NASA's Rover "Curiosity" Approaching Mars

deadkndys · Aug 5, 2012

NASA's Curiosity rover was flying under the influence of Martian gravity today, on course and on schedule, as the control room crew in Pasadena got ready for Sunday night's nail-biting landing.

At midmorning today, Curiosity was approaching Mars at 8,000 miles per hour, and is accelerating under the planet's gravity to an eventual speed of 13,200 mph. A heat shield and very-complicated landing system will slow it down to a virtual stop as it hovers with jet power, and the actual rover vehicle is lowered to the surface by three nylon tethers.

Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said today that a worrisome dust storm on the red planet was dissipating. "Mars is cooperating by providing good weather for landing,'' said the JPL's Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist for the NASA effort.

A Martian dust storm would have been a serious problem for the one-ton, car-size rover that is billed by NASA and JPL as the most scientifically advanced robotic vehicle ever dispatched. The jet-powered descent vehicle cannot be steered away from its planned landing site, and NASA has one chance to land it.

The rover carries 10 science instruments, including a mast that extends to seven feet above ground for cameras and a laser-firing apparatus to study objects from a distance. The rover also includes analytical instruments to determine the composition of rock and soil samples collected with the rover arm's drill and scoop.

The rover also has instruments to study the planet's environment, including the weather and natural radiation.
But before all of those instruments can be put to work, Curiosity needs to land intact. The rover is scheduled to touch down on Mars at 10:31 p.m. California time. That landing will come after a knuckle-whitening seven minutes at JPL in Pasadena, where scientists will be monitoring the novel method of delivering the rover to the planet's surface.

Previous Mars rovers such as Spirit and Opportunity plunged through Mars' atmosphere in protective air-bag-like structures, allowing them to literally bounce onto the planet's surface. Curiosity is far too large for that type of landing, so mission planners had to come up with something different. What they came up with was a "sky-crane'' system, during which the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft carrying the rover will wing through the planet's upper atmosphere.

During what JPL controllers have been calling "the seven minutes of terror,'' the spacecraft will have to decelerate through the Martian atmosphere from a speed of about 13,200 mph to about 1.7 mph, with the help of a high-tech supersonic parachute. In the final seconds, Curiosity will be lowered on three nylon tethers, and retro rockets will be fired to control its descent onto the surface on its wheels.

"Those seven minutes are the most challenging part of this entire mission,'' said Pete Theisinger, the $2.5 billion Curiosity mission's project manager at JPL. "For the landing to succeed, hundreds of events will need to go right, many with split-second timing and all controlled autonomously by the spacecraft. We've done all we can think of to succeed. We expect to get Curiosity safely onto the ground, but there is no guarantee. The risks are real.''
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Source: Wall Street Journal

HeaDiEs RusH · Aug 5, 2012

Sweeeeet. Let's hope NASA doesn't screw this up, they've messed up before.

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NASA's Rover "Curiosity" Approaching Mars

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