Curiosity Surface Operations

[cjameshuff]

This is a very good explanation of whats going on - its not an impact formed peak at all
http://youtu.be/_k16u4HnbRk?t=38m51s

On further investigation, I think there's some confusion...Aeolis Mons/Mount Sharp is not the central peak, it's the off-center mound of eroded sediment that's half-burying the peak. The central peak itself is the old impact crater feature, after being buried and then exposed again.

The layered structure of the eroded crater fill, remnant mound, and central impact crater peak are a bit clearer in this topographic map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:To...ale_Crater.jpg

[BadTrip]

Looks more like a mound. The Sun is from the West, right?

That's what I mean, yes. With the sun coming from West/NW... and that topographically looks like a mound... but what's at the top? A hole?.. or some non-reflective material? just looks odd to me is all. apparently it's inconsequential or other folks would be asking the same question.

Thanks anyway guys.

[ToSeek]

Another audio press conference coming Friday at 1:30 pm EDT (half-an-hour later than usual):

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cf...&msource=12244

[Cougar]

This is a very good explanation of whats going on - its not an impact formed peak at all
http://youtu.be/_k16u4HnbRk?t=38m51s
ETA -
they edited the vid so now the relevant part of convo starts here
http://youtu.be/_k16u4HnbRk?t=33m43s

Yes, thanks, mutleyeng. And for the introduction to Emily Lakdawalla. As she says, 3 billion years is a really, really long time.

Gale crater also appears to be on the edge of a dropoff into what looks like it could have been a large lake or ocean in the distant past (google mars is still a bit limited). What's the thinking there?

[Eadfrith]

When do they take some mastcam 100 pictures?

[ToSeek]

Images for the telecon strongly suggest they're going to head east first: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ms...con/index.html

[ToSeek]

MSL Media Teleconference
08.17.12


Participants

John Grotzinger - Curiosity project scientist, California Institute of Technology

Roger Wiens - ChemCam principal investigator, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Grotzinger:

Subbing for Mission Manager Mike Watkins. All instruments continue to checkout. DAN nstrument did bunch of quick pulses for 15 minutes, RAD "was listening", verified DAN was working. Weather instrument REMS collecting data, getting first data from full diurnal cycle on Mars. Yesterday's high was 1 degree above freezing. Thirty years since last long-duration monitoring of weather on Mars, since Viking 1 stopped communicating.

First image: Rover with crater rim in background.

Second image: Glenelg may be our first moderate-duration drive target. [It's where three different kinds of terrain meet, just what someone was talking about as a first target early on.] Then to base of Mount Sharp, then main target area on slopes.

Third image: Do local science first, go over to Glenelg where three kinds of terrain meet. Palindrome, going to pass through there coming and going.

Fourth image: Scour marks from descent stage thrusters. Again names of very old Canadian geologic formations, tried to tie in with heat.

Fifth image: Goulburn Scour one of greatest interest, will aim ChemCam here and get higher-resolution images.

Once done, drive toward Glenelg, expect to be first target of drilling. Will take soil sample enroute.

Sixth image: This one underscores the reason we picked this landing site, seven kilometers away. Looks like Sedona or Four Corners area, mesas made of layers of light-colored reddish outcrops. Expecting to find hydrated minerals.

[ToSeek]

Wiens:

You've heard about our death ray laser beam, well, that's ChemCam. At the top of a funnel, ChemCam gets to do the most analysis, targets of greater interest accessed by other instruments. Designed to do up to 14,000 analyses. French and US collaboration.

High-powered megawatt laser creates pinhead spot on a rock, boils it into plasma. Telescope focuses light emitted, taken in, spectroscopy done.

So far: taken images of each calibration target for ChemCam. (Images 3 and 4.) Round parts of target are about 3/4" in diameter.

Haven't turned laser on yet but have done everything else.

Next few days: image targets again, doublecheck, want to make sure aiming laser correctly. Going to take image of a rock.

First victim target is N165, a three-inch rock near the rover. Generic rock, not a particular science target. Just verifying pointing capabilities. Image, then target with 30 laser shots within 10 seconds, take a spectrum after each shot. Look for any changes as shots go on, any other surface effects.

Team is very excited, waited eight long years for this, hope to be back next week to talk about first results.

[ToSeek]

APB News: When expect Curiosity to start at Glenelg, when get there, how long there, how long to base of Mount Sharp?

Grotzinger: Still doing checkouts, probably first wheel motions next week, toward end of next week finish up CAP1B, then roll into period of time we call intermission. Some of that is some very specific science experiments with MastCam, ChemCam, and SAM. After that, if all goes well, we'll hit the road. Will drive as efficiently as we can. Expect to take 3-4 weeks to get there. But if we see fine-grained materials, that's a major target, and we'll stop for that. Month or more of science there, then toward end of calendar year head for base of Mount Sharp.

CBS: When first hi-res images of Mount Sharp?

Image 6: hills there the size of multi-story buildings. Broad boulevards and highways.

What about the summit?

Working through the sequences. Some issues with pointing in that direction with calibration, going to be a week or two.

?? - How 1 degree above freezing defined?

Actual measurement 276 Kelvin. Will get full weather report next week.

MSNBC - Any surprises yet?

No real surprises from engineering perspective [thank goodness]. Scientifically, landing site shows some differences from other sites but mostly similar. Bedrock uncovered by thrusters exciting and surprising. Not a good first target for drilling, though. But just going to be remote sensing.

[ToSeek]

?? - When doing science on Goulburn Scour?

Next couple of days and weeks. Test drive of rover. Then move back to Goulburn.

How far up to go to get to hydrated minerals?

About halfway up, line of lighter stuff, line between hydrated and unhydrated.

USA Today - Why Glenelg?

Three terrains all coming together, very obvious target.

New Scientist - Any ideas about what different terrains at Glenelg signify? Ditto for Goulburn.

It just looks distinctive and interesting. "It looks cool - let's go there." Similar for Goulburn but more highly constrained.

Abandon high-thermal inertia area?

No, that's the lighter stuff next to Glenelg.

Planetary Society - Senior review before taking soil samples?

Project review in mid-September, external review board comes in, evaluate how well we've done with surface operations. Barring any hurdles, get the green light to proceed with drilling. We are allowed to do scooping ahead of time, want to do that to demonstrate to review board that we know what we're doing.

BBC - Sense of discussion involving going in wrong direction for three months? What do you expect to see from test rock?

We don't think there is any wrong direction. Two-year mission, want to get to base of Mount Sharp. So close to HTI unit, other geological units. Even though in opposite direction, it's one place we can go to to characterize lots of the terrain in the landing ellipse.

Not particularly mysterious, probably typical Mars basalt. 48% silicon dioxide, iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium .... See if laser can tell us anything about coatings on the rock, tells us about weather, what's happened to rock over the eons. That and target practice. Want to shoot something midrange, nice face facing us, something easy to start with.

[ToSeek]

USA Today (different) - Any discussion about looking at other stuff that landed on Mars? What expecting to find using new instruments?

No requirement to look at other stuff, might consider doing it if it doesn't take too much time.

Using ChemCam as part of a more powerful process to distinguishing the most interesting rocks. Confirm mineral content as found from orbit, find minerals that don't provide response to orbital instruments. And looking for organic carbon.

Irish TV - Where on your treasure map [Slide 2] is Slide 6? See dramatic vistas from Glenelg?

Slide 6 is looking under "Mount Sharp" part of Slide 2.

Glenelg actually elevation drop of a couple of meters.

Spaceflight Magazine - Is there a gypsum vein there? Could you find it, would you sample if you did?

There is a light-toned patch, waiting for a MastCam 100 image before speculating further.

Hydrated minerals only on Mount Sharp or distributed throughout crater?

Only seen on lower reaches of Mount Sharp. For rest of area, there's a layer of dust that covers everything, hides it from orbit. At Glenelg, with our payload, we can scratch beneath the surface.

TPS - Any actual MastCam 100 images taken yet?

Working on a very comprehensive set of images, planned for intermission in a week or two.

Climbing to a rise where you can image hardware from a distance?

We'll certainly try.

-- End of Q&A --

Audio conferences planned for Tuesday and Thursday of next week at 10 am PDT, 1 pm EDT. Will be further televised ones, just none scheduled yet.

[slang]

When do they take some mastcam 100 pictures?

TPS - Any actual MastCam 100 images taken yet?

Working on a very comprehensive set of images, planned for intermission in a week or two.

There you go... ask and you shall receive.

[Eadfrith]

hmm that's a very long time, especially when they haven't taken any images for 9 days

[djellison]

hmm that's a very long time, especially when they haven't taken any images for 9 days

Today is sol 12.

Here are images taken 2 days ago on Sol 10
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=10

There is more to the validation and checkout of a rover than just taking images.

FWIW - MastCam100 has been used - just not to look off at the terrain yet.

[ToSeek]

JPL's summary of the press conference:

NASA Curiosity Team Pinpoints Site for First Drive

[Glom]

Glenelg? What a name! Martian Scots.

[Eadfrith]

Hey i think they have moved the wheels

[Cylinder]

I was looking at that Sol 13 image as well and think you're right.

[Cylinder]

First Laser-Zapped Rock on Mars

ChemCam hit Coronation with 30 pulses of its laser during a 10-second period. Each pulse delivered more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second. The energy from the laser excited atoms in the rock into an ionized, glowing plasma. ChemCam also caught the light from that spark with a telescope and analyzed it with three spectrometers for information about what elements are in the target.

This initial use of the laser on Mars served as target practice for characterizing the instrument but may provide additional value. Researchers will check whether the composition changed as the pulses progressed. If it did change, that could indicate dust or other surface material being penetrated to reveal different composition beneath the surface.

[Cylinder]

Sol 14 images showing robotic arm movement.

ETA: If you look closely at the front navcam image, the wheels are turned 90 degrees probably for the arc test.

[Glom]

The surface is weird in its familiarity. Unlike the Moon, which had a very strange powdered surface, this type of surface looks very standard desert-like. It then blows the mind to think that it is indeed an alien planet and there isn't a wellhead just over the horizon.

[slang]

Yet...

[djellison]

ETA: If you look closely at the front navcam image, the wheels are turned 90 degrees probably for the arc test.

No - the wheels are turned to 40ish degrees - as they have been since before launch in 2011. The wheel wiggle test is tomorrow.

[ToSeek]

MSL Media Teleconference
08.21.12


Participants

Michael Watkins - Curiosity mission manager, JPL

Louise Jandura - Sampling system lead engineer, JPL

Ashwin Vasavada - Curiosity deputy project scientist, JPL

Igor Mitrofanov - Principal investigator of DAN

Javier Gomez-Elvira - Principal investigator of REMS

Imagery and other materials at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ms...con/index.html

[ToSeek]

Mike Watkins:

"Really fantastic week." Aggressive plan, lot more first-time science. Gotten through everything and on schedule. ChemCam, DAN, SAM, science images, weather data. Good results from everything.

Two critical engineering activities completed: four corner wheels, which do the steering, checked out. (See Watkins 1.) Planning first drive tomorrow - go a few meters, turn 90 degrees, back up. Unstowed robotic arm, all checks of that were good (Watkins-2). Took many images like this during testing, first time with Mars in background instead of walls of test lab.

[ToSeek]

Louise Jandura:

Deployed robot arm first time two days ago. Checked out not only arm but function of all devices at end of arm.

Next steps are weeks of calibrating these arm motions. Gravity does matter! Need to fine-tune endpoint positions - end of arm weighs as much as a small child, so there's some sag. Drill, spectrometer, sample-taking, etc.

[ToSeek]

Ashwin Vasavada:

About to hear about environmental instruments. Broad array of instruments due to international collaboration. Weather station allows us to study modern environment, not just billion-year-old rocks. DAN lets us look beneath the surface. DAN from Russia, REMS (weather) from Spain.

Igor Mitrofanov:

Thankful for flight opportunity for DAN. Heritage from Mars Odyssey instrument. Orbital indications suggest that there should be a lot of water beneath Gale crater. DAN + neutron generator successfully operated on August 17, results in slide 3.

Javier Gomez-Elvira:

Weather in the crater is sunny. Operate REMS for a long time to get idea of weather. [Windy on Mars: 25 m/s = 56 mph.]

Ashwin Vasavada:

Thrilled with instruments and data so far. Gomez-Elvira slide 1: two orthogonal booms extending from mast, use both to measure in case wind shadowed by mast. Exposing delicate circuit boards to wind, two of three boards on side-looking boom pegged to high values. Thinking a few tiny wires on circuit board are broken, probably permanent damage. Sensors working fine when tested in cruise. Damaged circuit boards were facing to outside of rover during landing, Some rocks lofted by descent plumes, may have fallen on circuit boards and damaged wires. No way of assessing further at this point. So one boom degraded, other one fine. REMS team figuring out how best to measure winds given that.

[ToSeek]

New Scientist: Is this only known damage? What are we going to lose?

No other issues at this point.

Have to understand when measurements might be degraded by shadow of mast, will have to work a little harder.

MSNBC: Learned anything from ChemCam yet?

ChemCam working better than we'd hoped, complex light path working fine. Signal from rock higher than hoped. N165 appears to be a fairly typical basalt. Also calibrating with target on rover.

NPR: More on graphs of weather.

Slide 4 not actual data, so wind speed previously mentioned is not actual wind speed.

What's rover's turning radius?

Can turn in place.

CBS: What's test schedule for turret instruments?

At end of initial checkout phase, entering intermission, really opportunity to do driving, science. Then come back to do several weeks of fine-tuning arm motions, more detailed checkout of devices in sampling system.

What will orientation of rover be when done with drive?

90 degrees away from current. Want to park it in place we've examined carefully.

[ToSeek]

Irish TV: When high-res images of peak of Mount Sharp?

Actually imaged it in high-res, but engineering data has higher priority. Thumbnails down, but full-frames not yet. May take another day or two.

Currently poor geometry with orbiters, so unable to downlink as much data as we'd like.

TPS: What are marks on the rover?

They're fiducials, cameras on rover use them to determine distance between them precisely.

Which direction are you turning?

Turning to the right 90 degrees, then back up.

ABC: How far does drive go, how long will it take?

Drive about 3 meters forward - length of the rover - turn, then a little less backwards.

Space.com: When first drive? When heading for first science target?

Send commands up late tonight, morning Mars time. Drive executes 3-4 pm Mars time, middle of the night our time.

3-4 days more of activities before we start driving in earnest. Maybe Sol 20.

[ToSeek]

Reuters: How long to do initial drive?

About half-an-hour.

How do wind directions and measurements factor into overall science? Does instrument failure impact temperature, humidity?

Wind sensor only one damaged, others fine.

Wind measurements providing ground truth on atmosphere models.

Weather factors into how Mount Sharp came to be - how sediments collected, where dark dunes came from. "Sediment budget" - how much sediment is coming in and going out. REMS is pretty criticial even if just measuring weather today.

Losing stereo view of winds?

Not as dire as that. Could have flown single boom and done very well, just issue if wind coming from directly behind boom.

Florida Today: How far a typical future drive?

Once everything fully checked out, expect to be able to drive 100+ meters/sol. But it's going to take us a while to get up to that rate. But drive to Glenelg will be done in pretty small chunks: 10-20 meters, 10-30 meters/day.

Spaceflight Magazine: How easy to distinguish subsurface ice from hydrated minerals?

Not expecting any subsurface ice. Would be a great surprise. DAN just detects hydrogen, have to work with other instruments to figure out what's associated with the hydrogen.

Issue with center of gravity changing when arm extended?

Have developed model, so compensation already in place, doing fine-tuning to verify that model is accurate.

KVMR-FM: Is return time of pulse related to distance below ground?

No, it's more of a random walk. More hydrogen makes for faster modulation and duration. Have to analyze to convert to quantity of water.

BBC: Did turning wheels move the soil at all?

Those images came 30 minutes before press conference, so haven't looked at, but it is something soil scientists will look at.

Planning Sol 16. That's the coming day?

That's right. Do "big" activities in afternoon when we have to do less to warm things up.

Aerospace News and Review: What's "warranty" distance for Curiosity to travel? How people dealing with Mars time?

Total science team is about 400, plus 300-some engineers.

Warranty distance is 20 km. That's enough - less than 20 km to main science target in foothills of Mount Sharp.

Everyone is working Mars time, 75% tactically on Mars time, 25% strategically.

Do you have a Mars clock?

Yes, we have computer apps, smartphone apps, website that gives time of every meeting in every possible time.

How much does turret actually weigh?

30 kilograms.