[meteorite-list] Curiosity Update - August 8, 2012

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2012 12:55:56 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201208091955.q79JtuX8002381_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1298

Curiosity Continues Checking Herself Out; Takes Self Portrait
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 8, 2012

After waking up to the rousing refrains of the Beatles' "Good
Morning Good Morning," a healthy Curiosity continued checking out her
systems and returning amazing imagery. The Sol 2 morning and afternoon
UHF communications passes from NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter spacecraft provided significant new data, including spectacular
full-frame images of the Mars Science Laboratory's descent through the
Martian atmosphere by Curiosity's Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) instrument.
Other imagery included full-frame views from the rover's navigation cameras,
or Navcams, looking at the rim of Gale Crater; the first, lower-resolution
thumbnail 360-degree view of Curiosity's new surroundings in Gale Crater;
deck pan images of the rover herself; and images of the Martian surface
next to the rover. Another image set, courtesy of the Context Camera,
or CTX, aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, has pinpointed the
final resting spots of the six, 55-pound (25-kilogram) entry ballast masses.
These tungsten masses impacted the Martian surface at high speed, about
7.5 miles (12 kilometers) from Curiosity's landing location.

The rover's high-gain antenna was successfully pointed toward Earth. Its
3.6-foot-tall (1.1-meter) remote sensing mast was deployed, and range of
motion was successfully tested. Surface radiation data were acquired from
the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) instrument but have not yet been
downlinked. Curiosity's temperatures are running a bit warmer than
expected; however, the flight team believes this is because Gale Crater
is simply a bit warmer than originally predicted.

Plans for Sol 3 include assessing the performance
of the high-gain antenna; uplinking files for the upcoming transition
of Curiosity's flight software to the surface-optimized version R10 on
Sol 5; Radiation Assessment Detector instrument observations; and Mastcam
calibration target and 360-degree color panorama images. In addition,
the rover's Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS), Chemistry & Mineralogy
Analyzer (CheMin), Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), and Dynamic Albedo Neutrons
(DAN) instruments will be checked out.
Received on Thu 09 Aug 2012 03:55:56 PM PDT