[meteorite-list] Curiosity Stretches Its Arm

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-251

Curiosity Stretches Its Arm
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 20, 2012

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity flexed its robotic arm today for
the first time since before launch in November 2011.

The 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) arm maneuvers a turret of tools including a 
camera, a drill, a spectrometer, a scoop and mechanisms for sieving and 
portioning samples of powdered rock and soil.

"We have had to sit tight for the first two weeks since landing, while other 
parts of the rover were checked out, so to see the arm extended in these images 
is a huge moment for us," said Matt Robinson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
lead engineer for Curiosity's robotic arm testing and operations. "The arm is 
how we are going to get samples into the laboratory instruments and how we place
other instruments onto surface targets."

Weeks of testing and calibrating arm movements are ahead before the arm delivers
a first sample of Martian soil to instruments inside the rover.  Monday's 
maneuver checked motors and joints by unstowing the arm for the first time, 
extending it forward using all five joints, then stowing it again in preparation
for the rover's first drive.

"It worked just as we planned," said JPL's Louise Jandura, sample system chief 
engineer for Curiosity. "From telemetry and from the images received this 
morning, we can confirm that the arm went to the positions we commanded it to 
go to."

The image of Curiosity's arm is online at: http://1.usa.gov/OSyG3B .

The turret has a mass of about 66 pounds (30 kilograms). Its diameter, including
the tools mounted on it, is nearly 2 feet (60 centimeters).

"We'll start using our sampling system in the weeks ahead, and we're getting 
ready to try our first drive later this week," said Mars Science Laboratory 
Deputy Project Manager Richard Cook of JPL.

Curiosity landed on Mars two weeks ago to begin a two-year mission using 10 
instruments to assess whether a carefully chosen study area inside Gale Crater 
has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the
Mars Science Laboratory Project, including Curiosity, for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the rover. The Space Division of
MDA Information Systems Inc. built the robotic arm in Pasadena.

More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl, 
http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the 
mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter 
at: http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

Guy Webster / D.C. Agle 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Guy.Webster at jpl.nasa.gov / Agle at jpl.nasa.gov

2012-251