[meteorite-list] Orbiter Images NASA's Latest Additions to Martian Landscape

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 15:27:54 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201208072227.q77MRs4q005371_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

Aug. 7, 2012

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

Guy Webster / D.C. Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278 / 818-393-9011
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov / agle at jpl.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 12-271

ORBITER IMAGES NASA'S LATEST ADDITIONS TO MARTIAN LANDSCAPE

PASADENA, Calif. -- Late Monday night, an image from the High
Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the Curiosity rover and the
components that helped it survive its seven-minute ordeal from space
to its present location in Mars' Gale Crater.

"This latest image is another demonstration of the invaluable
assistance the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team and its sister team
with the Mars Odyssey orbiter have provided the Curiosity rover
during our early days on the Red Planet," said Mike Watkins, mission
manager for the Mars Science Laboratory mission at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "The image not only
satisfies our curiosity, it can provide important information on how
these vital components performed during entry, descent and landing,
and exactly locate the rover's touchdown site within Gale Crater."

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's (MRO) image of Curiosity and its
parachute, back shell, heat shield and descent stage can be found at:

http://go.nasa.gov/OXjKz6

The Curiosity rover is in the center of the image. To the right,
approximately 4,900 feet away, lies the heat shield, which protected
the rover from 3,800-degree-Fahrenheit temperatures encountered
during its fiery descent. On the lower left, about 2,020 feet away,
are the parachute and back shell. The parachute has a constructed
diameter of 71 feet and an inflated diameter of 51 feet. The back
shell remains connected to the chute via 80, 165-foot-long suspension
lines. To the upper-left, approximately 2,100 feet away from the
rover, is a discoloration of the Mars surface consistent with what
would have resulted when the rocket-powered Sky Crane impacted the
surface.

"This is the first of what I imagine will be many portraits HiRISE
will be taking of Curiosity on the surface of Mars," said Sarah
Milkovich, HiRISE investigation scientist at JPL. "The image was
taken Monday at about 10:30 p.m. Pacific when MRO was at an altitude
of about 186 miles and we are getting resolution on the surface down
to 1.3 feet per pixel."

As more of Curiosity's instruments are coming online, more "first
images" are being downlinked from the rover's 17 cameras. The latest
to come in is from the Mars Hand Lens Imager or MAHLI. The focusable
color camera is located on the tool-bearing turret at the end of
Curiosity's robotic arm. Researchers will use it for magnified,
close-up views of rocks and soils and also for wider scenes of the
ground, the landscape or even the rover.

"It is great to have our first MAHLI image under our belt," said Ken
Edgett, principal investigator for MAHLI from Malin Space Science in
San Diego. "We tested the focus mechanism and imager and the whole
system is looking good. We are looking forward to getting up close
and personal with Mars."

The first MAHLI image, taken with the dust-coated clear plastic cover
over the lens, is available at:

http://go.nasa.gov/Qb3l6U

The team plans for Curiosity checkout Tuesday include raising the
rover's mast and continued testing of the high-gain antenna.

Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as
large as the science payloads on the Mars rovers Spirit and
Opportunity. Some of the tools, such as a laser-firing instrument for
checking rocks' elemental composition from a distance, are the first
of their kind on Mars. Curiosity will use a drill and scoop which is
located at the end of its robotic arm to gather soil and powdered
samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples
into the rover's analytical laboratory instruments.

To handle this science toolkit, Curiosity is twice as long and five
times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. The Gale Crater landing site
places the rover within driving distance of layers of the crater's
interior mountain. Observations from orbit have identified clay and
sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history.

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona in Tucson. The
instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in
Boulder, Colo. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Exploration
Rover projects are managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate. JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver,
built the orbiter.

For more information on NASA's Curiosity mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mars

and

http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

For more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mro

Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:

http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity

and

http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity
        
-end-
Received on Tue 07 Aug 2012 06:27:54 PM PDT


Help support this free mailing list:



StumbleUpon
del.icio.us
reddit
Yahoo MyWeb