[meteorite-list] Newest NASA Mars Mission Connects Past and Future

[Ron Baalke]

Aug. 2, 2012

Dwayne Brown/Steve Cole      
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726/202-358-0918 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 
stephen.e.cole at nasa.gov 

Guy Webster/D.C. Agle 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
818-354-6278/818-393-9011 
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 
agle at jpl.nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 12-264

NEWEST NASA MARS MISSION CONNECTS PAST AND FUTURE

WASHINGTON -- NASA's newest Mars mission, landing in three days, will 
draw on support from missions sent to Mars years ago and will 
contribute to missions envisioned for future decades. 

"Curiosity is a bold step forward in learning about our neighboring 
planet, but this mission does not stand alone. It is part of a 
sustained, coordinated program of Mars exploration," said Doug 
McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA 
Headquarters in Washington. "This mission transitions the program's 
science emphasis from the planet's water history to its potential for 
past or present life." 

As the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft places the Curiosity rover 
on the surface of Mars next week, NASA will be using the Mars Odyssey 
orbiter, in service since 2001, as a relay for rapidly confirming the 
landing to Curiosity's flight team and the rest of the world. Earth 
will be below the Mars horizon from Curiosity's perspective, so the 
new rover will not be in direct radio contact with Earth. Two newer 
orbiters also will be recording Curiosity's transmissions, but that 
data will not be available on Earth until hours later. 

When Curiosity lands beside a mountain inside a crater at about 1:31 
a.m. EDT, Aug. 6 (10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5), the 1-ton rover's two-year 
prime mission on the surface of Mars will begin. However, one of the 
rover's 10 science instruments, the Radiation Assessment Detector 
(RAD), already has logged 221 days collecting data since the 
spacecraft was launched on its trip to Mars on Nov. 26, 2011. 

"Our observations already are being used in planning for human 
missions," said Don Hassler of Southwest Research Institute in 
Boulder, Colo., principal investigator for Curiosity's RAD. 

The instrument recorded radiation spikes from five solar flare events 
spewing energetic particles from the sun into interplanetary space. 
Radiation from galactic cosmic rays, originating from supernova 
explosions and other extremely distant events, accounted for more of 
the total radiation experienced on the trip than the amount from 
solar particle events. Inside the spacecraft, despite shielding 
roughly equivalent to what surrounds astronauts on the International 
Space Station, RAD recorded radiation amounting to a significant 
contribution to a NASA astronaut's career-limit radiation dose. 

Curiosity's main assignment is to investigate whether its study area 
ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial 
life. To do that, it packs a science payload weighing 15 times as 
much as the science instruments on previous Mars rovers. The landing 
target, an area about 12 miles by 4 miles (20 kilometers by 7 
kilometers), sits in a safely flat area between less-safe slopes of 
the rim of Gale Crater and the crater's central peak, informally 
called Mount Sharp. The target was plotted to be within driving 
distance of layers on Mount Sharp, where minerals that formed in 
water have been seen from orbit. 

"Some deposits right inside the landing area look as though they were 
deposited by water, too," said John Grotzinger of the California 
Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, project scientist for 
Curiosity. "We have a great landing site that was a strong science 
contender for earlier missions, but was not permitted for engineering 
constraints because no earlier landing could be targeted precisely 
enough to hit a safe area inside Gale Crater. The science team feels 
very optimistic about exploration of Mount Sharp and the surrounding 
region that includes the landing ellipse." 

Mission engineers designed a sky crane maneuver, lowering Curiosity on 
nylon cords from a rocket backpack because the rover is too heavy to 
use the airbag system developed for earlier rovers. "We know it looks 
crazy," said Adam Steltzner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) 
in Pasadena, leader of the team that developed the system. "It really 
is the result of careful choices." By designing the aeroshell 
enclosing Curiosity to create lift and be steerable, engineers were 
able to build a system that lands much more precisely instead of 
dropping like a rock. 

JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the Mars Science Laboratory for 
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. 

For more information about the mission 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 
	
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