It seems Curiosity’s wheels are wearing out faster than expected and engineers want to know why.
The increasedwear recently appears to be because the rover was traveling over rougher terrain. Nonetheless, JPL engineers are going to monitor the rover’s travel and wheel damage more closely in order to gauge that wear better for future travel.
China outlines its plans for its next two unmanned lunar probes, with the second targeted as a 2017 sample return mission.
Key quote:
The new mission planned for 2017 would mark the third and final phase of China’s robotic lunar exploration program and pave the way for possibly landing an astronaut on the moon after 2020.
As I mentioned last night, the soft landing on Saturday demonstrated they are developing the technology to land a manned vehicle safely on the Moon. To return samples safely would demonstrate they are developing the technology to return that manned vehicle safely as well.
Update: Yutu did not land anywhere near its planned landing location.
China had originally publicized a location in the Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows) — a level area thoroughly surveyed by a previous Chinese mission — as the landing spot. Local media even stated that Chang’e 3 landed there. But Chinese scientists have since confirmed that the spacecraft landed slightly to the east, in the northern part of Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains).
It is unclear whether this was a late change or the result of a technical problem.
India’s Mangalyaan Mars probe successfully completed its first midcourse correction maneuver today.
As with the images the probe took of Earth, the success of this maneuver demonstrates the ability of the probe’s engineers to control, operate, and precisely point the spacecraft’s engine. It also proves that engine works as designed.
Here’s an interesting cultural tidbit: Of the 200,000 people who have applied to Mars One (see my previous post below) to go on its proposed one-way mission to Mars, India has the second most applicants after the U.S.
Mars One applicants come from over 140 countries; the largest numbers are from the US (24 per cent), India (10 per cent), China (6 per cent), Brazil (5 per cent), UK, Canada, Russia and Mexico (4 per cent), Philippines, Spain, Colombia and Argentina (2 per cent), and Australia, France, Turkey, Chile, Ukraine, Peru, Germany, Italy and Poland (1 per cent).
A private unmanned mission to Mars by 2018?
Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, Mars One founder and CEO, told reporters the foundation has signed contracts with two major aerospace firms, Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology, to develop mission concept studies, a first step toward eventual construction and launch.
The lander will be based on the design of the 2007 Phoenix Mars lander that Lockheed Martin developed for NASA. The communications satellite — the first such “geostationary” comsat in orbit around the red planet — will incorporate technologies developed by Surrey and used in a variety of operational spacecraft.
Mission concept studies are of course essential before you begin construction, but they are also a far cry from actual construction. I’ve seen literally hundreds of similar concept studies about someone’s big space plans with no subsequent follow up. Thus, I will only begin to take Mars One serious when they actually start cutting metal.
More news from Curiosity: Gale Crater held at least one lake in the past, and that lake existed for longer and more recently than expected.
Scientists have published the first 300 days of radiation data from Curiosity on Mars.
The results suggest that while the radiation on Mars requires some shielding, most of the worst radiation a traveler would be exposed to would occur during the journey in space to and from Earth. The graph below illustrates this.
Curiosity has succeeded in dating the age of one of its rock samples, the first time this has ever been done remotely on another planet.
The second rock Curiosity drilled for a sample on Mars, which scientists nicknamed “Cumberland,” is the first ever to be dated from an analysis of its mineral ingredients while it sits on another planet. A report by Kenneth Farley of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and co-authors, estimates the age of Cumberland at 3.86 billion to 4.56 billion years old. This is in the range of earlier estimates for rocks in Gale Crater, where Curiosity is working.
This is significant engineering and scientific news. In the past the only way to date the rocks on another world was to bring them back to Earth. This was how the moon’s geology was dated. On Mars, dating has only been done by crater counting, comparing those counts with those on the Moon, and then making a vague guess. To have the ability to date rocks remotely means that geologists can begin to sort out the timeline of Mars’s geology without having to bring back samples.
A map of Opportunity’s journey on Mars as it approaches its tenth anniversary since landing on January 25, 2004.
The map gives some nice perspective of just how far the rover has traveled in the past decade, as well as the increasing scale of the geological features it has observed. Opportunity began inside tiny Eagle Crater, moved on to larger Endurance Crater, then to the even bigger Victoria Crater, and now to the truly massive Endeavour Crator, 14 miles in diameter.
India’s first Martian orbiter, Mangalyaan, successfully fired its engines today to leave Earth orbit and head to Mars.
Cuirosity has resumed science operations after experiencing a short circuit and voltage drop.
Though the press release notes that engineers have apparently pinpointed the source of the voltage drop, it does not explain why the drop has disappeared. I wish they provided more information.
India’s Mangalyaan Mars probe has returned its first image, a picture of India on Earth.
Though you can always learn something from any image, what is significant here is that before even leaving Earth orbit engineers have proven that the spacecraft’s camera works.
Dennis Tito’s project to launch a manned fly-by of Mars by 2018 has issued its revised plans, and they call for NASA to use SLS to do it.
I will have more to say about this proposal shortly.
