Mars Rover

[Plane]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8509080.stm

The Mast Camera (Mastcam) will take images and video footage of the terrain
Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) will allow MSL to examine samples
Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) will take colour video during the rover's descent
Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) will measure chemical elements in rocks and soils by exposing material to alpha particles and X-rays
Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) will fire a laser and analyze the composition of the materials it vaporises
Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) will measure the abundances of various minerals
Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite will search for organic compounds that are associated with life
Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) will prepare for future human exploration, measuring high-energy radiation on the planet's surface
Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) will look for neutrons escaping from the planet's surface. If liquid or frozen water happens to be present, hydrogen atoms slow the neutrons down
Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) will monitor the weather on Mars

[Xavier_Onassis]

This seems to be a totally different design from the lunar rover and previous Mars rovers. Since these things are one-off bespoke contraptions, i suppose that there is not a lot of difference in redesigning it from scratch.

I am no expert, but it looks like a capable gizmo.

[Plane]

It is a lot bigger.



 
A scale model of MSL dwarfs the previous two generations of Nasa Mars rover

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15904408
Giant Nasa rover launches to Mars
Nasa has launched the most capable machine ever built to land on Mars.

The near one-tonne rover, tucked inside a capsule, left Florida on an Atlas 5 rocket at 10:02 local time (15:02 GMT).

Nicknamed Curiosity, the rover will take eight and a half months to cross the vast distance to its destination.

If it can land safely next August, the robot will then scour Martian soils and rocks for any signs that current or past environments on the planet could have supported microbial life.

The Atlas flight lasted almost three-quarters of an hour.

Continue reading the main story
Curiosity - Mars Science Laboratory
 
Project costed at $2.5bn; will see initial surface operations lasting two Earth years
Onboard plutonium generators will deliver heat and electricity for at least 14 years
75kg science payload more than 10 times as massive as those of earlier US Mars rovers
Equipped with tools to brush and drill into rocks, to scoop up, sort and sieve samples
Variety of analytical techniques to discern chemistry in rocks, soil and atmosphere
Will try to make first definitive identification of organic (carbon rich) compounds
Even carries a laser to zap rocks; beam will identify atomic elements in rocks
MSL - the biggest and best Mars mission yet
By the time the encapsulated rover was ejected on a path to the Red Planet, it was moving at 10km/s (6 miles per second).

Spectacular video taken from the upper-stage of the rocket showed it drifting off into the distance.

"Our spacecraft is in excellent health and it's on its way to Mars," said Curiosity project manager Peter Theisinger.

Nasa received a first communication from the cruising spacecraft about 50 minutes after lift-off through a tracking station in Canberra, Australia.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I see this as a much better way of spending research dollars than sending a man to Mars, and bringing him back. First we need to exhaust the research we can do via robotics before we risk anyone's life or spend the huge amount for round trip life support.

I can see where the new vehicle could do stuff neither of the previous ones could.

It is truly ugly, by the way, but aesthetics is not a major concern.

[kimba1]

Bring him back?

Npr had this subject and one nasa guy said this would be whole lot easier if this was a one way trip. In fact he's willing to go and is confident alot of people would still be willing to go.
I gotta be honest I am alittle tempted myself

[Plane]

   If human beings are never going to make this trip , why do we need this knoledge?

[Xavier_Onassis]

Having the data on Mars available would determine whether there would be any reason to visit with a manned mission. I note that we are observing and gathering data on stars many many light years away, and we do not plan to go there, either.  Knowledge is its own reward in scientific fields. Or at least that is a view I have heard often.

[kimba1]

Doesn't the very act of getting to mars advance our own technology?

I remember hearing reading somewhere advancement is not a straight line.
Ex. The MRI is actually derived from tech in astronomy research.

Also to finally answer bt question many years ago. Government sponsered research is needed because it has no natural reward system like corporate research which is actually  limits inovation.
alot of innovation just can't be achieved if a big payout was involved.

That question has been in the back of my head for years ,but resently a podcast i bumped into finally adrress it by some guy who destroyed pluto status as a planet?he still get hate mail for that

[Amianthus]

I remember hearing reading somewhere advancement is not a straight line.

I read a book where the history of science was described as a "drunkard's walk" - careening side to side and even sometimes backing up or making circles. James Burke's Connections and The Day the Universe Changed series attempt to show this view of studying history and science.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Anyone who sends hate mail about the status of Pluto needs to get a life. Pluto is what it is, the title "planet" is a human-defined word.

That James Burke series was excellent, and describes the way that scientific discoveries and commercial inventions affect one another quite well. All knowledge is superior to all ignorance.

[Plane]

It doesn't say so here, but the "sky crane " is an innovation of the Soviet military. Somebody call MT.

 The first of NASA’s rovers, Sojourner, which reached Mars in 1997, was 65cm long and weighed (on Earth, where the gravitational pull is 2½ times Mars’s) 10kg. Spirit and Opportunity, its twin successors, were larger, at 1.6 metres and 170kg. Curiosity, by comparison, is a monster. At 3 metres and 900kg it is the size of a small car. It also uses different technology. The other three rovers were powered by solar panels. Curiosity is powered by plutonium. (Not a full-scale reactor, but a generator that turns the heat of radioactive decay into electrical energy.) This brings three advantages. First, it allows Curiosity to carry more power-hungry scientific instruments than previous rovers. Second, it permits the rover to work through the Martian winter. Third, it avoids the problem of dust accumulating on the solar panels, which gradually sapped the strength of its predecessors.

Curiosity’s size makes getting it safely onto the Martian surface tricky. Previous rovers have deployed parachutes to slow their descents, and have then crashed into the ground using airbags to cushion their impacts. Curiosity is too massive for that approach to work. Instead, NASA hopes to deposit it on Mars using a contraption it has dubbed a skycrane.

http://www.economist.com/node/21540227

[Xavier_Onassis]

Curiosity is powered by plutonium. (Not a full-scale reactor, but a generator that turns the heat of radioactive decay into electrical energy.)

==========================================================
This sounds intriguing. I suppose that you could install it in an automobile, but that it would be too dangerous to drive about in traffic, as even if it did not emit dangerous radiation normally, it would do so in a collision.

It does not seem to weigh enough to allow for adequate shielding from radiation. I suppose that on Mars this is of little concern. Mutant lichens are at most the worst thing that could result.

[Plane]

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20111010.html

While NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity was traveling from Victoria crater to Endeavour crater, between September 2008 and August 2011, the rover team took an end-of-drive image on each Martian day that included a drive. A new video compiles these 309 images, providing an historic record of the three-year trek that totaled about 13 miles (21 kilometers) across a Martian plain pocked with smaller craters.

The video featuring the end-of-drive images is now available online, at

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=114782241

. It shows the rim of Endeavour becoming visible on the horizon partway through the journey and growing larger as Opportunity neared that goal. The drive included detours, as Opportunity went around large expanses of treacherous terrain along the way.

The rover team also produced a sound track for the video, using each drive day's data from Opportunity's accelerometers. The low-frequency data has been sped up 1,000 times to yield audible frequencies.

[Plane]

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=121492991

[Amianthus]

Just added the video to my Boxee watch later list. Will check it out on the big screen home theater when I get home tonight. ;-)