News release:
2012-227 | Aug. 4, 2012
Mars Tugging on Approaching NASA Rover Curiosity
 |
| Cruise
Vehicles (Artist Concept) |
PASADENA, Calif. - The gravitational tug of Mars is now pulling NASA's
car-size geochemistry laboratory, Curiosity, in for a suspenseful
landing in less than 40 hours.
"After flying more than eight months and 350 million miles since
launch, the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is now right on target
to fly through the eye of the needle that is our target at the top of
the Mars atmosphere," said Mission Manager Arthur Amador of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
The spacecraft is healthy and on course for delivering the mission's
Curiosity rover close to a Martian mountain at 10:31 p.m. Sunday, Aug.
5 PDT (1:31 a.m. Monday, Aug. 6 EDT). That's the time a signal
confirming safe landing could reach Earth, give or take about a minute
for the spacecraft's adjustments to sense changeable atmospheric
conditions.
The only way a safe-landing confirmation can arrive during that first
opportunity is via a relay by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. Curiosity
will not be communicating directly with Earth as it lands, because
Earth will set beneath the Martian horizon from Curiosity's perspective
about two minutes before the landing.
"We are expecting Odyssey to relay good news," said Steve Sell of the
JPL engineering team that developed and tested the mission's
complicated "sky crane" landing system. "That moment has been more than
eight years in the making."
A dust storm in southern Mars being monitored by NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter appears to be dissipating. "Mars is cooperating
by providing good weather for landing," said JPL's Ashwin Vasavada,
deputy project scientist for Curiosity.
Curiosity was approaching Mars at about 8,000 mph (about 3,600 meters
per second) Saturday morning. By the time the spacecraft hits the top
of Mars' atmosphere, about seven minutes before touchdown, gravity will
accelerate it to about 13,200 mph (5,900 meters per second).
NASA plans to use Curiosity to investigate whether the study area has
ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life,
including chemical ingredients for life.
"In the first few weeks after landing, we will be ramping up science
activities gradually as we complete a series of checkouts and we gain
practice at operating this complex robot in Martian conditions," said
JPL's Richard Cook, deputy project manager for Curiosity.
The first Mars pictures expected from Curiosity are reduced-resolution
fisheye black-and-white images received either in the first few minutes
after touchdown or more than two hours later. Higher resolution and
color images from other cameras could come later in the first week.
Plans call for Curiosity to deploy a directional antenna on the first
day after landing and raise the camera mast on the second day.
The big hurdle is landing. Under some possible scenarios, Curiosity
could land safely, but temporary communication difficulties could delay
for hours or even days any confirmation that the rover has survived
landing.
The prime mission lasts a full Martian year, which is nearly two Earth
years. During that period, researchers plan to drive Curiosity partway
up a mountain informally called Mount Sharp. Observations from orbit
have identified exposures there of clay and sulfate minerals that
formed in wet environments.
The Mars Science Laboratory is a project of NASA's Science Mission
Directorate. The mission is managed by JPL, a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Its rover, Curiosity,
was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. Information about the
mission and about ways to participate in challenges of the landing,
including a new video game, is available at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mars
and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/
.
You can follow the mission on Facebook and on Twitter at:
http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity
and
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity
.
For more information about NASA programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov .
The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.
Guy Webster/D.C. Agle 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov / agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Dwayne Brown/Steve Cole 202-358-1726/202-358-0918
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / Stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-227&cid=release_2012-227
