NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER) is an ongoing robotic space mission involving rovers Spirit, Opportunity and now Curiosity, exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the sending of the two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to explore the Martian surface and geology and continues today.
The mission’s scientific objective was to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, which includes three previous successful landers: the two Viking program landers in 1976 and Mars Pathfinder probe in 1997.
The total cost of building, launching, landing and operating the rovers on the surface for the initial 90-Martian-day (sol) primary mission was $820 million. Since the rovers have continued to function beyond their initial 90 sol primary mission, they have each received five mission extensions. The fifth mission extension was granted in October 2007, and ran to the end of 2009. The total cost of the first four mission extensions was $104 million, and the fifth mission extension is expected to cost at least $20 million.
A polar projection image, assembled from pictures taken by the Curiosity rover's navigation cameras, shows the tracks of the rover at Bradbury Landing on Mars as seen from above.
An image from the navigation-camera system on NASA's Curiosity rover shows the six-wheeled craft's hardware in the foreground, and wheel tracks going around a rock just a few yards (meters) away.
A mosaic of black-and-white images shows a panoramic view of the Curiosity rover's trail, including wheel tracks leading to an area where the rover turned in a circle, and then backed up to its current position. Four blast marks, or "scours," can be made out near where the rover landed. The flanks of Mount Sharp can be seen in the far background, toward the upper left corner of the frame.
NASA's Curiosity rover made its first drive on Mars today, more than two weeks after its high-stakes landing on the Red Planet. To celebrate the day, as well as what would have been the late science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury's 92nd birthday, NASA said the rover's landing site would be forever known as Bradbury Landing.
The raw images, displayed on the Mars Science Laboratory mission's Web portal, showed the tracks of the rover's wheels curling around and backing up, in accordance with the driving plan that was sent up overnight.
Today's drive amounted to only about 23 feet (7 meters) of maneuvers, but it represented the first step in a $2.5 billion, two-year trek that's expected to go at least 12 miles (20 kilometers) and take in a commanding view from the flanks of a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain within 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer-wide) Gale Crater.
The mission's project manager, Peter Theisinger, said the drive "couldn't be more important."
"We built a rover," he told reporters during today's briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "So unless the rover roves, we couldn't really accomplish anything. It's a big moment."
The drive also marked a transition for the Curiosity team — from the entry, descent and landing phase of the mission, known as EDL, to surface operations and rover mobility. "Wheel tracks on Mars. The EDL team is finally done. :) Congrats to the mobility and surface teams!" Allen Chen, the mission's EDL operations and flight dynamics lead, declared in a Twitter update.
Lead rover driver Matt Heverly said that today's drive started at 7:17 a.m. PT (10:17 a.m. ET) and lasted roughly 16 minutes. "The majority of that time was spent taking images," he said. The rover rolled out 15 feet (4.5 meters), made a 120-degree turn in place, and then backed up 8 feet (2.5 meters) to a new spot for scientific observations.
A polar projection image, assembled from pictures taken by the Curiosity rover's navigation cameras, shows the tracks of the rover at Bradbury Landing on Mars as seen from above. An image from the navigation-camera system on NASA's Curiosity rover shows the six-wheeled craft's hardware in the foreground, and wheel tracks going around a rock just a few yards (meters) away. A mosaic of black-and-white images shows a panoramic view of the Curiosity rover's trail, including wheel tracks leading to an area where the rover turned in a circle, and then backed up to its current position. Four blast marks, or "scours," can be made out near where the rover landed. The flanks of Mount Sharp can be seen in the far background, toward the upper left corner of the frame.
First trek will follow checkouts
Since the rover's landing on the night of Aug. 5, Curiosity has been going through a series of checkouts and taking pictures of its immediate surroundings. Nearly all of the systems are working as planned — with the sole exception of wind sensors on one of the booms connected to the rover's weather station. Scientists speculate that the circuit boards for those sensors were probably damaged by small rocks that were thrown up onto the rover during landing. Despite the damage, the weather station will be able to gather wind speed data using other sensors.
Since the rover's landing on the night of Aug. 5, Curiosity has been going through a series of checkouts and taking pictures of its immediate surroundings. Nearly all of the systems are working as planned — with the sole exception of wind sensors on one of the booms connected to the rover's weather station. Scientists speculate that the circuit boards for those sensors were probably damaged by small rocks that were thrown up onto the rover during landing. Despite the damage, the weather station will be able to gather wind speed data using other sensors.
Curiosity's first destination will be a spot known as Glenelg, about a quarter-mile (400 meters) from the landing site, where three types of geological formations come together. That months-long trek could begin in about a week, deputy project scientist Joy Crisp said today. The rover's first scoop sample could be taken on the route between Bradbury Landing and Glenelg, she said, but the first drilling sample would probably be extracted at Glenelg.
By the end of the year, the nuclear-powered rover is expected to retrace its route and head toward the mountain, known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp. The layers of rock along the mountainside are thought to preserve a geological record going back billions of years.
The primary goal of Curiosity's mission is to look for geological and chemical evidence that could reveal how habitable Mars might have been over eons of geological time. To take on that challenge, the 1-ton, car-sized rover has been equipped with a bevy of scientific instruments — including high-resolution color cameras, two onboard chemical labs, an X-ray spectrometer and a rock-zapping laser. By Alan Boyle
Curiosity Rover: First Drive Celebration
An image taken by the Mars rover Opportunity, shown by NASA during a press conference Thursday, Oct 7, 2004, shows a bizarre, lumpy rock informally named Wopmay on the lower slopes of Endurance Crater. Scientists believe the lumps in Wopmay were formed by one of two processes. Either they were caused by the impact that created the football field-sized crater, or they arose when water soaking the rock dried up, said the scientists. (AP Photo/NASA)
Martian sand dunes are seen in this image taken by NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity and released on Friday, Aug. 6, 2004 by NASA. The dunes in the foreground are approximately 3 feet (1 meter) high. (AP Photo/ NASA/ JPL/ Cornell)
This image mosaic taken by the panoramic camera on board the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rover's landing site, the Columbia Memorial Station, at Gusev Crater, Mars. To the right are the east hills, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) away from the lander. The picture was taken on the 16th martian day, or sol, of the mission (Jan. 18/19, 2004). A portion of Spirit's solar panels appear in the foreground. Data from the panoramic camera's green, blue and infrared filters were combined to create this approximate true color image. (AP Photo/NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Cornell)
How to Get to Mars.
In this photo released by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA's Mars rover Spirit looks out over red slopes, valleys, plains and its own wheel tracks in this 360-degree panorama released Friday, April 29, 2005. Spirit and its twin rover Opportunity have found evidence of past water activity on the Red Planet since landing in January 2004. (AP Photo/NASA)
This is an image mosaic taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera made available by NASA on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2004, showing a view of Mars southwest of the rover's landing site in the Gusev Crater. The landscape shows little variation in local topography, though a narrow peak only seven to eight kilometers away is visible on the horizon. A circular depression, similar to the one dubbed Sleepy Hollow, can be seen in the foreground. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL)
Color Panorama of 'Santa Maria' Crater for Opportunity's Anniversary NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending the seventh anniversary of its landing on Mars investigating a crater called "Santa Maria," which has a diameter about the length of a football field. This scene looks eastward across the crater. Portions of the rim of a much larger crater, Endurance, appear on the horizon. The panorama spans 125 compass degrees, from north-northwest on the left to south-southwest on the right. It has been assembled from multiple frames taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on Opportunity during the 2,453rd and 2,454th Martian days, or sols, of the rover's work on Mars (Dec. 18 and 19, 2010).
Opportunity's Eighth Anniversary View From 'Greeley Haven' (False Color). This mosaic of images taken in mid-January 2012 shows the windswept vista northward (left) to northeastward (right) from the location where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending its fifth Martian winter, an outcrop informally named "Greeley Haven." Opportunity's Panoramic Camera (Pancam) took the component images as part of full-circle view being assembled from Greeley Haven. (NASA Photo)
In this photo released by NASA on Oct. 6, 2006, a view of Victoria crater is seen looking north from "Duck Bay" towards the dramatic promontory called "Cape Verde." The dramatic cliff of layered rocks is about 50 meters (about 165 feet) away from the rover and is about 6 meters (about 20 feet) tall. The taller promontory beyond that is about 100 meters (about 325 feet) away, and the vista beyond that extends away for more than 400 meters (about 1300 feet) into the distance. This is an enhanced false color rendering of images taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the rover's 952nd sol, or Martian day, (Sept. 28, 2006) using the camera's 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 430-nanometer filters. (AP Photo/NASA, JPL, Cornell)
"Intrepid" crater on Mars carries the name of the lunar module of NASA's Apollo 12 mission, which landed on Earth's moon Nov. 19, 1969. NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this view of the crater during the 2,417th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Nov. 11, 2010). This view is presented in approximately true color, combining exposures taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) through three filters admitting wavelengths of 752 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 432 nanometers. Intrepid crater is about 20 meters (66 feet) in diameter. That is about the same size as the crater where Opportunity spent its first two months on Mars: Eagle crater. The rover's look-back image into Eagle crater after driving out of it in 2004 is at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05755.
The East Hills are seen in this image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panaromic camera released Jan. 13, 2004. The hills are the most promising place to find the geologic evidence Spirit was sent to find -that the frozen, dry planet once was a warmer, wetter world capable of supporting life. NASA plans to send the rover towards the hills, which are at a distance of about five times Spirit's maximum driving range, meaning the rover could die on the way unless it far outlives its expected 90-day lifetime. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL/Cornell University, HO, File)
This true color image, released Monday, Jan. 19, 2004, taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars rover Spirit shows "Adirondack," the rover's first target rock. Spirit traversed the sandy martian terrain at Gusev Crater to arrive in front of the football-sized rock on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2004, just two days after it successfully rolled off the lander. The rock was selected as Spirit's first target because its dust-free, flat surface is ideally suited for grinding. Clean surfaces also are better for examining a rock's top coating. Scientists named the angular rock after the Adirondack mountain range in New York. (AP Photo/NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Cornell)
A portion of the west rim of Endeavour crater sweeps southward in this color view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. This crater -- with a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers) -- is more than 25 times wider than any that Opportunity has previously approached during the rover's 90 months on Mars.
The Mars rover's microscopic imager found these intriguing round pebbles. (NASA Photo)
This approximate true-color image taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration rover Opportunity shows the impact crater known as "Endurance," in this photo released by NASA Thursday, May 6, 2004. NASA scientists said Thursday they may send Opportunity on a one-way trip to the depths of the crater so the robot can finish out its days studying stacks of layered rock that may have formed long ago at the bottom of a salty extraterrestrial ocean. (AP Photo/NASA, JPL)
NASA's Mars Exploration rover Spirit used its panoramic camera to take the images that make up this full-resolution mosaic of the "Columbia Hills," on Mars, May 16, 2004. Spirit was operating normally again following diagnosis of a software problem that halted its activities, the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement Wednesday, May 26 , 2004. Its twin, Opportunity, on the other side of the Red Planet will be put into a "deep sleep" mode at night to save energy, NASA said. (AP Photo/NASA, JPL)
This true color image, released Monday, Jan. 19, 2004, taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration rover Spirit shows "sashimi," left, and "sushi," right, enroute the rover's first target rock (not shown). Spirit traversed the sandy martian terrain at Gusev Crater Sunday, Jan. 18, 2004, just two days after it successfully rolled off the lander. Spirit will not study these two rocks. (AP Photo/NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Cornell)
This composite photo released by NASA was created by combining hundreds of images taken by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration rover Spirit between Aug. 24 and Aug. 27, 2005 into a 360-degree view called "Husband Hill Summit." Part of the rover's deck is seen in the foreground. (AP Photo/NASA, JPL-Caltech, Cornell)
This image relased by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit April 13, 2006. The rover captured this false color view of a dark boulder with an interesting surface texture. The boulder sits about 40 centimeters (16 inches) tall on Martian sand about 5 meters (16 feet) away from Spirit. It is one of many dark, volcanic rock fragments -- many pocked with rounded holes called vesicles -- littering the slope of "Low Ridge." The rock surface facing the rover is similar in appearance to the surface texture on the outside of lava flows on Earth.
In this photo made by the Mars rover Opportunity and released in this Oct. 2006 file photo, by NASA shows a view of the "Victoria crater" looking southeast from "Duck Bay." A newly discovered asteroid has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, 2008, scientists said Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007. If the asteroid does smash into Mars, it'll likely aim near the equator close to where the rover Opportunity has been exploring the Martian plains since 2004. (AP Photo/NASA, JPL, CORNELL)
In the center of this photo is the large volcanic rock nicknamed Mazatzal in which the NASA/JPL Mars rover Spirit found traces of water that had flowed through tiny fissures that crisscrossed the boulder and cemented together the multiple layers that mask its surface. The findings were made during a weeklong analysis of the rock in the Gusev Crater region where Spirit landed Jan. 3. Since then, Spirit has been overshadowed by Opportunity as it found signs that extensive water, possibly a salty sea, once covered its landing site on Meridiani Planum. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL)
This image provided by NASA shows a high-resolution 360-degree color panorama of Gale Crater taken by the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars on August 5, 2012. A low-quality version was released earlier. Curiosity is on a two-year mission to study whether Gale could support microbial life. (AP Photo/NASA)
This image released by NASA August 9, 2012 shows a view taken by Mastcam on board NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. HO/AFP/GettyImages
This image released by NASA August 9, 2012 shows a view taken by Mastcam on board NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. HO/AFP/GettyImages
This image released by NASA August 9, 2012 shows a view taken by Mastcam on board NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. HO/AFP/GettyImages
This image released by NASA August 9, 2012 shows a view taken by Mastcam on board NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The view shows the mountains looming in the distance in front of Curiosity. /AFP/GettyImages
This NASA image obtained August 16, 2012 from NASA's Curiosity rover looks south of the rover's landing site on Mars towards Mount Sharp. This is part of a larger,high-resolution color mosaic made from images obtained by Curiosity's Mast Camera. In this version of the image, colors have been modified as if the scene were transported to Earth and illuminated by terrestrial sunlight.
This image released by NASA August 9, 2012 shows a view taken by Mastcam on board NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The view shows the mountains looming in the distance in front of Curiosity. /AFP/GettyImages
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기