NASA Lands Car-Size Rover Beside Martian Mountain NASA’S Most Advanced Mars Rover Curiosity Has Landed on the Red Planet
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Summer 2012 - A Quarterly Publication Huge Crowd at Ames Celebrates Historic Mars Landing BY RA C H E L HO O V E R A huge crowd of more than 7,000 excited space enthusiasts gathered at NASA’s Ames Research Center Sun- day, Aug. 5, 2012, to witness history in the making as NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft carrying the Cu- riosity rover embarked on a new era of Mars exploration. Spread in lawn chairs, sleeping bags, blankets and pacing the pave- ment, the audience paused and held its collective breath to hear the two words they had been waiting for: “Touchdown confirmed.” NASA’s most ambitious planetary rover mission to the surface of the Red Planet had of- ficially begun at 10:32 p.m. PDT. When they heard NASA engineers confirm the spacecraft’s successful en- try and landing, the crowd went wild. “Go NASA!” exclaimed Rosalba NASA photo by Eric James Bonaccorsi, an environmental scientist and SETI Institute principal investiga- More than 7,000 NASA enthusiasts came to Ames to celebrate the Curiosity rover’s landing. continued on page 2 NASA Lands Car-Size Rover Beside Martian Mountain NASA’s most advanced Mars rover Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet. The one-ton rover, hanging by ropes from a rocket backpack, touched down onto Mars on Sunday Aug. 5, 2012 to end a 36-week flight and begin a two-year investigation. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that carried Curiosity succeeded in every step of the most complex landing ever attempted on Mars, including the final severing of the bridle cords and flyaway maneuver of the rocket backpack. “Today, the wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze the trail for hu- man footprints on Mars. Curiosity, the most sophisticated rover ever built, is now on the surface of the Red Planet, where it will seek to answer age-old questions about whether life ever existed on Mars -- or if the planet can sustain life in the future,” said NASA NASA photo by Dominic Hart Administrator Charles Bolden. “This is an amazing achievement, made pos- The parachute decelerator system for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft un- sible by a team of scientists and engi- derwent extensive testing at Ames in support of the design and flight-qualification of the final neers from around the world and led MSL parachute canopy design. The basic design of the canopy is called the disc-gap band by the extraordinary men and women parachute, dating back to the 1970s, and has been used for all NASA spacecraft planetary of NASA and our Jet Propulsion Labo- entries to date. The MSL parachute is the largest ever built to fly on an extraterrestrial mis- sion. continued on page 2 www.nasa.gov Huge Crowd at Ames Celebrates Historic Mars Landing continued from page 1 ear to ear and giving an enthusiastic sprinkled throughout the crowd, as tor at Ames working with the Natural thumbs-up as the crowd bustled and jubilant mission controllers described and Cultural Resources Management cheered around him. the spacecraft’s successful entry into office of Death Valley National Park in Before the final moments of Curi- the Martian atmosphere. support of a science instrument on Cu- osity’s journey to Mars, visitors were “I was impressed so many people riosity. “For this, it is okay to cry,” she treated to an opportunity to interact came out to see the landing,” said Ivy added while watching the broadcast of with Ames engineers, scientists, Deliz, a software developer at Ames, relieved mission controllers wipe their researchers and developers to learn who worked on the software scientists eyes and brace trembling lips in reac- about their contributions to crucial use to plan Curiosity’s tasks on Mars. tion to the fantastic news. aspects of the mission. Children also “It’s great to see people and specially Moments later, the first image could build Mars rovers out of paper, kids interested in what I think it such taken by one of the rover’s cameras see Mars in 3D, and participate in a an amazing, mind-boggling mission.” appeared on the giant video screens variety of other hands-on activities. As the NASA devotees departed, erected on the lawn – proof that Curi- As the daylight began to fade, “That was so cool” and “When is the osity had safely landed. the crowd’s attention turned to the next mission to Mars?” and “I love “This mission marks the beginning live broadcast of the NASA TV feed NASA!” could be heard among the of the next chapter in Mars explora- from Mission Control at NASA’s Jet homeward bound crowd. It was quite tion,” said Chris McKay, senior scien- Propulsion Laboratory. From then a night and one that won’t be forgot- tist at Ames and co-investigator of two until Curiosity’s landing, bursts of ten. instruments on Curiosity, grinning from excited applause and nervous laughter NASA Lands Car-Size Rover Beside Martian Mountain continued from page 1 - - ratory. President Obama has laid out a bold vision for sending humans to Mars in the mid-2030s, and today’s landing marks a significant step to- ward achieving this goal.” Curiosity landed at 10:32 p.m. Aug. 5, PDT, near the foot of a moun- tain three miles tall and 96 miles in diameter inside Gale Crater. During a nearly two-year prime mission, the rover will investigate whether the re- gion ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life. “The Seven Minutes of Terror has turned into the Seven Minutes of Tri- umph,” said NASA Associate Admin- istrator for Science John Grunsfeld. “My immense joy in the success of this mission is matched only by over- whelming pride I feel for the women NASA photo by JPL-Caltech and men of the mission’s team.” Curiosity returned its first view of This mosaic of the Curiosity rover is made of 20 images, each 1,024 by Mars, a wide-angle scene of rocky 1,024 pixels, taken late at night on Aug. 7, 2012 PDT (early morning Aug. ground near the front of the rover. 8, 2012 EDT). More images are anticipated in the next several days as the mission blends observations of the landing nications relayed by NASA’s Mars tory instruments inside the rover. site with activities to configure the Odyssey orbiter and received by the To handle this science toolkit, Cu- rover for work and check the perfor- Canberra, Australia, antenna station riosity is twice as long and five times mance of its instruments and mecha- of NASA’s Deep Space Network. as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. The nisms. Curiosity carries 10 science in- Gale Crater landing site places the “Our Curiosity is talking to us struments with a total mass 15 times rover within driving distance of layers from the surface of Mars,” said MSL as large as the science payloads on of the crater’s interior mountain. Ob- Project Manager Peter Theisinger of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportu- servations from orbit have identified NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in nity. Some of the tools are the first of clay and sulfate minerals in the lower Pasadena, Calif. “The landing takes their kind on Mars, such as a laser-fir- layers, indicating a wet history. us past the most hazardous moments ing instrument for checking elemental The mission is managed by JPL for this project, and begins a new and composition of rocks from a distance. for NASA’s Science Mission Director- exciting mission to pursue its scien- The rover will use a drill and scoop ate in Washington. The rover was tific objectives.” at the end of its robotic arm to gather designed, developed and assembled Confirmation of Curiosity’s suc- soil and powdered samples of rock at JPL. interiors, then sieve and parcel out 2 Astrogram Summer 2012 Ames Public Affairs Summer Intern Shares Her Experience BY DEENA KH A T T A B In the eight weeks I spent as a Public Affairs Intern, I have come to one very simple conclusion: Ames’ Public Affairs Office is really, really cool. In honor of this whirlwind of a summer at Ames, I thought I would share some of the special moments that made the NASA communications geek inside of me squeal with delight (in no particular order). 1. When nasaimages.org froze. As I spent a considerable amount of time Best photo ever. photo NASA extracting historic images from our archives and uploading them onto the vast amount of people that had made me star struck. It also is excit- Flickr, I ran into this screen numerous “upvoted”(liked) it. I was amazed that ing, because The Economist’s lack of times. Instead of being frustrated with a single image taken more than 70 bylines makes its staff seem anony- technology (which typically occurs years ago that had sat in the images mous and elusive. Thus, a visit from whenever a website freezes on me), I archive unnoticed for ages, suddenly one of the editors feels to me almost was filled with joy that NASA Images was becoming popular, reminding as rare as finding life on Mars. generate enough viewers to overload people of NASA’s rich history. the server. (In other words, we are 6. Curiosity on Mars: When Curios- popular!) 4. Best Photo Ever: When I uploaded ity landed on Mars, and one out of the onto Flickr what is possibly the most 7,000 people gathered on the lawn 2. Becoming NASA Ames: When beautiful space image anyone has started quietly singing “This Land Is I became NASA Ames Research ever seen.