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New Curiosity Rover Landing Target May Save Months Travel to Prime Destination

Posted by Unknown on from the behold-the-power-of-technology dept.

coondoggie writes with an update on the Mars Science Laboratory. From the article: "Even as it hurtles towards an August 5 rendezvous with the red planet, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is being fine-tuned for a more precise landing and better operations once it reaches its destination. NASA today gave a status report for the MSL which was launched November 2011, and is still over 17.5 million kilometers away from Mars. Of major interest today was the fact NASA said it has narrowed landing target for the Mars rover, Curiosity letting it touch down closer to its ultimate destination for science operations, but also closer to the foot of a mountain slope that poses a landing hazard, the agency said." From NASA: "The larger ellipse, 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) by 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) was already smaller than the landing target area for any previous Mars mission, due to this mission's techniques for improved landing precision. Continuing analysis after the Nov. 26, 2011, launch resulted in confidence in landing within an even smaller area [handy diagram], about 12 miles by 4 miles (20 by 7 kilometers). Using the smaller ellipse, the Mars Science Laboratory Project also moved the center of the target closer to the mountain, which holds geological layers that are the prime destination for the rover. ... 'We're trimming the distance we'll have to drive after landing by almost half,' said Pete Theisinger, Mars Science Laboratory project manager ... 'That could get us to the mountain months earlier.'"

21 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. It will get you there way earlier.... by wbr1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...if you smash land into the damn thing.
    Just remember to convert your units correctly!

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
    1. Re:It will get you there way earlier.... by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 2

      All calculations were done in dog-years, so they're really not saving that much time.

  2. Re:Why?? by profplump · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because they completed an engineering analysis and determined that the reduced operational costs and increased science opportunities were balanced by the increased risk. Heck, for all you know there is no significant increase in the risk, and the old landing area selection was based on unnecessarily conservative estimates of the landing precision, so landing further away would be purely detrimental.

  3. Re:Why?? Cost of change by j-stroy · · Score: 2

    Or the on the ground survey's that will be missed by the rover not traversing them. Even the Hubble examination of seemingly empty sky produced incredible results.

  4. Disappointed... by Covalent · · Score: 2

    I thought they had somehow found a way to get to Mars months sooner.

    Imagine my disappointment upon learning that they are landing closer and so just ended up with a shorter drive. (end sarcasm)

    In all seriousness, this rover has some amazing hardware that has the best chance yet of finding microbial life on Mars.

    --
    Great warrior...hrmph! Wars not make one great.
    1. Re:Disappointed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ...if it exists. Otherwise they all have the same chance: zero.

    2. Re:Disappointed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "In all seriousness, this rover has some amazing hardware that has the best chance yet of finding microbial life on Mars."

      It's funny that you should say that, because this rover still doesn't have a simple but critical instrument for detecting microbial life: a microscope powerful enough to see microbes.

      Does NASA have an explanation for why none of the rovers have had a microscope at least powerful enough to see average-sized bacteria?

      More to the point, why doesn't Curiosity have one? This rover is the heaviest one yet, loaded with tons of scientific instruments. Why couldn't they have sacrificed some of that weight for a simple but powerful microscope?

  5. Re:Sky Crane! by mbone · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was told that are plans to have the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image the landing. If anything goes wrong, this might provide the only knowledge of what failed and, if it works, the pictures should be pretty spectacular.

  6. Re:Sky Crane! by toygeek · · Score: 2

    And if it fails, the picture should be even MORE spectacular!

    In all seriousness, I wish the MSL team the best. That is an amazing robot they're sending.

    --
    Nobodies Prefect
    Tidbits for Techs Technology Blog
  7. Why not a crawler? by k(wi)r(kipedia) · · Score: 2

    Is a 6-wheeled rover really the most efficient shape for a land vehicle on rough terrain? I've seen videos of robots that look like snakes or caterpillars that can land in whatever direction, landing first as a ball before unwinding in the proper orientation. The "caterpillar" will be modular, able to combine and recombine like a Japanese cartoon robot. Should a module be stuck, the mission operator will have the option of abandoning the module so the rest of the robot can proceed with rest of the misson.

    A transforming robot would also be nice, but that's too much sci-fi already.

    1. Re:Why not a crawler? by icebike · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Is a 6-wheeled rover really the most efficient shape for a land vehicle on rough terrain? I've seen videos of robots that look like snakes or caterpillars that can land in whatever direction, landing first as a ball before unwinding in the proper orientation.

      Snakes have a problem with the amount of payload they can carry, and positioning that payload efficiently in the body.
      Its not enough to get an instrument to the surface, it has to be deployed in an orientation where it can actually function, transmit data, gain access to rocks and surfaces, and be protected from sand and other foreign material.

      You've seen videos of experimental toys, none of which survived the riggers of testing, or carried any significant payload, let alone a power plant, and a computer system capable of autonomous operation.

      I think the six wheel lander offers the best mix of travel capability with payload capacity. I think I trust the guys who actually build and test these things over those who watch watch videos.

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      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  8. Late Breaking News: Medical Emergency! by Tackhead · · Score: 2
    K'Breel, Speaker for the Council, has been rushed to an undisclosed medical facility following deployment of a cyberweapon from the blue world.

    A redacted version of the cyberweapon has been reproduced below for public analysis:

    It is already going to take either divine intervention or h3lp from the M@rtians to get that thing down right side up and in one piece.

    Upon reading the phrase "h3lp from the M@rtians", K'Breel, Speaker for the Council, immediately collapsed into fits of laughter and promptly laughed his gelsacs off.

    When a junior reporter asked for comment on the Speaker's Condition, K'Breel, still wracked with peals of laughter, snickered "I once had a podmate who lost his olfactory organ... How did he smell? AWFUL!"

    Citizens are reminded in this time of heightened concern to be aware of security risks associated with transmissions from the blue world, but are reassured that they do grow back.

    1. Re:Late Breaking News: Medical Emergency! by tbird81 · · Score: 2

      A redacted version of the cyberweapon has been reproduced below for public analysis:

      It is already going to take either divine intervention or h3lp from the M@rtians to get that thing down right side up and in one piece.

      Upon reading the phrase "h3lp from the M@rtians", K'Breel, Speaker for the Council, immediately collapsed into fits of laughter and promptly laughed his gelsacs off.

      I always knew someone was listening in my times of trouble.

  9. Re:Why?? by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Presumably there is risk associated with distance travelled and time spent travelling too.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  10. Techniques for guiding a landing on Mars? by timeOday · · Score: 2

    I am curious what specific techniques they have refined - how is navigation towards the surface of Mars performed? Is there optical tracking of visual features on the surface (ala Buzz Aldrin or a robotic pilot?) Do they navigate with respect to satellites in known locations around Mars (ala GPS), or celestial navigation? Or is it largely ballistic (based on conditions well ahead of time and predictions based on orbital mechanics, leaving little to final steering corrections?)

    1. Re:Techniques for guiding a landing on Mars? by icebike · · Score: 2

      They do have some satellites in orbit, and a couple on the ground that they can still talk to, but I doubt they are relying on these for guidance. Certainly there is no fleet of GPS satellites circling the planet (although if we keep sending landers, that might not be a bad idea).

      I think they rely on radar and optical maps produced by predecessors such as Mars Global Surveyor, (no longer working) and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to build camera and radar maps that they can use to set up landing approaches. See: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/multimedia/interactives/

      Their site selection is discussed on the above page, as well as a ton of images.

      I suspect they are limited to what is reachable from their initial orbit. They can use radar, and optical alignment on stars to establish that first orbit. And if they get that orbit established correctly the rest is probably some huge radar pattern matching exercise.

      It seems just getting to the planet is like treading the needle, and getting into a 12 by 4 mile box is astounding precision.

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      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    2. Re:Techniques for guiding a landing on Mars? by mbone · · Score: 3, Informative

      Range, Doppler, and VLBI, all from Earth (and all done by the DSN). I don't believe that this mission is using Optical Navigation. No (other) Mars spacecraft participate directly in this, although of course the Mars ephemeris is dominated by data from them. It is an iterative process, where an initial trajectory is refined by course corrections and monitored more or less continuously, with the measurement tempo increasing as Mars entry gets near.

      If you want to drill down into this, here is a good starting point focusing on Mars entry navigation.

  11. That's impossible by Trogre · · Score: 3, Funny

    Even for a computer.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  12. Re:And still. by Gavagai80 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, we have the world's largest economy and a populace that is by and large so affluent that *obesity* is our epidemic instead of starvation, and people think the sky is falling when they have to choose between netflix and starbucks. I'd rather see this money going to Mars science than to somebody's second SUV, and while it'd be nice to provide for the poor that money could more appropriately be taxed out of your home theater system or the like.

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  13. Please Wait... by MacGyver2210 · · Score: 2

    [Recalculating...]

    --
    If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
  14. Re:conspiracy theory by icebike · · Score: 5, Funny

    Step away from the TV.
    Go out side.

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    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.