[meteorite-list] Asteroids as Seen From Mars; A Curiosity Rover First

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 12:58:20 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201404251958.s3PJwKnx025360_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-126

Asteroids as Seen From Mars; A Curiosity Rover First
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
April 24, 2014

A new image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is the first ever from the
surface of Mars to show an asteroid, and it shows two: Ceres and Vesta.

These two -- the largest and third-largest bodies in the asteroid belt
between Mars and Jupiter -- are the destinations of NASA's Dawn mission.
Dawn orbited Vesta in 2011 and 2012, and is on its way to begin orbiting
Ceres next year. Ceres is a dwarf planet, as well as an asteroid.

Ceres and Vesta appear as short, faint streaks in a 12-second exposure
taken by Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) on April 20, 2014, PDT (April
21, UTC). An annotated version of the image, also including insets from
other observations the same night, is online at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17937

"This imaging was part of an experiment checking the opacity of the
atmosphere at night in Curiosity's location on Mars, where water-ice
clouds and hazes develop during this season," said camera team member
Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station. "The two Martian
moons were the main targets that night, but we chose a time when one of
the moons was near Ceres and Vesta in the sky."

Ceres and Vesta are much larger and farther from Earth's orbit than the
types of near-Earth asteroids under consideration for NASA's asteroid
initiative. That initiative includes two separate, but related
activities: the asteroid redirect mission and the grand challenge. NASA
is currently developing concepts for the redirect mission that will
employ a robotic spacecraft, driven by an advanced solar electric
propulsion system, to capture a small near-Earth asteroid or remove a
boulder from the surface of a larger asteroid. The spacecraft then will
attempt to redirect the object into a stable orbit around the moon.

Astronauts will travel aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft, launched on the
Space Launch System rocket, to rendezvous in lunar orbit with the
captured asteroid. Once there, they will collect samples to return to
Earth for study.

The grand challenge is a search for the best ideas for finding asteroids
that pose a potential threat to human populations, and to accelerate the
work NASA already is doing for planetary defense.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess
ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian
environmental conditions. JPL, a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Malin Space Science
Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover's Mastcam.

More information about the Dawn mission is available at these websites:
http://www.nasa.gov/dawn http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .

For more information about Curiosity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook
at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at:
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

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

2014-126
Received on Fri 25 Apr 2014 03:58:20 PM PDT