Tuesday, April 03, 2012 3:10:14 AM
Mars Exploration program
PROGRAM & MISSIONS PROGRAM & MISSIONS | ALL ABOUT MARS | NEWS | MULTIMEDIA | PARTICIPATE
Mars Science Laboratory Mars Missions Navigation
Mars Science Laboratory with Power Source and Extended Arm,
List Item .. Mission Website .. Mission Press Kit .. Mission Fact Sheet .. Power-Source Fact Sheets
Mars Science Laboratory
Spacecraft
Launch: Nov. 26, 2011, 7:02a.m. PST (10:02a.m. EST)
Launch Window: Nov. 25- Dec. 18, 2011
Arrival: August, 2012
Overview
Building on the success of the two rover geologists that arrived at Mars in January, 2004, NASA's next rover mission is being planned for travel to Mars before the end of the decade. Twice as long and three times as heavy as the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Science Laboratory will collect Martian soil and rock samples and analyze them for organic compounds and environmental conditions that could have supported microbial life now or in the past. The mission is anticipated to have a truly international flavor, with a neutron-based hydrogen detector for locating water provided by the Russian Federal Space Agency, a meteorological package provided by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, and a spectrometer provided by the Canadian Space Agency.
Mars Science Laboratory is intended to be the first planetary mission to use precision landing techniques, steering itself toward the Martian surface similar to the way the space shuttle controls its entry through the Earth's upper atmosphere. In this way, the spacecraft will fly to a desired location above the surface of Mars before deploying its parachute for the final landing. As currently envisioned, in the final minutes before touchdown, the spacecraft will activate its parachute and retro rockets before lowering the rover package to the surface on a tether (similar to the way a skycrane helicopter moves a large object). This landing method will enable the rover to land in an area 20 to 40 kilometers (12 to 24 miles) long, about the size of a small crater or wide canyon and three to five times smaller than previous landing zones on Mars.
Like the twin rovers now on the surface of Mars, Mars Science Laboratory will have six wheels and cameras mounted on a mast. Unlike the twin rovers, it will carry a laser for vaporizing a thin layer from the surface of a rock and analyzing the elemental composition of the underlying materials. It will be able to collect rock and soil samples and distribute them to on-board test chambers for chemical analysis. Its design includes a suite of scientific instruments for identifying organic compounds such as proteins, amino acids, and other acids and bases that attach themselves to carbon backbones and are essential to life as we know it. It can also identify features such as atmospheric gases that may be associated with biological activity.
Using these tools, Mars Science Laboratory will examine Martian rocks and soils in greater detail than ever before to determine the geologic processes that formed them; study the martian atmosphere; and determine the distribution and circulation of water and carbon dioxide, whether frozen, liquid, or gaseous.
NASA plans to select a landing site on the basis of highly detailed images sent to Earth by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, in addition to data from earlier missions. The rover will carry a radioisotope power system that generates electricity from the heat of plutonium's radioactive decay. This power source gives the mission an operating lifespan on Mars' surface of a full martian year (687 Earth days) or more while also providing significantly greater mobility and operational flexibility, enhanced science payload capability, and exploration of a much larger range of latitudes and altitudes than was possible on previous missions to Mars.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/present/msl/
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/
The Canberra outfit
NASA Deep Space Network .. Canberra Deep Space
Communication Complex .. http://www.cdscc.nasa.gov/
has just been granted world broadcasting rights to a NASA project
landing .. guessing the Mars Science Laboratory could be the one.
PROGRAM & MISSIONS PROGRAM & MISSIONS | ALL ABOUT MARS | NEWS | MULTIMEDIA | PARTICIPATE
Mars Science Laboratory Mars Missions Navigation
Mars Science Laboratory with Power Source and Extended Arm,
List Item .. Mission Website .. Mission Press Kit .. Mission Fact Sheet .. Power-Source Fact Sheets
Mars Science Laboratory
Spacecraft
Launch: Nov. 26, 2011, 7:02a.m. PST (10:02a.m. EST)
Launch Window: Nov. 25- Dec. 18, 2011
Arrival: August, 2012
Overview
Building on the success of the two rover geologists that arrived at Mars in January, 2004, NASA's next rover mission is being planned for travel to Mars before the end of the decade. Twice as long and three times as heavy as the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Science Laboratory will collect Martian soil and rock samples and analyze them for organic compounds and environmental conditions that could have supported microbial life now or in the past. The mission is anticipated to have a truly international flavor, with a neutron-based hydrogen detector for locating water provided by the Russian Federal Space Agency, a meteorological package provided by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, and a spectrometer provided by the Canadian Space Agency.
Mars Science Laboratory is intended to be the first planetary mission to use precision landing techniques, steering itself toward the Martian surface similar to the way the space shuttle controls its entry through the Earth's upper atmosphere. In this way, the spacecraft will fly to a desired location above the surface of Mars before deploying its parachute for the final landing. As currently envisioned, in the final minutes before touchdown, the spacecraft will activate its parachute and retro rockets before lowering the rover package to the surface on a tether (similar to the way a skycrane helicopter moves a large object). This landing method will enable the rover to land in an area 20 to 40 kilometers (12 to 24 miles) long, about the size of a small crater or wide canyon and three to five times smaller than previous landing zones on Mars.
Like the twin rovers now on the surface of Mars, Mars Science Laboratory will have six wheels and cameras mounted on a mast. Unlike the twin rovers, it will carry a laser for vaporizing a thin layer from the surface of a rock and analyzing the elemental composition of the underlying materials. It will be able to collect rock and soil samples and distribute them to on-board test chambers for chemical analysis. Its design includes a suite of scientific instruments for identifying organic compounds such as proteins, amino acids, and other acids and bases that attach themselves to carbon backbones and are essential to life as we know it. It can also identify features such as atmospheric gases that may be associated with biological activity.
Using these tools, Mars Science Laboratory will examine Martian rocks and soils in greater detail than ever before to determine the geologic processes that formed them; study the martian atmosphere; and determine the distribution and circulation of water and carbon dioxide, whether frozen, liquid, or gaseous.
NASA plans to select a landing site on the basis of highly detailed images sent to Earth by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, in addition to data from earlier missions. The rover will carry a radioisotope power system that generates electricity from the heat of plutonium's radioactive decay. This power source gives the mission an operating lifespan on Mars' surface of a full martian year (687 Earth days) or more while also providing significantly greater mobility and operational flexibility, enhanced science payload capability, and exploration of a much larger range of latitudes and altitudes than was possible on previous missions to Mars.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/present/msl/
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/
The Canberra outfit
NASA Deep Space Network .. Canberra Deep Space
Communication Complex .. http://www.cdscc.nasa.gov/
has just been granted world broadcasting rights to a NASA project
landing .. guessing the Mars Science Laboratory could be the one.
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
