Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The second day of Curiosity Mars goes perfectly

http://i.imgur.com/FYDZi.jpg

The second day on Mars went smoothly for Curiosity, vehicle NASA's robotic Mars arrived on Monday, said Wednesday the space agency, adding that all antennas, communication channels and the electric generator work well.
"We now have confirmation that all antennas and communication channels of the robot work perfectly," said Jennifer Trosper, one of the managers of the mission, in a press conference at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (California, West USA)
"We are confident in the fact that we now have a great capacity for transmission of data across all channels, which was one of the main objectives of this first part of the mission," he added.
The mast of Curiosity, equipped with two cameras (Mastcam) that act as two large eyes, and has been deployed, said Trosper. Thus, we can obtain high definition panoramic images of 360 degrees from Thursday, the third day of the mission of the robot.
The team was also able to solve the anomaly that prevented the proper functioning of meteorological instruments.
And another good news is that nuclear electricity generator works very well and "we have more power than expected, allowing us to operate the robot longer," said Jennifer Trosper.
The thermal data show that temperatures encountered by Curiosity are less cold than they expected, without offering specifics.
The U.S. space agency has released new images of the shadow of the robot and another robot itself, taken by the mast.
A third image partially black and white panoramic north of the crater shows a vast plain covered with sediment rather low mountains in the distance.
"What most surprised to see this picture is that, to some extent, the first impression we have is that it looks like a landscape on Earth," said John Gotzinger, one of the mission scientists.
"What we can confirm by looking at the horizon is that all these materials found in this area come from the erosion of mountains by the circulating water," he said.
Curiosity is a focal point for probably formed by debris alluvial sediments transported by water, had told NASA.
"These images also indicate that the thrust of the thrusters of the ship, a sort of wheel-crane deposited the Curiosity have dug a trench two feet to reveal the bedrock," said Götzinger.
NASA has released images of the spectacular arrival of Curiosity and the aerial photos and a video of last minutes of the precipitous decline of this rover of 900 kilos, the heaviest and most sophisticated ever sent to another planet.
Curiosity is located 12 kilometers from the slopes of Sharp Mountain, 5,000 meters high, which is situated inside the huge crater Gale.
The rover must determine, over the next two years if the Martian environment was conducive to microbial life in the past.

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