.[1][7] The Bradbury Landing site[8] was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the center of the rover's touchdown target after a 563,000,000 km (350,000,000 mi) journey.[11] Curiosity's design will serve as the basis for a planned Mars 2020 rover mission. In December 2012, Curiosity's two-year mission was extended indefinitely.[14] In April and early May 2013, Curiosity went into an autonomous operation mode for approximately 25 days during Earth–Mars solar conjunction.
During this time, the rover continued to monitor atmospheric and radiation data, but did not move on the Martian surface.[15][16] Biological Geological and geochemical Planetary process Surface radiation. Curiosity Cam, Ustream.TV. Raw Images from Curiosity. NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover. Curiosity Rover. Bobak F. (tweetsoutloud) MarsCuriosity: I just unlocked the "Newbie"... Mars Science Laboratory. Overview[edit] Hubble view of Mars: Gale crater can be seen.
Slightly left and south of center, it's a small dark spot with dust trailing southward from it. MSL successfully carried out a more accurate landing than previous spacecraft to Mars, aiming for a small target landing ellipse of only 7 by 20 km (4.3 by 12.4 mi),[17] in the Aeolis Palus region of Gale Crater.
In the event, MSL achieved a landing only 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) from the center of the target.[18] This location is near the mountain Aeolis Mons (a.k.a. "Mount Sharp").[19][20] The rover mission is set to explore for at least 687 Earth days (1 Martian year) over a range of 5 by 20 km (3.1 by 12.4 mi).[21] The Mars Science Laboratory mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort for the robotic exploration of Mars that is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of California Institute of Technology.
The total cost of the MSL project is about US$2.5 billion.[22][23] Previous successful U.S. Mars Science Laboratory, the Next Mars Rover. An introduction to the instruments and apps for the Mars Curiosity Rover. This is a brief introduction to the numerous scientific gadgets and mobile apps for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) a.k.a. the Mars Curiosity Rover. The information overload for just the mission alone may be overwhelming. Everybody is hoping that the MSL lands intact and fully operational. Even University of Michigan Engineering played a role in the landing of the MSL craft (link to their video here). Also associated with the MSL are Dr. Without intact scientific instruments and gadgets on board the MSL - the mission's scientific goals wouldn't be accomplished. Perhaps second to SAM is the Chemical and Mineralogy (CheMin) suite of instruments.
If you are interested in keeping up to date with MSL you may do so via your mobile device. For the Android app link to: For your iTunes device: For Windows Phone: Here’s why the Mars Curiosity camera is so outdated. When we first saw pictures from NASA’s Curosity mission to Mars, many of us asked, “That’s it?” Yes, the images weren’t as detailed as we wanted, but they were from another planet, so we happily gobbled them up. But why does the Mars rover feature paltry 2-megapixel sensors on its main imaging cameras? The decision stems from planning of the rover’s systems back in 2004, Malin Space Science Systems project manager Mike Ravine told Digital Photography Review. The planning team selected the 2-megapixel sensor on Curiosity for several reasons.
First, it had to produce a reasonable amount of data for transmission back to Earth via a UHF transmitter. Second, it had to meet the needs of four different camera types. “We developed all four cameras around a common architecture, so the choice of sensor was hedged across all of them,” Ravine said. In light of advanced camera technology featured on today’s smartphones, Ravine seems slightly disappointed the images on Mars aren’t more breathtaking. Curiosity's camera project leader explains 2-megapixel choice. Chances are good that if you bought a cellphone within the last five years, its camera shoots higher resolution images than those on NASA's Curiosity rover.
But in case you forgot, megapixel counts only tell part of the story, and there’s a lot more behind the choice of sensors in Curiosity’s Mastcams than you might guess. You thought your data cap was bad Here on Earth, we've grown accustomed to throwing around high-res photos on fast wireless broadband networks, but in order for Curiosity to send images home it needs to rely on plain old UHF, explains the camera project’s manager Mike Ravine to Digital Photography Review. So while a 5GB monthly data cap on your cellphone plan might seem restrictive, Curiosity can only transmit about 31.25MB per day, or less than a gigabyte per month, and that quota has to cover readings from a bunch of other instruments on board.
Other big considerations were the sensors’ reliability and the team’s familiarity with them. Why does the $2.5 billion Curiosity use a 2-megapixel camera? It’s not often these days that people get excited about 256×256 images or that anyone considers 2 megapixels to be “high resolution,” but when the imaging device in question is between 34 and 249 million miles away the story changes significantly. The Mars rover Curiosity, despite being one of the more impressive human achievements of the last decade and costing tax payers around $2.5 billion, uses a 2-megapixel sensor in its main camera array. That detail might have raised eyebrows with anyone familiar with digital imaging as it’s surprisingly low, especially considering that today’s affordable digicams have at least 10 megapixels and “expensive” models pack upwards of 40.
The sensor used on Curiosity was the KAI-2020 from TrueSense Imaging. It shoots at 1600×1200 and is an interline CCD (as opposed to full-frame CCD, frame transfer CCD, or CMOS). So why go with just 2MP? The choice was made for a number of reasons, some of which might not be immediately obvious.