[meteorite-list] New Animation Depicts Next Mars Rover in Action (MSL)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:25:20 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201106280025.p5S0PKr3027134_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-195

New Animation Depicts Next Mars Rover in Action
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
June 24, 2011

Although NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will not leave Earth until late
this year nor land on Mars until August 2012, anyone can watch those
dramatic events now in a new animation of the mission.

The full, 11-minute animation, at
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=97780842
, shows sequences such as the spacecraft separating from its launch
vehicle near Earth and the mission's rover, Curiosity, zapping rocks
with a laser and examining samples of powdered rock on Mars. A shorter,
narrated version is also available, at
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=97718982 .

Curiosity's landing will use a different method than any previous Mars
landing, with the rover suspended on tethers from a rocket-backpack "sky
crane."

The new animation combines detailed views of the spacecraft with scenes
of real places on Mars, based on stereo images taken by earlier missions.

"It is a treat for the 2,000 or more people who have worked on the Mars
Science Laboratory during the past eight years to watch these action
scenes of the hardware the project has developed and assembled," said
Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager Pete Theisinger at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The animation also provides an
exciting view of this mission for any fan of adventure and exploration."

JPL manages the Mars Science Laboratory project for the NASA Science
Mission Directorate, Washington. The rover and other parts of the
spacecraft have been delivered to NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida
for launch during the period of Nov. 25 to Dec. 18, 2011. In August
2012, Curiosity will land on Mars for a two-year mission to examine
whether conditions in the landing area have been favorable for microbial
life and for preserving evidence about whether life has existed there.
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

For more information about the Mars Science Laboratory, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2011-195
Received on Mon 27 Jun 2011 08:25:20 PM PDT