After Hours

Curiosity Mars rover's landing plan

By // August 3, 2012, 2:25 AM PST

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  • Curiosity rover's features

    NASA's latest Mars rover, Curiosity, is set to touch down on Mars in an awesome landing at approximately 1:31 AM Eastern Daylight Time on Monday, August 6, 2012. Read my Geekend post for more details about the rover and where to watch the live broadcast.

    This NASA image of Curiosity highlights some of the main features of the rover, including the cameras and devices on the mast and the arm (labeled MAHLI). As you can see, Curiosity has several redundant systems, including duplicate hazard cameras ("HazCams") on the front and rear, dual NavCams, and dual MastCams. Curiosity is also six-wheel-drive, so it should be able to avoid getting stuck like its predecessor, Spirit.

     

    Image courtesy NASA

  • Curiosity rover's mast

    This is a close-up of Curiosity's mast.

    Image courtesy NASA

  • Gale Crater, Mars

    Curiosity is set to touch down in Gale Crater. The black ellipse on the map is its target zone. Gale Crater is 96 miles wide and contains a 3-mile high mountain at its center.

    Image courtesy NASA

  • Curiosity rover: landing map

    This map outlines Curiosity's travel through the Martian atmosphere until it touches down.

    Image courtesy NASA

  • Curiosity rover: landing area grid

    NASA scientists spent a long time studying the area in and around the target ellipse for potential hazards, as well as points of interest. To ease the study, the region was broken up into 140 quadrangles. The target ellipse is again displayed on this map.

    Image courtesy NASA

  • Curiosity rover: landing area topography

    This map shows a topographical analysis of the landing region, generated from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The Alluvial Fan drawn into the map is an area where debris spreads out down a slope. On Earth, this is usually caused by water. It is hoped that this is the case on Mars as well.

    Image courtesy NASA

  • Curiosity rover: landing area geology

    This map highlights some of the geology of the landing region by color-coding areas based on the amount of heat they hold on to. You can also see the Alluvial Fan really well in this image.

    Image courtesy NASA

  • Curiosity rover: landing graphic

    This graphic shows the landing plan for the Curiosity rover, highlighting the various stages of the landing process. This is coupled well with the "Seven Minutes of Terror" video.

    Image courtesy NASA

  • Curiosity rover: laser and spectroscopy

    One of Curiosity's tasks is to blast away dust and particulates with a laser so that an onboard spectrograph can analyze the plume for certain minerals. This graphic shows this process and what can be detected by the analysis.

    Image courtesy NASA

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Curiosity rover's features

NASA's latest Mars rover, Curiosity, is set to touch down on Mars in an awesome landing at approximately 1:31 AM Eastern Daylight Time on Monday, August 6, 2012. Read my Geekend post for more details about the rover and where to watch the live broadcast.

This NASA image of Curiosity highlights some of the main features of the rover, including the cameras and devices on the mast and the arm (labeled MAHLI). As you can see, Curiosity has several redundant systems, including duplicate hazard cameras ("HazCams") on the front and rear, dual NavCams, and dual MastCams. Curiosity is also six-wheel-drive, so it should be able to avoid getting stuck like its predecessor, Spirit.

 

Image courtesy NASA

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