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How Curiosity Will Land on Mars, Part 3: Skycrane and landing
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/07/06 07:01 CDT | 6 comments
The final phase of Curiosity's landing on Mars involves the "skycrane maneuver" and will leave the rover on its wheels ready for its mission on Mars to begin.
How Curiosity Will Land on Mars, Part 2: Descent
staff-blog-post
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/29 07:04 CDT | 6 comments
When people first hear about how Curiosity will land on Mars, their first question always is: are they nuts? This is the second in a multi-part series describing how -- and why -- Curiosity will land this way, in excruciating detail.
How Curiosity Will Land on Mars, Part 1: Entry
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/22 07:19 CDT | 14 comments
When people first hear about how Curiosity will land on Mars, their first question always is: are they nuts? This is the first in a multi-part series describing how -- and why -- Curiosity will land this way, in excruciating detail.
Cosmoquest Science Hangout Wednesday June 20 2300 UTC: Ravi Prakash, Curiosity engineer
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/18 05:32 CDT | 1 comment
This Cosmoquest Science Hangout featured Ravi Prakash, Curiosity Entry, Descent, and Landing Systems Engineer. He explained how Curiosity will land on Mars, and why they've changed things since Spirit and Opportunity landed.
Curiosity's shrinking landing ellipse
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/11 12:32 CDT | 6 comments
There was good news and bad news in this morning's press briefing about Curiosity rover's upcoming landing on Mars, just eight weeks from now. First, the good news: the landing ellipse has shrunk. The bad news: there's a contamination problem with the drill, and the Odyssey orbiter is in safe mode.
Build your own papercraft Curiosity rover
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/08 02:01 CDT | 1 comment
Glen Nagle pointed me to two awesome papercraft models of the Curiosity rover that you can download and -- assuming you have a LOT of patience and a steady hand -- assemble.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/05/14 03:02 CDT | 5 comments
I took a field trip to watch scientists and engineers play in the sand with Mars rover models, and got a bonus tour of some evidence for the "Snowball Earth" hypothesis.
Posted by Jim Bell on 2012/01/09 11:15 CST
It's the best of times for Mars exploration because we've got three orbiters and a rover studying the Red Planet. It's also the worst of times for my Russian, European, and Chinese colleagues who were part of the Phobos-Grunt mission.
Curiosity, from a 1935 perspective
Posted by Jason Davis on 2011/12/03 01:49 CST
With a new rover, Curiosity, on its way to Mars, Jason Davis takes a look at what we knew - or thought we knew - about the planet back in 1935.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/11/29 09:35 CST
A few fortunate (and forward-thinking) skywatchers looked upward in the hours after Curiosity's launch and were able to see the spacecraft leaving Earth.
How did they make the nuclear power source for the Curiosity rover?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/11/28 03:07 CST
Maybe it's because I was a kid during the Cold War; I always assume that information about anything nuclear only comes out on that "need-to-know basis."
Curiosity is on its way to Mars!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/11/26 09:09 CST
It was a textbook launch for the Atlas V 541 today at 15:02 UTC, and within an hour after liftoff, the Centaur second stage had sent Curiosity on its way for an 8.5-month journey to Mars.
Mars Exploration Family Portrait
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/11/23 12:26 CST | 1 comment
Jason Davis put together this neat summary of the checkered history of Mars exploration.
Curiosity in context: Not exactly "Viking on wheels," but close
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/11/21 06:51 CST
As I was beginning my research for my two magazine articles on the Curiosity rover's upcoming mission to Mars, I needed to figure out for myself how exactly this gigantic, ungainly machine fit in to the context of past Martian missions.
Curiosity stacked for launch, still waiting for plutonium power source installation
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/11/04 12:43 CDT
It's still three weeks until Curiosity's launch date, but the spacecraft has already been placed on top of its rocket. The Kennedy Space Center's Curiosity photo album now has lots of pictures of the spacecraft being enclosed inside the payload fairing (the rocket's "nose cone") and hoisted to the top of the Atlas V.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/11/03 05:27 CDT
November has already been a very good month for me in the print publication realm. I've had published not one, but two, feature articles on Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover.
Photos: Preparations for Curiosity's launch proceeding (don't show these to Blofeld!)
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/10/11 11:27 CDT
Kennedy Space Center has recently created a photo album collecting their photos from the clean rooms where technicians are working madly to prepare the Curiosity Mars rover for launch.
It's official now: Curiosity is going to Gale
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/07/22 12:50 CDT
The news leaked a few weeks ago has turned out to be true: the next Mars rover, Curiosity, will be headed for Gale crater on Mars when it launches at the end of this year.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/07/11 02:32 CDT
I had an amazing opportunity back in April: an invitation to go inside the fabled Spacecraft Assembly Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to see the next Mars rover up close.
Summary of the fifth MSL landing site selection meeting
Posted by Ryan Anderson on 2011/07/06 10:40 CDT
Well, after three days of fascinating science and heated discussion, the fifth and final MSL landing site workshop has come to a close, and the consensus is -- that all of the sites are pretty darn interesting.
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