NASA’s Mars
Curiosity Rover was launched in November of last year. After traveling 352 million miles, the rover will
touch down on the red planet in just a few hours (1:30amET). Curiosity is bigger
than any previous rover but also more equipped giving us our best shot yet at
verifying if life on Mars, was, or is ever possible. But first, Curiosity has to stick the landing on Mars' surface. Allow me to break everything down on all things Curiosity.
Lets call it a 2.5 billion
dollar gamble; the mini cooper sized rover is going to have NASA engineers
seriously sweating on this landing.
From the top of Mars
atmosphere, down to the surface, it takes 7 minutes.
Curiosity has to go from
13,000mph to 0mph during this time, which is being dubbed as “7 minutes of
terror". There is no room for error on this landing.
Since Curiosity is much
bigger than previous rovers, it cannot use an airbag landing. The process
requires four steps.
The rover will be inside a
capsule for the journey. Upon landing,
it will deploy a
100lb parachute – “the
strongest most supersonic parachute NASA has ever developed”. (It has to
withstand 65,000 lbs. of force) But that
parachute is only going to slow it to 200mph. When it gets close enough,
it will cut that parachute off and slow itself down with rocket- powered
deceleration. It then will be lowered down on it’s wheels by a Skycrane,
and this will all happen with the utmost precision.
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| Image courtesy of NASA - the three Mars rovers - Curiosity to right (much larger in size) |
This particular mission is the most ambitious and also has the most riding on it. If the mission fails,
there will be a lot of skepticism on the spend and also future space missions. And if the mission is a success, it
could lead to very interesting discoveries in science.
Experts are predicting a 60-70% chance of failure.
What is
the point of the mission anyway?
The main point of the
mission is to determine if the planet ever had life or could support it.
(There are three criteria needed to prove it was once habitable:
water, necessary compounds and a source of energy.)
Curiosity will be landing
next to Mt. Sharp that has numerous layers the rover can explore unveiling
potential secrets about ancient Mars and the possibility of a once habitable
environment. (Note - this rover is also a lot more rugged and was built to climb craters and mountain areas.)
And while it is much bigger than previous rovers, it is better equipped which finally allows NASA to confidently get answers. There are ten different
instruments on board that will take on various missions: a camera that will take high res video
and pictures, testing for radiation, and there’s even an on- board laser that will
test the soil and rocks (all data will be sent to two orbiters to
relay the results back to NASA).
The mission itself is scheduled for two years,
though NASA says the battery could last up to ten.
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| Image courtesy of NASA - Curiosity is compared to the size of a Mini Cooper |
This
sounds freakin’ awesome, where can I watch/stay up to date?
There are quite a few viewing
parties across the country. If you
happen to be in New York City, you can watch it live from Times Square, right
where the ball drops. If you are
elsewhere, fear not, here are a few links:
Nasa.gov - map of viewing
locations
NASA TV Public Channel
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl
- feed including commentary and interviews
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 - uninterrupted, clean feed
XBox - NASA link on your
dashboard
NASA Be a Martian App - while this won't be streaming live it will have regular updates
And PS - I highly recommend you watch this clip from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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