Seven Minutes - Aerospace & Defense By Mike Deliman This week, NASA hosted the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientists in charge of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, for a pre-landing press conference. The landing sequences, called “ED&L” – Entry, Descent, and Landing – are the most action packed and critical operations other than the initial launch. Pete Theisinger has described the EDL sequence as “7 minutes of terror.” This stage of exploration is similar to that of other landers NASA has sent – Mars Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rovers, and Mars Polar Lander all survived their landings on the red planet after their 7 minutes of EDL terror. The NASA/JPL press conference was about an hour long, and packed full of information. When choosing a place to land on Mars we have to take into account just how accurately we can place a lander and how much space it requires to come to a stop. A confirmation of life on Mars would be the discovery of the century for sure.
Mars rover Curiosity lands, NASA releases new image and video: ‘The surface mission of Curiosity has now begun’ - Ideas@Innovations 8:23 p.m. - NASA releases short video of Mars rover descent We discovered via io9 this video of the Mars rover Curiosity making its way toward the surface of Mars. The thumbnail images in sequence and taken by the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) show the rover in the last two-and-a-half minutes of Curiosity’s descent to Mars: 1:13: News briefing ends! The news briefing is over. We’ll have a couple more updates with the photos that were passed down. 1:05: What’s the significance of the HiRise imagery “The fact that we see ourselves arriving [on] another planet,” said Miguel San Martin, a member of the altitude control systems team, “it’s just mind boggling to me — to all of us. 1:00: Why is the MSL team living on Mars time for the first 90 Sols? The MSL team will be working on Mars time for the next 90 Martian days or Sols. Working on Mars time gives the team 16 hours to plan an uplink while the rover is sleeping on Mars. 12:55: What will be in the first color image? First the video: 3:10 a.m.
Curiosity découvre un lit de rivière, aujourdhui asséché Des observations et une analyse chimique poussées ont donné la certitude aux scientifiques que l'image montre une partie d'un ancien lit de rivière, aujourd'hui asséché. © Nasa, JPL-Caltech, MSSS Curiosity découvre un lit de rivière, aujourd’hui asséché - 3 Photos Observés depuis l’orbite, de multiples reliefs, dont des deltas et d’immenses canaux, suggèrent fortement qu’autrefois l'eau a coulé sur Mars. Cependant, il manquait des preuves formelles que ces formations ont bien été créées par des écoulements aqueux, la résolution des images fournies par les orbiteurs tournant autour de la Planète rouge étant insuffisante. Aujourd’hui, il est possible de faire beaucoup mieux avec MastCam, une des caméras du rover Curiosity. Vue en relief des cailloux figés dans le substrat inspecté par la caméra MastCam de Curiosity (nécessite des lunettes anaglyphes). © Nasa, JPL-Caltech, MSSS Le même rocher (baptisé Link) en image normale. © Nasa, JPL-Calech, MSSS A voir aussi sur Internet Sur le même sujet
Meet the thousands of people ready to die on Mars Aaron Hamm, an assistant hotel engineer who deals with HVAC, cooling systems, and maintenance, lacks the traditional qualifications to be an astronaut. But that doesn't mean he wants to stay on Earth. "I felt… I was discouraged as a child [from becoming an astronaut] just because of how unbelievably competitive it is,” Hamm told Ars. “I’m a very intelligent person and I’m driven to try and achieve my dreams but, at the same time, I felt like it was an really unrealistic goal to try and pursue. As smart as I am, there's always plenty of people that are smarter.” Hamm, an Ars forum user by the name of Quisquis, has just applied for the private Mars One colony program. “I think that the Mars One mission and the idea of going somewhere that you're not coming back from for life… that's different than the general astronaut program,” he said. A new horizon “I want to see the sun rise over a completely new horizon, in a completely new sky. Worth the risk
StateFans Nation | Your Independent Blog On NC State Athletics Mars Curiosity. Where is Linux? From the 'Real Time Linux' files: With all the excitement about the Sunday AM (ET) landing of the NASA Curiosity rover on Mars, I've felt that something has been missing. I've seen multiple press releases from vendors all highlighting how their tech is helping NASA. One of the releases I got was from Intel's Wind River division. However, that's not what they sold to NASA for Curiosity. Instead Curiosity is powered by Wind River's proprietary VxWorks commercial real time OS. Now I understand that real time determinism is something that a spacecraft needs, but I would have thought that's also something that Linux now can provide. To be sure, there are no doubt teeming numbers of Linux servers sitting behind the scenes helping to crunch all the Hadoop loving Big Data that Curiosity will send from the surface of Mars. So if you happen to work at Wind River or know someone who does (that will talk, or hey comment here), please let me know why Linux wasn't the right choice for Curiosity.
Mars orbiter catches pic of Curiosity on its way down! This is truly astonishing: the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped what may turn out to be the Space Picture of the Year: Curiosity descending to Mars under its parachutes! Holy. Haleakala. The rover is safely tucked inside the backshell, suspended underneath its huge parachute. This took incredible skills in calculations, engineering, and a just a wee pinch of good timing. The simple and sheer amazingness of this picture cannot be overstated. The news these days is filled with polarization, with hate, with fear, with ignorance. It’s what we can do, and what we must do. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Related Posts: – Humans send their Curiosity to Mars! Instrument CHEMCAM de MSL Le principe de fonctionnement de l'instrument est donc : Viser un échantillon (distance entre 2-9 m) Former une image de l'échantillon (autour de 750 nm). Envoyer un faisceau laser pulsé vers cet échantillon (1 GW/cm²) Collecter la lumière émise par l'échantillon pour une analyse spectrale (entre 250-800 nm) Fonctionnement de CHEMCAMCrédits CEA L'instrument CHEMCAM est sous la responsabilité d'un PI américain, Roger Wiens, du Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).