NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory lifted off from the
launch pad at 10:02 a.m. EST today. (Wired.Com article) Click to read more
The one-ton Mini Cooper-sized rover, which is the largest
machine NASA can currently put down on the Martian surface, will now
look forward to an eight-month cruise to the Red Planet, arriving in August
2012. The probe will survey the Martian landscape with HD cameras, search for
signs of habitability and life past or present, and drill inside rocks to
examine the planet’s composition. After a shaky history on Earth, MSL will have to worry about one
last event when it gets to Mars: its nail-biting landing procedure, the sky
crane. The rover is tucked inside a saucer-like platform that will need to fire
rockets 25 feet above the ground and hover as MSL is carefully lowered down on
wires. Such a procedure has never been tried before, though landing system has
undergone extensive testing prior to launch.
Still, the track record with probes to Mars has not been
great. Nearly two-thirds of missions have had failures or
partial failures. Spacecraft have lost solar power en route, crashed into the surface, or simply gone
dead seconds after landing.
NASA’s history of rovers is more upbeat. The agency has
already successfully roved three robots on Mars: tiny Sojourner and the twins Spirit and Opportunity. The later pair even managed to beat
the odds. Originally expected to last for three months, Spirit went on for six
years before getting permanently stuck in the soft Martian soil and losing contact this past May, while
Opportunity is still going strong.
Curiosity – Mars Science Laboratory
- Project costed at $2.5bn; will see initial surface operations lasting two
Earth years - Onboard plutonium generators will deliver heat and electricity for at least
14 years - 75kg science payload more than 10 times as massive as those of earlier US
Mars rovers - Equipped with tools to brush and drill into rocks, to scoop up, sort and sieve samples
- Variety of analytical techniques to discern chemistry in rocks, soil and
atmosphere - Will try to make first definitive identification of organic (carbon rich)
compounds - Even carries a laser to zap rocks; beam will identify atomic elements in
rocks