Curiosity Uses Arm Camera at Night [merged x2]

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Mars Rover Curiosity Uses Arm Camera at Night

This image of a Martian rock illuminated by white-light LEDs (light emitting diodes) is part of the first set of nighttime images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS › Full image and caption › Latest images › Curiosity gallery › Curiosity videos

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3497/721600mainpia1671243226.jpg

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has for the first time used the camera on its arm to take photos at night, illuminated by white lights and ultraviolet lights on the instrument.

Scientists used the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument for a close-up nighttime look at a rock target called "Sayunei," in an area where Curiosity's front-left wheel had scuffed the rock to provide fresh, dust-free materials to examine. The site is near where the rover team plans to begin using Curiosity to drill into a rock in coming weeks. The images of the rock Sayunei and of MAHLI's calibration target were taken on Jan. 22 (PST) and received on Earth Jan. 23.

The MAHLI, an adjustable-focus color camera, includes its own LED (light-emitting diode) illumination sources. Images of Sayunei taken with white-LED illumination and with illumination by ultraviolet LEDs are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia16711.html and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia16712.html .

"The purpose of acquiring observations under ultraviolet illumination was to look for fluorescent minerals," said MAHLI Principal Investigator Ken Edgett of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. "These data just arrived this morning. The science team is still assessing the observations. If something looked green, yellow, orange or red under the ultraviolet illumination, that'd be a more clear-cut indicator of fluorescence."

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project is using Curiosity to investigate whether the study area within Gale Crater has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about the mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/8471/721622mainpia1671443226.jpg

Follow the mission on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

2013-032

Source

[CRYSiiSx2]

I still don't see why this thing wasn't equipped with a drill to reach at least a couple meters...

[Waspie_Dwarf]

I still don't see why this thing wasn't equipped with a drill to reach at least a couple meters...

There is a finite amount of equipment that a rover can carry, as it is Curiosity is the heaviest vehicle landed on Mars.

Such a drill would be heavy, it would require large amounts of power to operate it. It would require complicated equipment to handle a 2 metre core.

By the time the drill was fitted there would be no room left to carry the scientific equipment necessary to actually analysis it. So we would have a mission which could drill holes but achieve nothing useful once it had done so

Maybe that's why it is better to allow the worlds leading experts on planetary science to design a space mission based on their expert knowledge and with the aim of maximising scientific returns instead and not random posters on an internet forum based on personal preference and guess work.

Edited January 24, 2013 by Waspie_Dwarf

[CRYSiiSx2]

There is a finite amount of equipment that a rover can carry, as it is Curiosity is the heaviest vehicle landed on Mars.

Such a drill would be heavy, it would require large amounts of power to operate it. It would require complicated equipment to handle a 2 metre core.

By the time the drill was fitted there would be no room left to carry the scientific equipment necessary to actually analysis it. So we would have a mission which could drill holes but achieve nothing useful once it had done so

Maybe that's why it is better to allow the worlds leading experts on planetary science to design a space mission based on their expert knowledge and with the aim of maximising scientific returns instead and not random posters on an internet forum based on personal preference and guess work.

I didn't say it needed to drill for oil. A very small drill that would go a little over 6 feet deep? I drill through ice for fishing more than a meter, and I carry my auger. But thanks for that last sentence...

[Waspie_Dwarf]

I didn't say it needed to drill for oil. A very small drill that would go a little over 6 feet deep? I drill through ice for fishing more than a meter, and I carry my auger.

And what do you think Curiosity would need to drill through? At 2 metres depth it is going to be drilling through solid rock. If it is going to drilling through rock then everything I have said is correct.

On the other hand if you don't want it to drill through rock, then you are just looking at the soil. The soil can be scoped up with the robotic arm the rover already has and there is no point in having the drill anyway.

So we either have a drill which leaves no room for science or we have a drill which serves no useful purpose. Not a good use of resources either way.

But thanks for that last sentence...

You're welcome. Edited January 25, 2013 by Waspie_Dwarf

[CRYSiiSx2]

And what do you think Curiosity would need to drill through? At 2 metres depth it is going to be drilling through solid rock. If it is going to drilling through rock then everything I have said is correct.

On the other hand if you don't want it to drill through rock, then you are just looking at the soil. The soil can be scoped up with the robotic arm the rover already has and there is no point in having the drill anyway.

So we either have a drill which leaves no room for science or we have a drill which serves no useful purpose. Not a good use of resources either way.

Your welcome.

Who knows what could be found 2 meters deep at the ice caps. I've just wondered that for years. I'm sure if there were anything, it would be deeper. But when humans one day do land, I'm sure the one of the first priorities will be to dig.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Who knows what could be found 2 meters deep at the ice caps.

And how does that relate to a rover which is nowhere near the ice caps?

At 2 metres you won't be finding much as the Martian North polar caps is around 3km thick and the Sothern 3Km. In fact during the winter you would only just be penetrating the "dry ice" to get to the water ice. So a 2 metre drill isn't going to achieve a whole lot there either.

I've just wondered that for years. I'm sure if there were anything, it would be deeper. But when humans one day do land, I'm sure the one of the first priorities will be to dig.

Quite possibly but I doubt they will be making landings on the ice caps. It will be dangerous enough landing on solid ground.

[chopmo]

LMAO waspie put away your stinger.

Now to stand in the firing line next.

The biggest thing that has me interested is what cameras are they using on the Rovers, I am aware of Samsung upper-market cctv being at the stage that it has better colour vision in the dark than they do at day. But the LED's I am presuming would have been for research reasons as for different materials showing up in different light sources.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

The biggest thing that has me interested is what cameras are they using on the Rovers,

Curiosity has seventeen cameras, all made by Malin Space Science Systems. You can find out more about them at NASA's site: HERE or Malin's site: HERE.

[tipotep]

And what do you think Curiosity would need to drill through? At 2 metres depth it is going to be drilling through solid rock. If it is going to drilling through rock then everything I have said is correct.

On the other hand if you don't want it to drill through rock, then you are just looking at the soil. The soil can be scoped up with the robotic arm the rover already has and there is no point in having the drill anyway.

So we either have a drill which leaves no room for science or we have a drill which serves no useful purpose. Not a good use of resources either way.

You're welcome.

Full of venom today I see Waspie !

I do how ever agree that a drill of any size would take up way too much space and would require far too much power to run it .

Maybe if / when we send a manned mission to Mars , Im sure they will take all sorts of drilling equiptment ..... until then .... baby steps !

PS - Keep the Curiosity updates coming Waspie , I have been enjoying them very much !

TiP.

Edited January 25, 2013 by tipotep

[CRYSiiSx2]

Full of venom today I see Waspie !

I do how ever agree that a drill of any size would take up way too much space and would require far too much power to run it .

Maybe if / when we send a manned mission to Mars , Im sure they will take all sorts of drilling equiptment ..... until then .... baby steps !

PS - Keep the Curiosity updates coming Waspie , I have been enjoying them very much !

TiP.

I'm so excited about even being there. I was around 10 when the first pictures came back from Mars. Been obsessed with finding the secrets it holds since. I'm no expert, or even heavily acknowledge about the planet. But the excitement surrounds me every day.

[Hazzard]

Waspie,...What about the drill not being entirely "sterile" so therefore they are not cleared to use it?

http://www.space.com/13783-nasa-msl-curiosity-mars-rover-planetary-protection.html

[AsteroidX]

http://news.yahoo.com/curiosity-rover-snaps-1st-photos-mars-night-163233084.html

Ok Looks cool. Ill never get there in realz during my life. Thanks NASA.

[DONTEATUS]

Hazzard thats I guess why that NASA rejected my plan to send a few Texas Ground Hogs on board,I figured they could dig there way thru just about anything ! Welll you know me Too much Tequilla !

[seeder]

" Here's a picture of Martian rock from the Yellowknife Bay area of the Mars Gale Crater. It's been dubbed Sayunei. It was taken on the night of Jan. 22, Curiosity's 165th day on Mars. Curiosity used her front-left wheel to scuff the rock and wipe off dust from the region.

The rock is being lit up with UV light from the rover. The image hasn't been analyzed, so we don't know what the glowing areas mean.

"The purpose of acquiring observations under ultraviolet illumination was to look for fluorescent minerals," Ken Edgett, who runs the MAHLI program, said in a NASA press release. "These data just arrived this morning.

Read more:

http://www.businessinsider.com/curiosity-nighttime-pictures-2013-1#ixzz2JRJfJyyI

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