Updates Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

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And some more photos (additional may be added to this post later, as NASA keeps adding them to their gallery while I post):
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Florida Today - The Flame Trench / Florida Today: Safety Plan In Place For Mars Science Lab Launch:
A team of local and federal emergency management experts said Wednesday they're ready for the November liftoff of a plutonium-powered Mars rover after a five-year effort to plan how they would handle any launch accident that results in a radiological release.

Odds of an accident resulting in the release of radioactive plutonium are remote: 1 in 420, or about 3.3 percent.

The Atlas V rocket launching the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory will be safely away from the Space Coast within 50 seconds of blasting off.

Nonetheless, officials say an exhaustive effort was made by NASA, emergency response and safety experts to protect people in the event of an explosion or other emergency.

Check out the full story HERE.

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SPACE.com: Huge Mars Crater an 'Intriguing' Target for Next NASA Rover


NASA JPL / NASA:
Mars Science Laboratory Meets its Match in Florida

In preparation for launch later this year, the "back shell powered descent vehicle" configuration containing NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, has been placed on the spacecraft's heat shield.

The matchup was performed by technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The heat shield and the spacecraft's back shell form an aeroshell that encapsulates and protects the rover from the intense heat it will experience during the final leg of the trip to Mars—the friction-filled descent through the Martian atmosphere.

Click on image for details​
At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the "back shell powered descent vehicle" configuration, containing NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, is being placed on the spacecraft's heat shield.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech​


The mission is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during the period from Nov. 25 to Dec. 18. Arrival at Gale Crater on Mars is expected in August 2012.

After arrival, the Curiosity rover will investigate whether the landing region has had environmental conditions favorable for supporting microbial life and favorable for preserving clues about whether life existed.

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NASA / NASA JPL:
Mars Rover Carries Device for Underground Scouting

October 20, 2011

An instrument on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity can check for any water that might be bound into shallow underground minerals along the rover's path.

"If we conclude that there is something unusual in the subsurface at a particular spot, we could suggest more analysis of the spot using the capabilities of other instruments," said this instrument's principal investigator, Igor Mitrofanov of the Space Research Institute, Russia.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission will use 10 instruments on Curiosity to investigate whether the area selected for the mission has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for life and favorable for preserving evidence about life.

"The strength of Mars Science Laboratory is the combination of all the instruments together," Mitrofanov added.

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Neutron generator of instrument for detecting water-bearing minerals.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech​
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Detectors of instrument for detecting water-bearing minerals.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech​


The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons instrument, or DAN, will scout for underground clues to a depth of about 20 inches (50 centimeters). The Russian Federal Space Agency contributed it to NASA as part of a broad collaboration between the United States and Russia in the exploration of space. Sergey Saveliev, deputy head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, emphasized that the cooperation on this project serves as a continuation of the joint activities associated with the study of Mars to enhance the scientific return to the international community in the areas of Mars exploration and Mars knowledge. The accommodation and integration of the Russian DAN in the U.S. Mars Science Laboratory flight and mission systems give evidence of strengthening cooperation between the two countries in space endeavors.

DAN will bring to the surface of Mars an enhancement of nuclear technology that has already detected Martian water from orbit. "Albedo" in the instrument's name means reflectance -- in this case, how original high-energy neutrons injected into the ground bounce off atomic nuclei in the ground. Neutrons that collide with hydrogen atoms bounce off with a characteristic decrease in energy, similar to how one billiard ball slows after colliding with another. By measuring the energies of the neutrons leaking from the ground, DAN can detect the fraction that was slowed in these collisions, and therefore the amount of hydrogen.

Oil prospectors use this technology in instruments lowered down exploration holes to detect the hydrogen in petroleum. Space explorers have adapted it for missions to the moon and Mars, where most hydrogen is in water ice or in water-derived hydroxyl ions.

Mitrofanov is the principal investigator for a Russian instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, the high-energy neutron detector (HEND), which measures high energy of neutrons coming from Mars. In 2002, it and companion instruments on Odyssey detected hydrogen interpreted as abundant underground water ice close to the surface at high latitudes. That discovery led to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander going to far northern Mars in 2008 and confirming the presence of water ice.

"You can think of DAN as a reconnaissance instrument," Mitrofanov said. Just as Phoenix investigated what Odyssey detected, Curiosity can use various tools to investigate what DAN detects. The rover has a soil scoop and can also dig with its wheels. Its robotic arm can put samples into instruments inside the rover for thorough analyses of ingredients. Rock formations that Curiosity's cameras view at the surface can be traced underground with DAN, enhancing the ability of scientists to understand the geology.

The neutron detectors on Odyssey rely on galactic cosmic rays hitting Mars as a source of neutrons. DAN can work in a passive mode relying on cosmic rays, but it also has its own pulsing neutron generator for an active mode of shooting high-energy neutrons into the ground. In active mode, it is sensitive enough to detect water content as low as one-tenth of one percent in the ground beneath the rover.

The neutron generator is mounted on Curiosity's right hip. A module with two neutron detectors is mounted on the left hip. With pulses lasting about one microsecond and repeated as frequently as 10 times per second, key measurements by the detectors are the flux rate and delay time of moderated neutrons with different energy levels returning from the ground. The generator will be able to emit a total of about 10 million pulses during the mission, with about 10 million neutrons at each pulse.

"We have a fixed number of about 10 million shots, so one major challenge is to determine our strategy for how we will use them," said Maxim Litvak, leading scientist of the DAN investigation from the Space Research Institute.

Operational planning anticipates using DAN during short pauses in drives and while the rover is parked. It will check for any changes or trends in subsurface hydrogen content, from place to place along the traverse. Because there is a low possibility for underground water ice at Curiosity's Gale crater landing site, the most likely form of hydrogen in the ground of the landing area is hydrated minerals. These are minerals with water molecules or hydroxyl ions bound into the crystalline structure of the mineral. They can tenaciously retain water from a wetter past when all free water has gone.

"We want a better understanding of where the water has gone," said Alberto Behar, DAN investigation scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "DAN fits right into the follow-the-water strategy for studying Mars."

Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena said, "DAN will provide the ability to detect hydrated minerals or water ice in the shallow subsurface, which provides immediate clues as to how the geology of the subsurface might guide exploration of the surface. In addition, DAN can tell us how the shallow subsurface may differ from what the rover sees at the surface. None of our other instruments have the ability to do this. DAN measurements will tell us about the habitability potential of subsurface rocks and soils -- whether they contain water -- and as we drive along, DAN may help us understand what kinds of rocks are under the soils we drive across."

Information from DAN will also provide a ground-truth calibration for the measurements that the gamma-ray and neutron detectors on Odyssey have made and continue to make, all around the planet, enhancing the value of that global data set. The team leader of Odyssey's gamma-ray spectrometer suite, William Boynton of the University of Arizona in Tucson, is a co-investigator on the DAN investigation, with the major responsibility to provide DAN data products to NASA's Planetary Data System for usage by scientists everywhere.

Besides heading the team that developed and will operate DAN, Mitrofanov is the principal investigator for a passive neutron-detector instrument to check for hydrated minerals on Mars' moon Phobos as part of the Phobos Soil Return mission that Russia plans to launch in November 2011. "Measurements by DAN on the Mars surface will be useful for the interpretation of Phobos data," he said.

The DAN instrument was developed by the Space Research Institute, Moscow, in close cooperation with the N. L. Dukhov All-Russia Research Institute of Automatics, Moscow, and the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, Dubna. A Russian-language website is available at http://l503.iki.rssi.ru/.

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Some chosen latest images from KSC media gallery of the MSL processing, that were added there yesterday and today:
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Universe Today: "Curiosity Buttoned Up for Martian Voyage in Search of Life’s Ingredients"
After extensive quality assurance testing, Curiosity has been encapsulated for the final time inside the aeroshell that will be her home during the 10 month long interplanetary cruise to Mars. Furthermore, she’s been attached to the cruise stage that will guide her along the path from the home planet to the red planet.
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Encapsulating into payload fairing

Encapsulating into fairing (Oct. 25):
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Payload fairing gets mission logo and is moved onto transporter

Payload fairing gets mission logo and is moved onto transporter (Oct. 29 - Nov. 2):
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MSL moved to VIF and attached to the rocket

MSL has been moved today to VIF and attached to its Atlas V rocket:
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Discovery News: New Mars Rover Prepared For Thanksgiving Launch

Florida Today - The Flame Trench: Next Mars Explorer Arrives At Launch Pad

SPACE.com: NASA's Next Mars Rover Hoisted Atop Rocket

Universe Today: Curiosity Rover Bolted to Atlas Rocket – In Search of Martian Microbial Habitats

Spaceflight Now:
 

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Video: MSL moved to VIF and attached to the rocket

Video of the above:

 

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NASA JPL / NASA / NASA Media Advisory::
Nov. 8, 2011​
MEDIA ADVISORY : M11-230
NASA To Hold Media Briefing About Upcoming Mars Rover Launch


WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media briefing at 1 p.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 10, to discuss the upcoming launch of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the largest and most capable rover to be sent to another planet. The televised briefing will take place in the agency's television studio at NASA Headquarters, located at 300 E St. S.W. in Washington.

The MSL mission is scheduled to launch at 10:25 a.m. EST on Nov. 25. The launch period extends to Dec. 18. The spacecraft will deliver a car-size rover named Curiosity to the surface of Mars in August 2012.

Briefing Participants are:
  • Doug McCuistion, director, Mars Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
  • Ashwin Vasavada, MSL deputy project scientist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
  • Pete Theisinger, MSL project manager, JPL

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