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Curiosity (Mars Rover)

Mon, Oct 15 2012 4:28 PM (39 replies)
  • nickuk
    967 Posts
    Sat, Oct 13 2012 11:55 AM

    Well..here we are sol 63......

    Sol 63, in Mars local mean solar time at Gale Crater, ended at 1:03 a.m. Oct. 10, PDT (4:03 a.m., EDT)

    yep....you guessed it....rocks and a few scoops is all we got so far!

    I think its travelled less than a mile....anyway......

    The team operating Curiosity decided on Oct. 9, 2012, to proceed with using the rover's first scoop of Martian material. Plans for Sol 64 (Oct. 10) call for shifting the scoopful of sand and dust into the mechanism for sieving and portioning samples, and vibrating it vigorously to clean internal surfaces of the mechanism. This first scooped sample, and the second one, will be discarded after use, since they are only being used for the cleaning process. Subsequent samples scooped from the same "Rocknest" area will be delivered to analytical instruments.

    Investigation of a small, bright object thought to have come from the rover may resume between the first and second scoop. Over the past two sols, with rover arm activities on hold, the team has assessed the object as likely to be some type of plastic wrapper material, such as a tube used around a wire, possibly having fallen onto the rover from the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's descent stage during the landing in August.

    Sol 63 activities included extended weather measurements by the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station, or REMS. The Sol 63 planning also called for panoramic imaging by the Mast Camera, or Mastcam, in the early morning light of Sol 64, before uplink of Sol 64 commands. 

    A Sol 61 raw image from the right Mast Camera, at http://1.usa.gov/VSwTN7 , shows the location from which Curiosity's first scoop of soil was collected.

    Tangent:http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vdkmj/Horizon_20102011_What_Happened_Before_the_Big_Bang/

  • TWOMINUSONE
    2,580 Posts
    Sat, Oct 13 2012 3:46 PM

    Hmmm, i love this Mars Rover big time, but im now wondering if that small bright object picked up by Curiosity might be  actually 1 of my Nikes's from a wayward VEM induced shot?. 

  • alcaucin
    9,041 Posts
    Sat, Oct 13 2012 10:34 PM

    TWOMINUSONE:
    , but im now wondering if that small bright object picked up by Curiosity might be  actually 1 of my Nikes's from a wayward VEM induced shot?. 

     

    Beat me too it !! ....Lmao...........Andy

  • Dougie4042
    4,410 Posts
    Sun, Oct 14 2012 2:10 AM

    TWOMINUSONE:
    VEM induced shot?. 

    VEM?

  • drmoose
    3,542 Posts
    Sun, Oct 14 2012 7:08 AM

    The "VEM" stands for "Virtual Equipment Model" which WGT uses to explain away all sorts of physically impossible reactions of the "ball / club interface". This, when combined with the programmed "deviation factor" often results in totally ludicrous situations where indeed it is possible to land one next to the Mars' rover.

    ( Good 1, TWOMINUSONE, lol)

    Doc :)

  • bubbadork
    984 Posts
    Sun, Oct 14 2012 8:01 AM

    I first started watching these things when they put the Sojourner up (which didn't last very long).  There weren't any live feeds or anything, just had to go to the JPL site and look at pics.  For Curiosity, I have a link on my button bar,  http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/

    I check it at least once a day for new photos.  Fascinating for an ol' geezer like me who has always followed the space program with interest, and watched the moon landings. I couldn't believe my daughter (age 6 at the time) wasn't interested in the first moon landing!

     

  • renniw52
    5,385 Posts
    Sun, Oct 14 2012 1:58 PM

    Do you all actually believe we have landed on Mars. We still can't cure the common cold. I spent several years in the military, with a security clearance as high as it gets. Thank god I am declassified now. What I knew makes me sick.

  • renniw52
    5,385 Posts
    Sun, Oct 14 2012 2:21 PM

    Now you got me started. We are living in a country where, for several centuries, blood has been spilled to have our freedom. Do you really want your tax dollars spent on exploring the so called red planet? We have people who are homeless, and starving right next door to us. Get excited about a BS machine roaming a far away planet. Do you plan on going there, setting up a homestead, how will you make a living? I will leave this post with these words, Live in your fantasy land.

  • alcaucin
    9,041 Posts
    Sun, Oct 14 2012 2:24 PM

    On the other hand...if we don't find out how to get off this ball of rock and on to others, our ancestors are gonna have real good suntans..:) ......Andy

  • bubbadork
    984 Posts
    Sun, Oct 14 2012 3:00 PM

    Some people think that feeding starving people and protecting every level of the gene pool is important.  Some don't.  No kind of reasoning, from either side, has much effect in altering the positions.  Time will tell.

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