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Mars Exploration Rovers

Mars Exploration Rovers

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. The remaining, pre-sequenced ultra-high frequency (UHF) relay passes scheduled for Spirit on board the Odyssey orbiter will complete on June 8, 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.

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 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 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.

Lifting SAM Instrument for Installation into Mars Rover Lifting SAM Instrument for Installation into Mars Rover The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, largest of the 10 science instruments for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, will examine samples of Martian rocks, soil and atmosphere for information about chemicals that are important to life and other chemical indicators about past and present environments. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., built SAM. The 40-kilogram (88-pound) instrument includes three laboratory tools for analyzing chemistry, plus mechanisms for handling and processing samples. In this photograph, technicians and engineers inside a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., prepare to install SAM into the mission's Mars rover, Curiosity. The photograph was taken on Jan. 6, 2011. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

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. 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)

Mars Rover Set to "Drive, Drive, Drive"—Headed for "Prize" Mountain With its extensive robotic-arm tests set to conclude Thursday, the Mars Science Laboratory rover—aka Curiosity—is ready to "drive, drive, drive," mission manager Jennifer Trosper of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said in a press conference Wednesday. The initial goal? "To find the right rock to begin doing contact science with the arm." Once there, the rover can call on the most sophisticated suite of tools ever sent to an alien planet, including an x-ray spectrometer to identify elements in rocks, a supersharp close-up camera, and a lab-in-a-box that chemically analyzes samples dropped in by the arm. The ultimate goal is to uncover—or rule out—the evidence of past or present organic compounds and other substances seen as building blocks of life as we know it. Curiosity's likely next stop is a site called Glenelg, chosen in part because it features three types of rock. Scientists want to understand how towering Mount Sharp came to be in the middle of a crater. Is Curiosity a He?

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. Two rovers have been built for 2003 launches and January 2004 arrival at two sites on Mars. Each rover has the mobility and toolkit to function as a robotic geologist. 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)

Landing a Space Probe or Rover 1. Watch the NASA video “Intro to Engineering.” Show students the NASA video. As you hear each step described in the video, write it on the board: Question—identify the question you are trying to answerIdeas—brainstorm ideas to solve the problem; pick the one that makes the most senseDraw plan—sketch out a planBuild—build the modelTest —test multiple times, improving on the original idea between each test Explain to students that they will follow these same steps that scientists and engineers use as they design and create a vehicle that can safely land a probe or rover on a planet. 2. 3. 4. parachute material, such as cut up garbage bags, paperlander (egg) container, such as egg carton segments, paper cupslander (egg) protection, such as bubble wrap, crumpled newspaper, styrofoamdevices to attach the parachute to the lander, such as string, rubber bands, paper clips Encourage students to consider not just the material of each part, but size as well. 5. 6. 7.

Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover - Mars Missions Photo 1 of 10 Curiosity: The Next Mars Rover (Artist's Concept) This artist concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life. Mission Summary The Mars Science Laboratory mission's Curiosity rover, the most technologically advanced rover ever built, landed in Mars' Gale Crater the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT) using a series of complicated landing maneuvers never before attempted. Curiosity's mission is to determine whether the Red Planet ever was, or is, habitable to microbial life. Scientific Instrument(s) - Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)- Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam)- Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS)- Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin)- Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN)- Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)- Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)- Mast Camera (Mastcam)- Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD)- Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS)

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. The robotic lab sailed through space for more than eight months, covering 352 million miles (566 million km), before piercing Mars’s atmosphere at 13,000 miles (20,921 km) per hour — 17 times the speed of sound — before starting its descent. The USD 2.5 billion spacecraft is the largest and most advanced ever sent to another planet. Specifications Spacecraft Rover Curiosity rover has a mass of 899. Instruments Cameras : Curiosity has seventeen cameras overall. Mars Facts You Might Not Know About

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