All those beautiful Mars rocks laying around! Tons and tons and I just want one little one. So many yet so far and impossible to get.
Thanks for sending these updates Ron. Cheers, Mike Mike Tettenborn Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada [email protected] On 2012-08-09, at 5:50 PM, Ron Baalke <[email protected]> wrote: > > http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-237 > > NASA's Curiosity Beams Back a Color 360 of Gale Crater > Jet Propulsion Laboratory > August 09, 2012 > > [Images] > * Gale Crater Vista, in Glorious Color <#1> > * NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Image <#2> > * NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Image <#3> > * NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Image <#4> > > PASADENA, Calif. - The first images from Curiosity's color Mast Camera, > or Mastcam, have been received by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion > Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The 130 low-resolution thumbnails, which > were received Thursday morning, provide scientists and engineers of > NASA's newest Mars rover their first color, horizon-to-horizon glimpse > of Gale Crater. > > "After a year in cold storage, where it endured the rigors of launch, > the deep space cruise to Mars and everything that went on during > landing, it is great to see our camera is working as planned," said Mike > Malin, principal investigator of the Mastcam instrument from Malin Space > Science Systems in San Diego. "As engaging as this color panorama is, it > is important to note this is only one-eighth the potential resolution of > images from this camera." > > The Curiosity team also continued to downlink high-resolution > black-and-white images from its Navigation Camera, or Navcam. These > individual images have been stitched together to provide a > high-resolution Navcam panorama, including a glimpse of the rover's > deck. Evident on some portions of the deck are some small Martian pebbles. > > "The latest Navcam images show us that the rocket engines on our descent > stage kicked up some material from the surface of Mars, several pieces > which ended up on our rover's deck," said Mike Watkins, mission manager > for Curiosity from JPL. "These small pebbles we currently see are up to > about 1 centimeter [0.4 inch] in size and should pose no problems for > mission operations. It will be interesting to see how long our > hitchhikers stick around." > > Curiosity's color panorama of Gale Crater is online at: > http://1.usa.gov/P7VsUw. Additional images from Curiosity are available > at: http://1.usa.gov/MfiyD0. > > Mission engineers devoted part of their third Martian day, or "Sol 3," > to checking the status of four of Curiosity's science instruments after > their long trip. The rover's Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, > Chemistry and Mineralogy analyzer, Sample Analysis at Mars, and Dynamic > of Albedo Neutrons instruments were each energized and went through a > preliminary checkout. The team also performed a check on the rover's > second flight computer. > > Even before landing, the mission's science team began the process of > creating a geological map of about 150 square miles (about 390 square > kilometers) within Gale Crater that includes the landing area. > > "It is important to understand the geological context around Curiosity," > said Dawn Sumner of the University of California, Davis, a member of the > Curiosity science team. "We want to choose a route to Mount Sharp that > makes good progress toward the destination while allowing important > science observations along the way." > > The mapping project divided the area into 151 quadrangles of about one > square mile (about 2.6 square kilometers) each. Curiosity landed in the > quadrangle called Yellowknife. Yellowknife is the city in northern > Canada that was the starting point for many of the great geological > expeditions to map the oldest rocks in North America. > > Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as > large as the science payloads on NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and > Opportunity. Some of the tools, such as a laser-firing instrument for > checking rocks' elemental composition from a distance, are the first of > their kind on Mars. Curiosity will use a drill and scoop, which are > located at the end of its robotic arm, to gather soil and powdered > samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into > the rover's analytical laboratory instruments. > > To handle this science toolkit, Curiosity is twice as long and five > times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. The Gale Crater landing site > places the rover within driving distance of layers of the crater's > interior mountain. Observations from orbit have identified clay and > sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history. > > The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science > Experiment (HiRISE) camera is operated by the University of Arizona in > Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. > in Boulder, Colo. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Exploration > Rover projects are managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission > Directorate, Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled > at JPL. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in > Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the orbiter. > > For more about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mars > and http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl. > > Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: > http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and > http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity. > > DC Agle / Guy Webster 818-393-9011/818-354-6278 > Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. > [email protected] / [email protected] > > Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726 > NASA Headquarters, Washington > [email protected] > > 2012-237 > > ______________________________________________ > > Visit the Archives at > http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html > Meteorite-list mailing list > [email protected] > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list ______________________________________________ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html Meteorite-list mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
