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07-20-2012, 08:44 PM
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#301 |
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O-F Administrator
 
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07-22-2012, 12:41 PM
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#302 |
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Orbinaut
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07-22-2012, 01:46 PM
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#303 |
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Orbinaut
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How long before MSL enter Mars SOI?
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07-23-2012, 12:52 PM
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#304 |
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O-F Administrator
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07-23-2012, 08:59 PM
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#305 |
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O-F Administrator
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The Planetary Society Blog: When will we see Curiosity's first images?
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07-24-2012, 04:19 PM
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#306 |
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O-F Administrator
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Wil "Wesley Crusher" Wheaton talks about Curiosity on NASAtelevision's video:
JPLnews: SPACE.com: Mars Rover Curiosity's Landing Site: Gale Crater (Infographic)  |
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07-25-2012, 12:26 AM
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#307 |
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O-F Administrator
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NASA / NASA JPL:
Mars Orbiter Repositioned to Phone Home Mars Landing July 24, 2012 PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has successfully adjusted its orbital location to be in a better position to provide prompt confirmation of the August landing of the Curiosity rover. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft carrying Curiosity can send limited information directly to Earth as it enters Mars' atmosphere. Before the landing, Earth will set below the Martian horizon from the descending spacecraft's perspective, ending that direct route of communication. Odyssey will help to speed up the indirect communication process. NASA reported during a July 16 news conference that Odyssey, which originally was planned to provide a near-real-time communication link with Curiosity, had entered safe mode July 11. This situation would have affected communication operations, but not the rover's landing. Without a repositioning maneuver, Odyssey would have arrived over the landing area about two minutes after Curiosity landed. A spacecraft thruster burn Tuesday, July 24, lasting about six seconds has nudged Odyssey about six minutes ahead in its orbit. Odyssey is now operating normally, and confirmation of Curiosity's landing is expected to reach Earth at about 10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5 (early Aug. 6, EDT and Universal Time), as originally planned. "Information we are receiving indicates the maneuver has completed as planned," said Mars Odyssey Project Manager Gaylon McSmith of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Odyssey has been working at Mars longer than any other spacecraft, so it is appropriate that it has a special role in supporting the newest arrival." Two other Mars orbiters, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Space Agency's Mars Express, also will be in position to receive radio transmissions from the Mars Science Laboratory during its descent. However, they will be recording information for later playback, not relaying it immediately, as only Odyssey can. {...} NASA News Release: RELEASE : 12-255 - NASA Mars Orbiter Repositioned to Phone Home Mars Landing SpaceRef: Mars Odyssey Moved to Relay Curiosity Landing Data CBS News Space: Orbiter nudged back into position to cover upcoming Mars landing SPACE.com: NASA Moves Old Spacecraft to Track New Mars Rover's Landing Spaceflight Now: Odyssey nudged into position to hear Curiosity's landing Aviation Week: Mars Odyssey Repositioned For Better MSL Comms Relay |
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07-25-2012, 05:17 PM
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#308 |
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O-F Administrator
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07-26-2012, 07:38 PM
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#309 |
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Orbinaut
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It's getting close now.
10 days and 10 hours and 19 076 400 km to go, and we all shall know if that "stunt"  of NASA is good or bad.http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eyes/pla...ts/msl/msl.xml |
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07-26-2012, 08:30 PM
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#311 |
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Scorched lands, here I am !
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See where is Curiosity : http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eyes/pla...ts/msl/msl.xml
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07-27-2012, 09:48 AM
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ESA:
Call for Media: Mars Express supports NASA’s Curiosity landing 27 July 2012 ESA PR 24-2012 - Media representatives are invited to ESA’s operations centre in Germany on Monday, 6 August, to follow ESA's Mars Express supporting the entry, descent and landing of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory. On 6 August, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is set to deliver the Curiosity rover onto the Red Planet’s surface. The landing in Gale Crater will mark the start of an ambitious exploration programme studying Mars’ habitability, climate and geology and collecting data for a future human mission to Mars.
During MSL’s critical entry, descent and landing phase, approximately 06:15-07:30 CEST, ESA’s Mars Express orbiter will perform a complex tracking operation. The European spacecraft will be in an ideal position to record signals from the NASA lander to help scientists reconstruct the entry and landing profile to improve our understanding of the Red Planet’s atmosphere. Confirmation of touchdown by NASA is set for 07:31 CEST.
ESA’s tracking and data recording by Mars Express will be a crucial back-up to NASA's own tracking efforts. The Agency's ground network of 35 m-diameter deep-space antennas will also support the landing, standing by as ‘hot back-up’ to NASA’s own deep-space network. {...} Programme: 06:00-09:00 CEST
{...} Live web streaming On 6 August, expert briefings and technical activities at ESA’s operations centre will also be streamed live online (06:30–08:00 CEST) via www.livestream.com/eurospaceagency. {...} |
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07-27-2012, 02:22 PM
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#313 |
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O-F Administrator
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07-28-2012, 05:54 AM
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#314 |
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O-F Administrator
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07-29-2012, 09:18 AM
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#315 |
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O-F Administrator
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NASA / NASA JPL:
Curiosity Rover on Track for Early August Landing July 28, 2012 Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report PASADENA, Calif. -- Eight days before reaching Mars, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft performed a flight-path adjustment scheduled more than nine months ago. The trajectory correction maneuver completed late Saturday may be the last one the mission needs before landing day, though two further opportunities remain on its schedule in case they are needed. The spacecraft is on course for delivering the mission's car-size rover, Curiosity, to a landing target beside a Martian mountain at about 10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5. (1:31 a.m. on Aug. 6, EDT). After landing, the rover will spend a two-year prime mission studying whether the area has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for life. The spacecraft used two brief thruster firings totaling about 7 seconds to adjust its trajectory at about 10 p.m. PDT on July 28 (1 a.m. on July 29, EDT). This maneuver had been on the mission's schedule since before launch on Nov. 26, 2011. It altered the flight path less than any of the spacecraft's three previous trajectory correction maneuvers on the way from Earth to Mars. The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft had been on a course in recent weeks that would have hit a point at the top of the Martian atmosphere about 13 miles (21 kilometers) east of the target entry point. On landing day, it can steer enough during its flight through the upper atmosphere to correct for missing the target entry point by a few miles and still land on the intended patch of Mars real estate. The mission's engineers and managers rated the projected 13-mile miss big enough to warrant a correction maneuver. "The purpose of this maneuver is to move the point at which Curiosity enters the atmosphere by about 13 miles," said Tomas Martin-Mur of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., chief of the mission's navigation team. "The first look at telemetry and tracking data afterwards indicates the maneuver succeeded as planned." The thruster firings altered the spacecraft's velocity by about one-fortieth of one mile per hour (one centimeter per second). Curiosity will enter Mars' atmosphere at a speed of about 13,200 mph (5,900 meters per second). Opportunities for two further course corrections are scheduled in the final 48 hours before landing, if needed. "I will not be surprised if this was our last trajectory correction maneuver," Martin Mur said of Saturday's event. "We will be monitoring the trajectory using the antennas of the Deep Space Network to be sure Curiosity is staying on the right path for a successful entry, descent and landing." Descent from the top of Mars' atmosphere to the surface will employ bold techniques enabling use of a smaller target area and heavier landed payload than were possible for any previous Mars mission. These innovations, if successful, will place a well-equipped mobile laboratory into a locale especially well-suited for its mission of discovery. The same innovations advance NASA toward capabilities needed for human missions to Mars. As of July 30, the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft carrying the rover Curiosity will have traveled about 343 million miles (555 million kilometers) of its 352-million-mile (567-million-kilometer) flight to Mars. {...} Universe Today: Curiosity Completes Crucial Course Correction – 1 Week from Mars ! Florida Today: A lot hangs in the balance with tricky Mars landing Spaceflight Now: Mars Science Lab fine-tunes path for rover landing Discovery News: Rover Curiosity Tweaks its Final Mars Approach SPACE.com: Less Than a Week Remains Before NASA's Biggest Rover Yet Lands on Mars Aviation Week: NASA Rover Closing In On Mars To Hunt For Life Clues |
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