[meteorite-list] NASA's Car-Sized Rover Nears Daring Landing on Mars (MSL)

[Ron Baalke]

July 16, 2012

Dwayne Brown      
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown 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: 12-235

NASA'S CAR-SIZED ROVER NEARS DARING LANDING ON MARS

WASHINGTON -- NASA's most advanced planetary rover is on a precise 
course for an early August landing beside a Martian mountain to begin 
two years of unprecedented scientific detective work. However, 
getting the Curiosity rover to the surface of Mars will not be easy. 

"The Curiosity landing is the hardest NASA mission ever attempted in 
the history of robotic planetary exploration," said John Grunsfeld, 
associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, at 
NASA Headquarters in Washington. "While the challenge is great, the 
team's skill and determination give me high confidence in a 
successful landing." 

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is a precursor mission for 
future human mission to Mars. President Obama has set a challenge to 
reach the Red Planet in the 2030s. 

To achieve the precision needed for landing safely inside Gale Crater, 
the spacecraft will fly like a wing in the upper atmosphere instead 
of dropping like a rock. To land the 1-ton rover, an air-bag method 
used on previous Mars rovers will not work. Mission engineers at 
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., designed 
a "sky crane" method for the final several seconds of the flight. A 
backpack with retro-rockets controlling descent speed will lower the 
rover on three nylon cords just before touchdown. 

During a critical period lasting only about seven minutes, the MSL 
spacecraft carrying Curiosity must decelerate from about 13,200 mph 
(about 5,900 meters per second) to allow the rover to land on the 
surface at about 1.7 mph (three-fourths of a meter per second). 
Curiosity is scheduled to land at approximately 1:31 a.m. EDT Aug. 6 
(10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5). 

"Those seven minutes are the most challenging part of this entire 
mission," said Pete Theisinger, JPL's MSL project manager. "For the 
landing to succeed, hundreds of events will need to go right, many 
with split-second timing and all controlled autonomously by the 
spacecraft. We've done all we can think of to succeed. We expect to 
get Curiosity safely onto the ground, but there is no guarantee. The 
risks are real." 

During the initial weeks after the actual landing, JPL mission 
controllers will put the rover through a series of checkouts and 
activities to characterize its performance on Mars while gradually 
ramping up scientific investigations. Curiosity then will begin 
investigating whether an area with a wet history inside Mars' Gale 
Crater ever has offered an environment favorable for microbial life. 

"Earlier missions have found that ancient Mars had wet environments," 
said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Program at NASA 
Headquarters. "Curiosity takes us the next logical step in 
understanding the potential for life on Mars." 

Curiosity will use tools on a robotic arm to deliver samples from 
Martian rocks and soils into laboratory instruments inside the rover 
that can reveal chemical and mineral composition. A laser instrument 
will use its beam to induce a spark on a target and read the spark's 
spectrum of light to identify chemical elements in the target. 

Other instruments on the car-sized rover will examine the surrounding 
environment from a distance or by direct touch with the arm. The 
rover will check for the basic chemical ingredients for life and for 
evidence about energy available for life. It also will assess factors 
that could be hazardous for life, such as the radiation environment. 

"For its ambitious goals, this mission needs a great landing site and 
a big payload," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars 
Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters. "During the descent through 
the atmosphere, the mission will rely on bold techniques enabling use 
of a smaller target area and a heavier robot on the ground than were 
possible for any previous Mars mission. Those techniques also advance 
us toward human-crew Mars missions, which will need even more precise 
targeting and heavier landers." 

The chosen landing site is beside a mountain informally called Mount 
Sharp. The mission's prime destination lies on the slope of the 
mountain. Driving there from the landing site may take many months. 

"Be patient about the drive. It will be well worth the wait and we are 
apt to find some targets of interest on the way," said John 
Grotzinger, MSL project scientist at the California Institute of 
Technology in Pasadena. "When we get to the lower layers in Mount 
Sharp, we'll read them like chapters in a book about changing 
environmental conditions when Mars was wetter than it is today." 

In collaboration with Microsoft Corp., a new outreach game was 
unveiled Monday to give the public a sense of the challenge and 
adventure of landing in a precise location on the surface. Called 
"Mars Rover Landing," the game is an immersive experience for the 
Xbox 360 home entertainment console that allows users to take control 
of their own spacecraft and face the extreme challenges of landing a 
rover on Mars. 

"Technology is making it possible for the public to participate in 
exploration as it never has before," said Michelle Viotti, JPL's Mars 
public engagement manager. "Because Mars exploration is fundamentally 
a shared human endeavor, we want everyone around the globe to have 
the most immersive experience possible." 

NASA has several other forthcoming experiences geared for inspiration 
and learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. 
Information about many ways to watch and participate in the 
Curiosity's landing and the mission on the surface of Mars is 
available at: 

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate 

MSL is a project of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The mission is 
managed by JPL. Curiosity was designed, developed and assembled at 
JPL. 

Follow the mission on Facebook and on Twitter at: 

http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity 

and 

http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity 

For information about the mission and to use the new video game and 
other education-related tools, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/mars 

and 

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ 

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