[meteorite-list] Mars Tugging on Approaching NASA Rover Curiosity

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2012 11:42:59 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201208041842.q74IgxPX015409_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-227

Mars Tugging on Approaching NASA Rover Curiosity
Jet Propulsion Laboraotyr
August 04, 2012

PASADENA, Calif. - The gravitational tug of Mars is now pulling NASA's car-size geochemistry laboratory,
Curiosity, in for a suspenseful landing in less than 40 hours.

"After flying more than eight months and 350 million miles since launch, the Mars Science Laboratory
spacecraft is now right on target to fly through the eye of the needle that is our target at the top
of the Mars atmosphere," said Mission Manager Arthur Amador of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif.

The spacecraft is healthy and on course for delivering the mission's Curiosity rover close to a Martian
mountain at 10:31 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5 PDT (1:31 a.m. Monday, Aug. 6 EDT). That's the time a signal
confirming safe landing could reach Earth, give or take about a minute for the spacecraft's adjustments
to sense changeable atmospheric conditions.

The only way a safe-landing confirmation can arrive during that first opportunity is via a relay by
NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. Curiosity will not be communicating directly with Earth as it lands,
because Earth will set beneath the Martian horizon from Curiosity's perspective about two minutes
before the landing.

"We are expecting Odyssey to relay good news," said Steve Sell of the JPL engineering team that
developed and tested the mission's complicated "sky crane" landing system. "That moment has been more
than eight years in the making."

A dust storm in southern Mars being monitored by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter appears to be
dissipating. "Mars is cooperating by providing good weather for landing," said JPL's Ashwin Vasavada,
deputy project scientist for Curiosity.

Curiosity was approaching Mars at about 8,000 mph (about 3,600 meters per second) Saturday morning.
By the time the spacecraft hits the top of Mars' atmosphere, about seven minutes before touchdown,
gravity will accelerate it to about 13,200 mph (5,900 meters per second).

NASA plans to use Curiosity to investigate whether the study area has ever offered environmental
conditions favorable for microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life.

"In the first few weeks after landing, we will be ramping up science activities gradually as we
complete a series of checkouts and we gain practice at operating this complex robot in Martian
conditions," said JPL's Richard Cook, deputy project manager for Curiosity.

The first Mars pictures expected from Curiosity are reduced-resolution fisheye black-and-white images
received either in the first few minutes after touchdown or more than two hours later. Higher resolution
and color images from other cameras could come later in the first week. Plans call for Curiosity to
deploy a directional antenna on the first day after landing and raise the camera mast on the second day.

The big hurdle is landing. Under some possible scenarios, Curiosity could land safely, but temporary
communication difficulties could delay for hours or even days any confirmation that the rover has
survived landing.

The prime mission lasts a full Martian year, which is nearly two Earth years. During that period,
researchers plan to drive Curiosity partway up a mountain informally called Mount Sharp. Observations
from orbit have identified exposures there of clay and sulfate minerals that formed in wet environments.

The Mars Science Laboratory is a project of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The mission is managed
by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Its rover, Curiosity, was
designed, developed and assembled at JPL. Information about the mission and about ways to participate
in challenges of the landing, including a new video game, is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/mars and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .

You can follow the mission on Facebook and on Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

For more information about NASA programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov .

The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

Guy Webster/D.C. Agle 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov / agle at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown/Steve Cole 202-358-1726/202-358-0918
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov / Stephen.e.cole at nasa.gov

2012-227
Received on Sat 04 Aug 2012 02:42:59 PM PDT