Tag Archives: mars landing

ESA releases first color photos of the EXOMARS crash site

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The ESA's EXOMARS Schiaparelli lander crashed into the Red Planet's crust at more than 300 kph on October 19th, marking not only the end of its mission but also the surface itself. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spotted the impact site quic...

Mars Curiosity Rover Snaps Amazing New Selfies

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NASA has got a good thing going. Its Curiosity Mars Rover is currently traveling. That is towards the southwestern region of the cold planet. This has occurred after many weeks of exploration of...

NASA’s Flying Saucer for Mars Landing Suffers Parachute Failure

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NASA simulated a second time a descent onto Mars using the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) or also known as Flying Saucer on Monday. All went well and NASA engineers had a lot to cheer...

Beagle 2 Mars Lander has been Found

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11 years ago the UK Mars Lander Beagle 2 went missing. Today the UK Space Agency announced that Beagle 2 has been found on the Mars surface. Beagle 2 has partially deployed on the Mars surface. The...

NASA postpones ‘flying saucer’ test

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Bad weather is preventing NASA from launching a "flying saucer" into Earth's atmosphere to test technology that could be used to land on Mars.The space agency postponed a launch Wednesday and later...

Curiosity rover flaunts its battle scar, wind sensor is bruised (but not broken)

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Curiosity rover flaunts its battle scar, wind sensor is bruised but not broken

You can't win 'em all. Such is the case with the Curiosity rover, anyway, as diagnostics have revealed that its wind sensors have sustained damage. NASA engineers aren't fully sure what caused this minor setback to the otherwise successful landing, but hypothesize that stones might've been kicked up during the rocket-powered landing, which then struck the sensor's wiring. Fortunately, there's already someone on the job, as Javier Gomez-Elvira is investigating the damage with the intent of restoring the lost functionality. Another NASA scientist, Ashwin Vasavada, believes the issue is rather minor: "It degrades our ability to detect wind speed and direction when the wind is blowing from a particular direction, but we think we can work around that."

The broken instrument was initially discovered as part of NASA's routine power-cycling of all instrumentation, so as to determine an overall bill of health for the rover. Now that Curiosity has earned its battle scars, it can hold its head high during its journey to Glenelg and Mount Sharp.

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Curiosity rover flaunts its battle scar, wind sensor is bruised (but not broken) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 19:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Curiosity landing video assembled from high-res images (video)

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NASA releases a choppy HD movie of Curiosity touching down

A new video has been compiled by Spaceflight101.com showing Curiosity's final minutes of terror in glorious HD (though a dearth of frames and lack of stabilization make it a bit herky-jerky). It's an assembly of all the high-res photos taken by the buggy on the way down to its now familiar perch, rolling at the not-exactly-HFR speed of 4 fps, but still trumping a previous low-res thumbnail version. It gives a much clearer, rover's-eye-view of the journey, starting with the heat shield ejection and finishing with the dusty, butterfly-like touchdown. Check it out below the break to see the precarious descent -- and don't forget your Dramamine.

Continue reading Curiosity landing video assembled from high-res images (video)

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Curiosity landing video assembled from high-res images (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASA maps out proposed travel plans for Curiosity, decides to head for the hills

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NASA maps out proposed travel plans for Curiosity, decides to head for the hills

As the vista on Mars gradually gets ever clearer, and the system checks continue to show that the rover is in good stead, the team behind Curiosity will be increasingly eager to stretch its legs wheels. The first trip might be just a cautious few meters, but plans for a more adventurous jaunt have just been revealed. The first location in Curiosity's sights is an area referred to as Glenelg, which, based on initial pictures, offers three different geological characteristics, as well as potentially being an area where water used to be present. The site is only 1,300 feet (400 meters) from where the rover landed, but it could still take several weeks to get there. This is merely a quick dash compared to the next leg of its journey, which sees Curiosity heading out to an area called Mount Sharp -- a large mound of layered rock which is hoped to contain visible geology potentially dating back millions of years. With seven kilometers (4.4 miles) lying between the rover and the mountain's foothills, it'll be a much longer journey, but one that could provide the first real evidence of the planet's ability to host, or have hosted, life.

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NASA maps out proposed travel plans for Curiosity, decides to head for the hills originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Aug 2012 09:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Curiosity survives brain transplant, prepares for first drive

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Curiosity survives 'brain transplant,' prepares for first drive

If you thought your OTA update took too long, how about four days? That's how long the Curiosity "brain transplant" took, and is now finally complete. This now means that the main computers have switched over from landing mode, to surface mode -- and thus we hope -- meaning the rover's good to go. That said, it's still a painfully slow process, with Curiosity's wheels likely remaining steadfastly motionless for at least another week -- and even then we're looking at a trip of just a few meters. When it comes to interplanetary travel, though, slow and steady definitely wins the race -- in the meantime, you can soak up the view.

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Curiosity survives brain transplant, prepares for first drive originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 08:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Visualized: Mars’ Gale Crater in seamless 360 degrees

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Visualized Mars' Gale Crater in seemless 360 degrees

Have you been lapping up every pixel Curiosity sends back, but wishing you could somehow see those panoramas as nature intended? Well, thanks to kind 360 Cities user Andrew Bodrov, you can. The controls take a little getting used to, but persevere and you'll be rewarded with a view as if you were atop Curiosity itself. We're already imagining the fun if this was in the next Google Maps update, who knows what might turn up. Land on the source for the mind-blow.

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Visualized: Mars' Gale Crater in seamless 360 degrees originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 06:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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