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Old 27-April-2004, 05:43 PM
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Default The next Mars rovers

Mars Science Laboratory: New Rover, New Science Equipment

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NASA is not wasting time in moving forward on its next rover that will strut its stuff across the far-flung sands of the red planet.

The space agency released mid-month an "Announcement of Opportunity" that calls for science gear and related ideas that could wind up onboard the Mars Science Laboratory -- or MSL, for short.

The overall MSL science objective is to explore and quantitatively assess a local region on the Mars surface as a potential habitat for life, past or present.

This mission will use a variety of instruments carried on a rover platform that will operate under its own power and telemetry and is expected to remain active for one Mars year, or 670 sols. For those on Earth Today Time, that equates to 687 Earth days.
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Old 15-December-2004, 01:50 AM
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Instruments selected for MSL, including:
3 cameras
1 Martian ray gun (see ChemCam)
1 experiment capable of detecting organics

News Release: 2004-290 December 14, 2004



NASA Selects Investigations for the Mars Science Laboratory

NASA has selected eight proposals to provide instrumentation and associated science investigations for the mobile Mars Science Laboratory rover, scheduled for launch in 2009. Proposals selected today were submitted to NASA in response to an announcement of opportunity released in April.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission, part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, would deliver a mobile laboratory to the surface of Mars to explore a local region as a potential habitat for past or present life. The laboratory would operate under its own power. It is expected to remain active for one Mars year, equal to two Earth years, after landing.

In addition to the instrumentation selected, Mars Science Laboratory would carry a pulsed neutron source and detector for measuring hydrogen (including water), provided by the Russian Federal Space Agency. The project would also include a meteorological package and an ultraviolet sensor provided by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.

"This mission represents a tremendous leap forward in the exploration of Mars," said NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Dr. Ghassem Asrar. "MSL is the next logical step beyond the twin Spirit and Opportunity rovers. It will use a unique set of analytical tools to study the red planet for over a year and unveil the past and present conditions for habitability of Mars," Asrar said.

"The Mars Science Laboratory is an extremely capable system, and the selected instruments will bring an analytical laboratory to the martian surface for the first time since the Viking landers over 25 years ago," said Douglas McCuistion, Mars Exploration Program director at NASA Headquarters.

The selected proposals will conduct preliminary design studies to focus on how the instruments can be accommodated on the mobile platform, completed and delivered consistent with the mission schedule. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the Science Mission Directorate.

Selected investigations and principal investigators:

-- "Mars Science Laboratory Mast Camera," Michael Malin, Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif. Mast Camera would perform multi-spectral, stereo imaging at lengths ranging from kilometers to centimeters, and can acquire compressed high-definition video at 10 frames per second without the use of the rover computer.

-- "ChemCam: Laser Induced Remote Sensing for Chemistry and Micro-Imaging," Roger Wiens, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M. ChemCam would ablate surface coatings from materials at standoff distances of up to 10 meters and measure elemental composition of underlying rocks and soils.

-- "Mahli: Mars HandLens Imager for the Mars Science Laboratory," Kenneth Edgett, Malin Space Science Systems. Mahli would image rocks, soil, frost and ice at resolutions 2.4 times better, and with a wider field of view, than the Microscopic Imager on the Mars Exploration Rovers.

-- "The Alpha-Particle-X-ray-Spectrometer for Mars Science Laboratory,” Ralf Gellert, Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany. This instrument would determine elemental abundance of rocks and soil. It will be provided by the Canadian Space Agency.

-- "CheMin: An X-ray Diffraction/X-ray Fluorescence instrument for definitive mineralogical analysis in the Analytical Laboratory of Mars Science Laboratory," David Blake, NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. CheMin, would identify and quantify all minerals in complex natural samples such as basalts, evaporites and soils, one of the principle objectives of Mars Science Laboratory.

-- "Radiation Assessment Detector," Donald Hassler, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo. This instrument would characterize the broad spectrum of radiation at the surface of Mars, an essential precursor to human exploration of the planet. The instrument would be funded by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.

-- "Mars Descent Imager," Michael Malin, Malin Space Science Systems. The Mars Descent Imager would produce high-resolution color-video imagery of the descent and landing phase, providing geological context information, as well as allowing for precise landing-site determination.

-- "Sample Analysis at Mars with an integrated suite consisting of a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, and a tunable laser spectrometer,” Paul Mahaffy, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. This instrument would perform mineral and atmospheric analyses, detect a wide range of organic compounds and perform stable isotope analyses of organics and noble gases.
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Old 15-December-2004, 01:55 AM
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A detailed description of the cameras is available here:

http://www.msss.com/press_releases/m...ion/index.html

The MastCam consists of two duplicate camera systems, mounted side by side to provide a stereo imaging capability. Each of the MastCam "eyes" is made of up a camera head, which includes the optics and detector, and a separate electronics box, which includes the image compressor and data buffer (Figure 1). The MastCam incorporates a number of innovative features that make it much more capable than previous rover cameras. Specifically:

* Zoom: each stereo eye of the MastCam has a 10:1 zoom lens,
* Single-frame color: in addition to being able to take images through narrowband filters, the MastCam can also take color images with a single exposure, like a consumer digital camera,
* High definition video: images can be acquired at 10 frames per second in HD (1280 x 720 pixel) format,
* Compression: the MastCam electronics compresses its own still and moving image data, relieving the rover computer of that computing burden, and
* Buffering: the MastCam has its own internal data buffer, which can hold thousands of still images or several hours of compressed HD video
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Old 15-December-2004, 05:45 AM
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This would be an appropriate time to have a "drool" emoticon.
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Old 15-December-2004, 05:15 PM
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Well, we're going to have our "consumer digital camera" on Mars after all!

It's so nice: you post your wishes to the BABB and 2 days later it's on the specs of the next rover!


By the way, are they going to send 1 or 2 of these machines?
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Old 15-December-2004, 05:39 PM
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I for one am quite excited about the video imagery (both descent and surface). Perhaps not the best science per megabyte, but fantastic public appeal.
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Old 15-December-2004, 06:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cugel
Well, we're going to have our "consumer digital camera" on Mars after all!

It's so nice: you post your wishes to the BABB and 2 days later it's on the specs of the next rover!


By the way, are they going to send 1 or 2 of these machines?
The descriptions all refer to it in the singular.
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Old 15-December-2004, 07:02 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cugel
Well, we're going to have our "consumer digital camera" on Mars after all!

It's so nice: you post your wishes to the BABB and 2 days later it's on the specs of the next rover!

By the way, are they going to send 1 or 2 of these machines?
Yeah, after I spent all that time in the other thread defending NOT doing that. #-o
I don't know from the specs how they will do that - how the actual CCD will be set up - are they going to sacrifice resolution for color? But maybe at 1280 x 760 video rates, they don't care! Hope the Mars network can handle the bandwidth...

I assume this is in addition to the navigational cameras?

I think the plan is for one. I recall Pete Theisinger saying that he would NEVER do 2 missions at once again - and IIRC he is now the MSL project head.
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Old 15-December-2004, 07:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Yorkshireman
I for one am quite excited about the video imagery (both descent and surface). Perhaps not the best science per megabyte, but fantastic public appeal.
Sometimes a little eyecandy thrown in for the public at large doesn't hurt in generating support for projects.

You have to capture imaginations before you can educate minds.
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Old 15-December-2004, 11:43 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ToSeek
The descriptions all refer to it in the singular.
MER started out singular, too. :wink:
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Old 16-December-2004, 06:32 PM
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Giant Mars rover will search for life

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Now, NASA is planning a rover with three times the mass (600 kilograms) and twice the number of instruments (10) as those currently on Mars, the long-lived Spirit and Opportunity. These use remote sensing and instruments that can scratch away surfaces to analyse the geology of the Red Planet. But MSL will contain two "laboratories" in which samples can be collected, crushed and analysed.
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Old 16-December-2004, 08:37 PM
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Given its size and weight I suspect two is too much to hope for. But, in the same time frame we will have ExoMars, which, although smaller has a similarly spectacular science payload and has a nominal range of 16 km.

Jon
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Old 17-December-2004, 02:25 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ToSeek
Why did this headline conjure up this image for me?



edited to fix pic link....
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Old 13-April-2005, 05:33 PM
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Flying a Science Lab to Mars


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How do you follow a flat-out success like the Mars Exploration Rovers, still cruising Mars after all these months? By thinking "bigger and better." The Mars Science Laboratory, currently scheduled for launch in 2009, will land a rover three times as massive as Spirit or Opportunity and with ten scientific instruments, among them some never before flown in space. MSL will assess the habitat potential of its landing site, providing a bridge between MER and later direct searches for life on Mars.
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Old 13-April-2005, 07:41 PM
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I've to buy a new computer and change my ISP (Now it's 1024 kbps ADSL, but download speed from NASA always at 2 KB/s during daytime) to watch the MSL movies.

Quote:
Originally Posted by EFossa
A detailed description of the cameras is available here:

http://www.msss.com/press_releases/m...ion/index.html

The MastCam consists of two duplicate camera systems, mounted side by side to provide a stereo imaging capability. Each of the MastCam "eyes" is made of up a camera head, which includes the optics and detector, and a separate electronics box, which includes the image compressor and data buffer (Figure 1). The MastCam incorporates a number of innovative features that make it much more capable than previous rover cameras. Specifically:

* Zoom: each stereo eye of the MastCam has a 10:1 zoom lens,
* Single-frame color: in addition to being able to take images through narrowband filters, the MastCam can also take color images with a single exposure, like a consumer digital camera,
* High definition video: images can be acquired at 10 frames per second in HD (1280 x 720 pixel) format,
* Compression: the MastCam electronics compresses its own still and moving image data, relieving the rover computer of that computing burden, and
* Buffering: the MastCam has its own internal data buffer, which can hold thousands of still images or several hours of compressed HD video
And I've read the MastCam itself will have 256 MB of SDRAM and 8 GB of flash "disk storage". The camera can do MPEG-2 video compression without using main CPU.
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Old 14-April-2005, 03:16 AM
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So if S&O were supposed to last 90 days but end up last 1000, does that mean this rover (which is supposed to last approximately 2 Earth years), will last 22 years? :wink:

Think of the science! 8)
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Old 14-April-2005, 05:26 AM
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Default Re: The next Mars rovers

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Originally Posted by ToSeek
Instruments selected for MSL, including:
3 cameras
1 Martian ray gun (see ChemCam)[edit]
Reading that last entry caused this image to pop into my head.



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Old 08-September-2006, 05:49 PM
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Default 2009 Rover - Mars Science Lab

This ain't any ordinary rover it will use a new landing system that will place it within a few kilometers of an intended target. The MSL will be Nuke powered by an electrical generator which obtains its power from radioactive decay and it would totally dwarf the Russian Lunar-Lunokhod and the Pathfinder rover named Sojourner, the MSL would be 3 times the mass and double the size of the current MERs (Spirit and Opportunity)

There has been a price tag for the MSL project which is just under $1.5 billion – that includes the rover’s nuclear power source, as well as the launcher to hurl the hardware to Mars, there was talk of launching two of the roving labs Marsward ( like Spirit and Oppy mission ). It will be launched by the Atlas-5 rocket which has already put payload of 17,000 plus kg into LEO and launched the New Horizons to pluto and MRO spacecraft.

more info here
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2004-290
http://www.nuclearspace.com/a_2009_Rover.htm
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publ...s.html?1442005
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Old 13-September-2006, 04:07 PM
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MT's post merged into existing thread on same topic.
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