[meteorite-list] NASA Mars Curiosity Rover: Two Years and Counting on Red Planet

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2014 15:31:23 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201408052231.s75MVNZw028965_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-262

NASA Mars Curiosity Rover: Two Years and Counting on Red Planet
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 05, 2014

NASA's most advanced roving laboratory on Mars celebrates its second
anniversary since landing inside the Red Planet's Gale Crater on Aug. 5,
2012, PDT (Aug. 6, 2012, EDT).

During its first year of operations, the Curiosity rover fulfilled its
major science goal of determining whether Mars ever offered
environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. Clay-bearing
sedimentary rocks on the crater floor in an area called Yellowknife Bay
yielded evidence of a lakebed environment billions of years ago that
offered fresh water, all of the key elemental ingredients for life, and
a chemical source of energy for microbes, if any existed there.

"Before landing, we expected that we would need to drive much farther
before answering that habitability question," said Curiosity Project
Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena. "We were able to take advantage of landing very close to an
ancient streambed and lake. Now we want to learn more about how
environmental conditions on Mars evolved, and we know where to go to do
that."

During its second year, Curiosity has been driving toward long-term
science destinations on lower slopes of Mount Sharp. Those destinations
are in an area beginning about 2 miles (3 kilometers) southwest of the
rover's current location, but an appetizer outcrop of a base layer of
the mountain lies much closer -- less than one-third of a mile (500
meters) from Curiosity. The rover team is calling the outcrop "Pahrump
Hills."

For about half of July, the rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, California, drove Curiosity across an area of
hazardous sharp rocks on Mars called "Zabriskie Plateau." Damage to
Curiosity's aluminum wheels from driving across similar terrain last
year prompted a change in route, with the plan of skirting such
rock-studded terrain wherever feasible. The one-eighth mile (200 meters)
across Zabriskie Plateau was one of the longest stretches without a
suitable detour on the redesigned route toward the long-term science
destination.

Another recent challenge appeared last week in the form of unexpected
behavior by an onboard computer currently serving as backup. Curiosity
carries duplicate main computers. It has been operating on its B-side
computer since a problem with the A-side computer prompted the team to
command a side swap in February 2013. Work in subsequent weeks of 2013
restored availability of the A-side as a backup in case of B-side
trouble. In July, fresh commanding of the rover was suspended for two
days while engineers confirmed that the A-side computer remains reliable
as a backup.

To help prepare for future human missions to Mars, Curiosity incudes a
radiation detector to measure the environment astronauts will encounter
on a round-trip between Earth and the Martian surface. The data are
consistent with earlier predictions and will help NASA scientists and
engineers develop new technologies to protect astronauts in deep space.

In 2016, a Mars lander mission called InSight will launch to take the
first look into the deep interior of Mars. The agency also is
participating in the European Space Agency's (ESA's) 2016 and 2018
ExoMars missions, including providing "Electra" telecommunication radios
to ESA's 2016 orbiter and a critical element of the astrobiology
instrument on the 2018 ExoMars rover.

Additionally, NASA recently announced that its next rover going to Mars
in 2020 will carry seven carefully selected instruments to conduct
unprecedented investigations in science and technology, as well as
capabilities needed for humans to pioneer the Red Planet.

Based on the design of the highly successful Mars Science Laboratory
rover, Curiosity, the new rover will carry more sophisticated, upgraded
hardware and new instruments to conduct geological assessments of the
rover's landing site, determine the potential habitability of the
environment, and directly search for signs of ancient Martian life.

Scientists will use the Mars 2020 rover to identify and select a
collection of rock and soil samples that will be stored for potential
return to Earth by a future mission. The Mars 2020 mission is responsive
to the science objectives recommended by the National Research Council's
2011 Planetary Science Decadal Survey.

The Mars 2020 rover will help further advance our knowledge of how
future human explorers could use natural resources available on the
surface of the Red Planet. An ability to live off the Martian land would
transform future exploration of the planet. Designers of future human
expeditions can use this mission to understand the hazards posed by
Martian dust and demonstrate technology to process carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere to produce oxygen. These experiments will help engineers
learn how to use Martian resources to produce oxygen for human
respiration and potentially as an oxidizer for rocket fuel.

The Mars 2020 rover is part of the agency's Mars Exploration Program,
which includes the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, the Odyssey and
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft currently orbiting the planet,
and the MAVEN orbiter, which is set to arrive at the Red Planet in
September and will study the Martian upper atmosphere.

NASA's Mars Exploration Program seeks to characterize and understand
Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment,
climate cycles, geology and biological potential. In parallel, NASA is
developing the human spaceflight capabilities needed for future
round-trip missions to Mars.

Follow our progress on NASA's Journey to Mars at:

www.nasa.gov/exploration <http://www.nasa.gov/exploration>

www.nasa.gov/mars <http://www.nasa.gov/mars>

For more information about Curiosity, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

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

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

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

2014-262
Received on Tue 05 Aug 2014 06:31:23 PM PDT