CURIOSITY: Big Mars Rover for Big Mars Science!

CURIOSITY: Big Mars Rover for Big Mars Science!

Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity launchedfrom Cape Canaveral in Florida.


Curiosity launched on an Atlas V-541, the largest rocket for launching to a planet.


It is propelled toward Mars by a Centaur upper stage.

Curiosity is headed to Gale Crater.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

You can see where other Mars landers and rovers have successfully landed on Mars too.

Gale Crater is about 96 miles wide.

It has many

rock layers for Curiosity to explore,

from canyons to channels,

all in one place!

NASA/JPL-Caltech

At Gale, Curiosity will study Martian rocks and mineralsthat hold clues to whether Mars ever could have

supported small life forms called microbes.

False Color, Panoramic Camera, on Opportunity rover NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

Curiosity will pick up where other Mars rovers left off.Beyond signs of water, the rover will look for

signs of organics, the chemical building blocks of life.


Curiosity is targeted to land within the yellow ellipse, on flat terrain near Gale’s central mound.

NASAJPL-Caltech/ASU/UA

Central Mound

The 3-mile-high mound has multiple rock layers. Each rock layer reveals a different time in Mars’ history.Some have clays and sulfates, which both form in water.

NASAJPL-Caltech/ESA/UA

Beyond signs of water, the rover will look for signs of organics, the chemical building blocks of life.

To find out if Mars ever could have supported microbial life, the team built a lot of science tools

on the rover to study rocks and soil up close.

NASA/JPL-Caltech Rocks hold the record of what past environments on Mars were like.

Here are some of Curiosity’s main tools for studying Mars.You can see that the rover is packed with tools!

NASA/JPL-Caltech

That’s why Curiosity is so large.It takes a car-sized rover to carry so many tools.

Spirit/Opportunity (2004) Sojourner (1997) Curiosity (2011)

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity is twice the sizeof Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity

and five times as heavy.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Among Curiosity’s tools are seventeen cameras, a laser to zap rocks, and a drill to collect rock samples.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity will use her camera “eyes”

to take images of the Martian landscape

and to study rock layers.

Some of these rock layers hold clues to whether

Mars could have ever been a habitat for life.

These two cameras are called Mastcam.

NASAJPL-Caltech

Engineers built a laser with a tool called a spectrometer, which detects chemical elements in rocks. It is called ChemCam.

NASAJPL-Caltech/LANL

On Curiosity’s “head” is ChemCam’s laser system.

In its body is the part of the spectrometer that will detect different chemical elements in rocks.

The laser can vaporize a thin layer of rock and tell from the color of the sparks what the rock is made of.

Artist’s Concept. NASAJPL-Caltech

Curiosity will be able to send weather reports from Mars too!Two little booms on the rover’s mast (“neck”) called REMS

will monitor temperature, wind speed and direction. REMS also measures pressure and ultraviolet light.

NASAJPL-Caltech

Curiosity’s seven-foot-long arm has tools built into its “hand.”

The “hand” will reach out and touch Mars,finding out about what the past environment was like.


Curiosity has three more rock analyzers. Each has a special job.

All will determine what the rocks and soils are made of.That data will tell scientists about whether Mars had the right chemistry for possibly supporting microbial life.

SAM: Identifies Organics,

the Chemical Building Blocks of Life

CHEMIN: Identifies Minerals,

including those formed in water

APXS: Identifies

Chemical Elements in Rocks

On Hand In Body In Body

On its hand, Curiosity has a hand lens called MAHLI(a “magnifying glass”) for studying soil grains.

It can take photos of rocks far away too, and carries its own lighting to take photos at night.

NASAJPL-Caltech/MSSS

Curiosity also carries two radiation detectors.

DAN will help scientists detect any water below the surface, whether in the soil or bound inside minerals.

RAD will help scientists understand the Martian

radiation environment to prepare for human exploration someday.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

To power these instruments, Curiosity uses electricity provided by a battery

that is continuously recharged by heat from the natural radioactive decay of plutonium-238.

It will take about 110 watts of electricity to run the rover and its instruments.NASA/JPL-Caltech

To fit all these tools on the rover, the team had to supersize everything, from the capsule that holds the rover,

to the parachute that slows it down before landing.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

To get to Mars, Curiosity will travel tucked safely inside a

protective shell.

NASAJPL-Caltech

Heat Shield

Back Shell

Descent Stage

Rover

Cruise Stage

The trip will take over eight months.

The rover will travel about 354 million miles (570 million kilometers).


The spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere 78 miles above the planet. The rover will take approximately

seven minutes to reach the ground.


The spacecraft can steer its way through the turbulent atmosphere so it can land more accurately.

The friction of the atmosphere slows the spacecraft from 13,000 mph to about 900 mph.


The heat shield may reach 3,800 degrees Fahrenheit!

A supersonic parachute slows the spacecraft

from about 900 mph

to 180 mph,

the speed of a Formula One

race car.


While slowing down using the parachute, the heat shield is popped off, exposing the rover to the Martian atmosphere.

The rover’s descent camera begins taking a movie of the remaining five-mile flight to the ground.


The engines on the descent stage roar to life and fly the rover down the last mile to the surface.


As it descends, the rover uses radar to measure its speed and altitude, which it uses to land safely.

The hovering descent stage lowers the rover on three nylon ropes called bridle.

Coiled electronics and communications cables also unspool from the descent stage.

This configuration is known as the “Sky Crane.”Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech

By the time Curiosity touches down, the rover is going about two miles per hour.

Less than seven minutes before, it was traveling at 13,000 miles per hour!


When the sky crane “senses” that Curiosity has touched down, the cables are cut.

The sky crane flies a safe distance away from the rover before crash-landing.


For the first time, a Mars rover will land with wheels touching down first,

instead of airbags.


Curiosity will start exploring Mars after raising its “head” and doing a “self-check” to make sure all systems are go.


Driving could take several days to a few weeks after landing.

Curiosity will tell us about what it finds through the

Deep Space Network.

Three centers with large communications antennas

receive the signals:

in California,

Spain,

and Australia.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity will send data back to Earth’s Deep Space Network

through Mars orbiters.

Artist’s Concept. NASAJPL-Caltech

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey Orbiter

It takes about 5 to 20 minutes for a signal to travel between Earth and Mars,

depending on where the planets are in their orbits.


Curiosity’s schedule will vary based on what she finds. She may take pictures one day, use her laser the next,

drill into a rock for a sample, or simply drive to a new place.


Curiosity is expected to work for one Martian year, or about two Earth years.

Artist’s Concept. NASAJ/PL-Caltech

Don’t miss the adventure on Mars, beginning August 2012!

Follow Curiosity!

Mission Website:mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

Twitter: @MarsCuriosity

Be A Martian!beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov

www.nasa.gov/msl

CURIOSITY: Big Mars Rover for Big Mars Science!

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