These photos are taken by the hazard cams (Hazcams), which will help scientists direct the rover. The mountain is Curiosity’s main target. The hope is that it will reveal the story of Mars and offer opportunities to find traces of life on the red planet.
NASA said in a press conference that that it has confirmed everything is OK in the rover — it’s on firm ground and ready to roll.
NASA is giving a press conference now. They have confirmed that everything is ok in the rover too.
Gizmodo is covering the Mars Curiosity mission live from NASA’s JPL in Pasadena, California.
First!!
But wait, (showing my ignorance here) how is this mission any different to the other mars rovers of the past?
new tech/new gear / new camera
oh... cancel that last one :)
...why are you cancelling the last one?
This rover is twice the size of Spirit and Opportunity (3m to 1.5m I think), has much better cameras and lots more scientific equipment.
This.
Completely apart from all that we can learn from it as a lab, if we want to send humans it'll be in a very large package like this one.
I would *love* to see NASA send a "care package" to Curiosity consisting of raw materials for its lab equipment, spare parts and a pair of maintenance bots to ensure it stays in good nick (and take care of each other, SCV Love Song style). Maybe some experimental plants and/or algae.
This bad boy is huge. The previous ones where basically oversized RC cars. This things the size of a beach buggy.
As to what it does better? I dunno! Maybe it does mad burnouts or something.
The landing is totally different having cables lower down the equipment gently rather than letting it
drop.
to answer your question Lee - this one has new equipment they haven't sent before. It can measure radiation on the way (already done) and also has a built-in lab for analysing rocks and soil, to see if it can find microbes or what once were microbes, or the chemical compositions that usually form life.
It also has much better cameras than previous ones (they' haven't been activated yet, they need to be slow and careful about unfolding everything and removing dust covers). But I do think the photos are probably secondary. For NASA at least - the public love 'em.
just.. amazing..
amazing, a world of possibilities awaits..
These photos look just as good as the photos coming back from Spirit and Opportunity (except that they're in black and white), which doesn't sound like much to cheer about I'll admit. But remember these are only the tiny hazard cams, the main camera is on the boom arm which hasn't begun operation yet.
like finding Marvin...
Pfft, if Curiosity were really a modern marvel of 2012, she'd be extending her arm and using her QVGA camera to take a self pic making duckface.
(In all honesty though, I'm giddy about Curiosity. This s**t is way more awesome that the Olympics!)
Just looks like a sand dune in the desert. Maybe I'll gasm when the big camera comes out with colour.
This rover is also packing a nuclear power pack where as previous rovers where solar powered.
Can't wait to see what it finds!
Really? I thought Viking etc were nuclear but I haven't checked. Or I suppose you mean rovers... I think some probes were nuclear, but you may be right in that all the wheeled things have been solar.
Did I imagine that the plan is also for Curiosity to return to Earth in 2 years time as well?
Cause that would be another huge difference between this and other Mars rovers.
You definitely imagined that Todd.
I see these images and wonder if they really are getting color HD images, but that NASA guy w/ the mohawk keeps applying the app filter marked "NASA Retro-163" filter cuz he thinks it'll look cool?