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NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover

NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover

Here’s why the Mars Curiosity camera is so outdated When we first saw pictures from NASA’s Curosity mission to Mars, many of us asked, “That’s it?”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. “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. “There’s a popular belief that projects like this are going to be very advanced, but there are things that mitigate against that,” Ravine said. [vb_gallery id=506192]

Mars orbiter catches pic of Curiosity on its way down! This is truly astonishing: the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped what may turn out to be the Space Picture of the Year: Curiosity descending to Mars under its parachutes! Holy. Haleakala. The rover is safely tucked inside the backshell, suspended underneath its huge parachute. This image was taken just moments after Curiosity’s speed had dropped from thousands of kilometers per hour to just hundreds. This took incredible skills in calculations, engineering, and a just a wee pinch of good timing. The simple and sheer amazingness of this picture cannot be overstated. The news these days is filled with polarization, with hate, with fear, with ignorance. It’s what we can do, and what we must do. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Related Posts: – Humans send their Curiosity to Mars!

Mars orbiter catches pic of Curiosity on its way down! This is truly astonishing: the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped what may turn out to be the Space Picture of the Year: Curiosity descending to Mars under its parachutes! Holy. Haleakala. The rover is safely tucked inside the backshell, suspended underneath its huge parachute. This image was taken just moments after Curiosity’s speed had dropped from thousands of kilometers per hour to just hundreds. Shortly after that, rockets underneath took over the job of slowing it further, so that the sky crane could lower Curiosity safely to the Martian surface. This took incredible skills in calculations, engineering, and a just a wee pinch of good timing. The simple and sheer amazingness of this picture cannot be overstated. The news these days is filled with polarization, with hate, with fear, with ignorance. It’s what we can do, and what we must do. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Related Posts: - Humans send their Curiosity to Mars!

Mars rover Curiosity lands, NASA releases new image and video: ‘The surface mission of Curiosity has now begun’ - Ideas@Innovations 8:23 p.m. - NASA releases short video of Mars rover descent We discovered via io9 this video of the Mars rover Curiosity making its way toward the surface of Mars. The thumbnail images in sequence and taken by the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) show the rover in the last two-and-a-half minutes of Curiosity’s descent to Mars: 1:13: News briefing ends! The news briefing is over. 1:05: What’s the significance of the HiRise imagery “The fact that we see ourselves arriving [on] another planet,” said Miguel San Martin, a member of the altitude control systems team, “it’s just mind boggling to me — to all of us. 1:00: Why is the MSL team living on Mars time for the first 90 Sols? The MSL team will be working on Mars time for the next 90 Martian days or Sols. Working on Mars time gives the team 16 hours to plan an uplink while the rover is sleeping on Mars. 12:55: What will be in the first color image? 12:47: Another news conference scheduled for 4 p.m. (Side note: Sorry about the live video, folks.

Nuclear generator powers Curiosity Mars mission When the Curiosity rover touched down on Mars yesterday, a specially designed nuclear generator kicked into action. Previous Mars missions have relied on solar panels to power the rovers, but exploration was slowed down by dust build-up on the solar panels or short winters days with little sunlight. The Curiosity Rover, which is as big as a large car, is also significantly larger and ten times heavier than previous Martian rovers. Enter the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, or MMRTP, an energy source that relies on the heat generated by decaying plutonium dioxide to run Curiosity. It’s designed to run at least one Martian year, which is almost two Earth years. The Curiosity is essentially a robotic science lab, equipped with sophisticated instruments for taking ground samples and analyzing their chemical make-up in the search for signs of life. Nuclear power has been used in 26 previous space missions over the past 50 years.

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.

Mars Exploration Rovers Skip to main content Loading ... Related Links › Opportunity mission manager reports › Raw images - Opportunity › Raw images - Spirit › JPL Mars Rover site › Discoveries: Spirit and Opportunity› Curiosity Image Gallery › 3D Gallery › Spirit and Opportunity Latest News Latest Images Latest Videos Tweets Tweets about "#@MarsRovers" Page Last Updated: July 28th, 2014 Page Editor: Tony Greicius NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured this scene looking farther southward just after completing a southward drive, in reverse, during the 3,749th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Aug. 10, 2014). The foreground of this view from the rover's mast-mounted navigation camera (Navcam) includes the top of the rover's low-gain antenna, at lower right, and the rear portion of the rover's deck, with the sundial of a camera calibration target. The ground beyond the rover includes some windblown lines of sand. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Exploration Rover Mission: The Mission SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit Remains Silent at Troy More than 1,300 commands were radiated to Spirit as part of the recovery effort in an attempt to elicit a response from the rover. No communication has been received from Spirit since Sol 2210 (March 22, 2010). The project concluded the Spirit recovery efforts on May 25, 2011. Total odometry is unchanged at 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles). Spirit Update Archive OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Further Southwest on 'Murray Ridge' Opportunity is exploring 'Murray Ridge,' part of the west rim of Endeavour Crater. On Sol 3617 (March 28, 2014), the rover continued further to the southwest on Murray Ridge with a 68-foot (20.8-meter) drive. As of Sol 3621 (April 1, 2014), the solar array energy production was 661 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.433 and a solar array dust factor of 0.868.

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity Lands On Mars - Key Facts | Itechwik NASA’s Mars science rover Curiosity landed safely on the Red Planet Mars. Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed Curiosity, a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012 at 05:14:39 UTC. After years of hard work and seven minutes of terror, workers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory let out their tears of joy. It took more than 8 months for the Curiosity to make the journey from Earth to Mars. Almost immediately upon landing early Monday, the Curiosity craft transmitted to Earth a series of photographs showing its own wheels safely on the surface of Gale Crater near the equator of Mars. Specifications Spacecraft The entire spacecraft weighs 3,893 kg (8,580 lb) at launch, consisting of 899 Kg (1,982 lb.) rover; 2,401 kg (5,290 lb) entry, descent and landing system (aeroshell plus descent stage + 390 kg (860 lb) of landing propellant); and 539 kg (1,190 lb) fueled cruise stage. Rover

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 next hurdle to more modern equipment is simple logistics: Curiosity has been in the works since 2004.

Mars Rover Opportunity - Mars Missions Photo 1 of 10 Mars Exploration Rover An artist's concept portrays a NASA Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University › Larger view Mission Summary Opportunity was the second of the two rovers launched in 2003 to land on Mars and begin traversing the Red Planet in search of signs of past life. Since landing on Mars in 2004, Opportunity has made a number of discoveries about the Red Planet including dramatic evidence that long ago at least one area of Mars stayed wet for an extended period and that conditions could have been suitable for sustaining microbial life. › Learn more about Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit Scientific Instrument(s) - Panoramic camera (Pancam)- Microscopic Imager (MI)- Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES)- Mossbauer Spectrometer (MB)- Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS)- Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT)- Magnet arrays- Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams)- Navigation Cameras (Navcams)

Preliminary Design Overview This Overview page for the Preliminary Design Phase contains the following sections: Overview The preliminary design phase may also be known as conceptual design or architectural design . The objective of the design phases (preliminary and detailed) is to create a design that will correctly and completely implement the requirements. The objective of design assurance is to verify that the design does implement all the requirements, and that it implements nothing but the requirements. The main design activities for the preliminary design phase are: Create the high-level design description. This assurance process for complex electronics assumes that complex electronics requirements have been developed, assessed, and baselined (formalized). Preliminary Design Process The diagram below shows the preliminary design process for complex electronics. Entrance Criteria: The complex electronics requirements should be complete and baselined. Exit Criteria: Roles and Responsibilities

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. 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:

Mars Rover Spirit - Mars Missions Photo 1 of 8 Artist concept of Mars Exploration Rover An artist's concept portrays a NASA Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. Mission Summary One of two rovers launched in 2003 to explore Mars and search for signs of past life, Spirit far outlasted her planned 90-day mission. In May 2009, the rover became embedded in soft soil at a site called "Troy" with only five working wheels to aid in the rescue effort. › Learn more about Spirit's twin rover, Opportunity Scientific Instrument(s) - Panoramic camera (Pancam)- Microscopic Imager (MI)- Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES)- Mossbauer Spectrometer (MB)- Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS)- Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT)- Magnet arrays- Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams)- Navigation Cameras (Navcams)

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