Skip to main content

Mars touchdown: achievement in science and engineering


After ten years of planning, and a budget of $2.5 billion US dollars, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the government agency of the United States of America responsible for its space program, has landed the Mars rover, Curiosity, on the Red Planet. Curiosity is the largest and most advanced spacecraft ever sent to another planet, without a hitch. NASA representatives said it was a highlight in robotic planetary exploration, but also the hardest, most technologically challenged project they had worked on. NASA’s two other Mars rovers were named Spirit and Opportunity. Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. This Mars landing is a great achievement in science and engineering.

The “rover” weighs one ton, and hung by ropes from a rocket backpack, to touch down on Mars on Monday, August 6, 2012. It took a 36 week flight to arrive at Mars, and it will now begin a two-year investigation of planet Mars.

NASA controlled the mission from California but also tracked it from Tidbinbilla in Canberra, Australia. The tracking station, the Deep Space Communication Complex, in Canberra was the rover’s sole communication link with Earth. The Tidbinbilla tracking station will now upload the software to Curiosity that tells it to change from spacecraft mode to rover mode, so that it can spend the next two years analysing the conditions on Mars.

Curiosity’s first destination will be Mount Sharp, the Gale Crater’s highest peak (5 kilometres high), and the place where the Mars orbiters (spacecraft in flight around Mars) have sighted minerals that are usually formed in water. NASA’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured the Curiosity rover still connected to its 51-foot (16 metre) wide parachute as it descended to its landing site at Gale Crater. Gale Crater is 96 miles (154 kilometres) in diameter. The image was taken while MRO was 211 miles (340 kilometres) from the rover as it parachuted down, and about two miles (3 kilometres) above the Martian surface, however the image was exceptionally clear, showing the strings of the parachute.

Curiosity landed on Mars at 10:32pm, California time on August 5 (1:32am Canberra time on August 6).

Curiosity is essential a one ton (950 kilogram) mobile chemical laboratory. So it will raise its high-gain antenna and use it to collect data as it communicates with Earth. It relays its information to MRO and then to Earth. It carries 10 science instruments with a mass that totals 15 times larger than the science payloads on the Mars rover Spirit, and Mars rover Opportunity. Some tools on Curiosity include a laser-firing instrument for checking the composition of rocks from a distance, which is the first of its kind on Mars. Curiosity will also use a drill and scoop, located at the end of its robotic arm, to collect soil and powder samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into the rover’s analytical laboratory instruments. It will be able to map out minerals to determine whether they contain water or to indicate a “wet” history.

Curiosity is the first step to a possible human landing – a crewed vehicle near or on Mars – perhaps in the 2030s.

For information on the Mars mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mars and http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/technology/sci-tech/nasas-curiosity-pays-off-with-touchdown-on-mars-20120806-23q8t.html#ixzz22obmTE3Q
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2016 update on Rike Park, Tbilisi: from construction to busy park

From a flat patch of uninteresting dirt, Rike Park in Tbilisi, Georgia, has transformed in four years (from 2014-2016) into a busy park full of trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, and events. Rike (Rikhe) Park is on the left bank of the Mt’k’vari River (the Kura River) near the Old City of Tbilisi. The Peace Bridge links the right bank to Rike Park. Rike Park is below the hillside Presidential Palace and, via cable car, it is the starting point for the ride to Sololaki Ridge (with the Narikala Fortress and the Mother of Georgia statue). The glass box-shaped cable car terminus was opened on 23 June 2012, and since then the park has continually developed into a ‘people’s park’ where people can walk around, eat at the nearby restaurants, sit next to the statue of American president Ronald Reagan, climb the steps to Avlabari district, and access the sights of Meidan Square, the Peace Bridge, the Metekhi Church, the Old City, the waterfall, the sulphur baths, and t...
Post a Comment
Read more

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...
1 comment
Read more

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia

City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014. The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location. There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family d...
2 comments
Read more