MSL development & assembly, Until it's shipped to the Cape Options

[climber]

In case you missed it there's 9 minutes on MSL (actual hardware visible) + 5 minutes with Dr Elachi on "This week in Space" there: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/
14 minutes out of 23 regarding Unmanned, not bad.

[punkboi]

Looks like NASA is planning to launch MSL between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18, 2011

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?rele...elease_2010-171

[punkboi]

High Gain Antenna for the Curiosity rover is en route to JPL

http://www.satnews.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?number=525858649

[punkboi]

NASA Dryden Hosts Radar Tests for Next Mars Landing

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-197

Engineers with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., are running diverse trials with a test version of the radar system that will enable NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission to put the Curiosity rover onto the Martian surface in August 2012.

One set of tests conducted over a desert lakebed at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., in May 2010 used flights with a helicopter simulating specific descent paths anticipated for Martian sites.

[climber]

Very nice topic actually. BTW, do we know the dead line to get MSL sent to the Cape?

[punkboi]

Spacecraft are usually sent to the Cape 3 months before launch...though in Spirit and Opportunity's case, they were delivered to Cape Canaveral 4-5 months before launch (January 2003, while Spirit launched in June and Opportunity launched in July of that year)

If MSL launches in November of 2011, then early summer going on the assumption above

[ElkGroveDan]

If they want a really robust test location to simulate unknown Martian landing conditions they should go to the desert areas in and around Joshua Tree National Park.

[nprev]

Do we know the means by which MSL will be sent to the Cape yet (i.e., airlift or overland)?

[djellison]

Oh - I don't think they've overlanded a spacecraft in years have they? Bound to be an airlift.

[nprev]

For some reason, I thought that the MERs went overland. I know that JPL has (or had) a fairly robust overland transport infrastructure for moving spacecraft. (I think airlift's the way to go, though, definitely.)

[stevesliva]

(I think airlift's the way to go, though, definitely.)

http://www.afrc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123137819

Googled around assuming it would be placed on a C-17. Bingo.

[Guest_Enceladus75_*]

Wasn't Galileo transported back and forth from the Cape to California via road overland? And wasn't the overland mode blamed for the removal of lubricant from that high gain antenna which never was able to open fully?

I would hope ALL deep space unmanned craft were transported to the launch site via airlift. And if not, by sea.

[nprev]

I think Galileo actually went back & forth between the Cape & JPL several times due to launch delays, and that eventually hosed the lubricant.

Very happy to hear that MSL's definitely flying; a C-17 is a nice, safe, smooth ride!

[centsworth_II]

For some reason, I thought that the MERs went overland....

Could be the first sentence from chapter 10 of Roving Mars.

"At 5 A.M. on February 22, 2003, a truck convoy left JPL, carrying the MER-2 rover to Florida. In a nice dramatic touch, a magnitude 5.4 earthquake hit southern California just forty minutes before the trucks rolled..."

[nprev]

Probably. Time to reread that anyhow; thanks for the reminder $0.02!

[MahFL]

What is the actual size of the HGAS ?

[djellison]

HGAS?

[PDP8E]

High Gain Antenna System????????? (thats all I have)

[StevenLee]

If they want a really robust test location to simulate unknown Martian landing conditions they should go to the desert areas in and around Joshua Tree National Park.

Good call, ElkGroveDan. After Rogers, we continued helicopter radar testing over Amboy Crater and Cadiz Sand Dunes about 50 miles north of Joshua Tree. Amboy has morphology (terrain shapes) similar to Eberswalde Crater and Mawrth. Cadiz Sand Dunes allowed us to test the radar over more "fluffy" terrain to make sure it doesn't absorb or otherwise dillute the radar beams (we found it doesn't). We also flew over Death Valley which has terrain similar to what we see from MRO images of Holden Crater and Eberswalde Crater. It also contains "Mars Hill" which has rock distributions strikingly like some sites on Mars (it looks a lot like the the Viking 2 site at Utopia Planitia).
- Steve
(BTW, I'm the GN&C manager for MSL)

[ElkGroveDan]

Great to have you aboard Steven. I tried to stop by Amboy with Doug Ellison last year but in the two decades since I went there on a geology field course the Park Service has closed off the road to the crater leaving only a foot trail and the sun was going down. But we did make it to Mars Hill the next day. Funny you would mention Cadiz. When Spirit first began looking back from Larry's Lookout it reminded me of the view from the hills above Cadiz. I would imagine that a jaunt up the Western side of the Owens Valley with all that fractured basalt and the number of cinder cones would provide for some challenging terrain for the radar too.

Please drop back in every now and then when you can and let us know how it's all going.

[djellison]

For those wanting the soft squishy counterpart to the crunch radar targets....

Parachute testing up at the 120ft Wind Tunnel

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/user/JPLnews#p/u/4/O7vf2HUMMdo

2
http://www.youtube.com/user/JPLnews#p/u/3/JRRcbZlofOk

3
http://www.youtube.com/user/JPLnews#p/u/2/-NJamPhtRjA

And my personal favorite - proving that Engineers are people to...Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/user/JPLnews#p/u/1/J6TceTZq1L0

The high-speed photography of chute deployment is a beautiful organic flowing rippling sea-creature like event that is worth watching on its own. Stunning.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

MSL with wheels attached

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/space...mentId=blogDest

[James Sorenson]

It looks so mean, and ready to take on anything that gets in its way

[MahFL]

"Weighing almost a ton, the nuclear-isotope-powered is set for launch in the fall of next year, with landing on Mars almost a year after that."

They missed a word out in that scentence, and aren't they supposed to be using tonnes ?.............

[charborob]

It looks so mean, and ready to take on anything that gets in its way

Let's just hope it can negotiate sand traps. I wonder if they tested it in soft ground.

[punkboi]

The wheels were installed onto Curiosity on June 28 and 29. Unless problems crop up during testing that would cause them to be removed again, the wheels are now permanently attached to the rover.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/msl20100701.html

[James Sorenson]

Let's just hope it can negotiate sand traps. I wonder if they tested it in soft ground.

Good point. Of coarse they wouldn't test the flight model, but I hope they have tested it with an engineering model to see how it does in soft soil. The wider wheels on MSL should help quite abit.

[helvick]

Doug commented on this some time ago - MSL should be better able to deal with soft terrain than the MER's. It may be bigger but its weight is distributed over a proportionally larger contact area.

[MahFL]

I doubt there can ever be a wheeled vehicle that cannot be trapped in some hellish sand trap. No doubt the drivers though will be very carefull.

[helvick]

That's very true but MSL has the benefit of the incredible expertise that has been acquired through the MER's - being careful goes without saying but that expertise is also invaluable. I'm not worried about sand or any other obstacles on the ground - EDL is what I'm saving all my worries for.

[tharrison]

I doubt there can ever be a wheeled vehicle that cannot be trapped in some hellish sand trap. No doubt the drivers though will be very carefull.

Well, the drivers were the ones that got Spirit stuck...the science team folks told them not to drive in the sandy area where it got stuck but they did it anyway.

[MahFL]

Well, the drivers were the ones that got Spirit stuck...the science team folks told them not to drive in the sandy area where it got stuck but they did it anyway.

Can you supply a reference to backup that statement ?

[BrianL]

Would you ask Scott Maxwell for a reference every time he tweets something? Insider info is good enough for me. I guess I'm just a trusting soul.

[sgendreau]

Well, the drivers were the ones that got Spirit stuck...the science team folks told them not to drive in the sandy area where it got stuck but they did it anyway.

The drivers can overrule the science team when deciding where to go? How's that?

[punkboi]

The drivers can overrule the science team when deciding where to go? How's that?

Safety reasons. The drivers are obviously the ones controlling the vehicle. They should call the shots. (Though this goes against what tharrison posted above. )

Much as how a landing site (for Phoenix, MER, MSL or whatever) that's proposed by the science team can be disapproved by the engineering team if the site is deemed too hazardous.

[elakdawalla]

If you read Scott Maxwell's blog, you'll get a feel for how the scientists' job is to pick destinations, not routes; the drivers' job is to route the rover to the destination safely -- or to tell the scientists it can't be done because it can't be done safely. If you read Scott's blog you'll also get a feel for how much he hates to say things can't be done. If there's a way to do it safely, they'll find it. But then it may take too much time and the scientists will decide it's not worth it. There is a great deal of give-and-take in the daily process of planning the rovers' driving.

[djellison]

Worth noting in the case of spirit - Scientists have explicitly said that they didn't see Spirit's current sand trap coming.

[nprev]

One other thing worth noting: This is no-kidding exploration of an alien planet in its purest sense, and the MERs have not only survived long beyond expectations but surmounted numerous unexpected obstacles. This does not presuppose a magic ability to see things coming in an alien environment, but does speak volumes about the talent of the team.

Hell, if I was driving the MERs we'd have been lucky to get off the descent stages, and I'd probably have a couple of DUIs!

[Mirek]

MSL spins its wheels for the first time (July 9th 2010).

http://tinyurl.com/2ej2l26

[nprev]

Awesome. She's looking like a no-kidding rover now!!!

Question: What's the deal with the wheels re that one region on each that has no tread, just connecting strips + holes? Is that for mass savings, or perhaps an artifact of the fabrication process, or is there an operational reason?

[ElkGroveDan]

I was under the impression that like the MERs, the interrupted tread pattern was for optical navigation purposes but I can't cite the source of that information offhand.

[nprev]

Sounds logical. I'm kind of surprised at the size of the holes, though; definitely a major decrease in surface contact area over, what, maybe 30 deg of the circumference?

Obviously there's more than enough margin, though; if one wheel slips, odds are that all the rest won't have their holed regions on the surface at the same time.

[Pavel]

I guess martian rocks would eventually get stuck in the holes and increase the surface contact area

[toddbronco2]

Awesome. She's looking like a no-kidding rover now!!!

Question: What's the deal with the wheels re that one region on each that has no tread, just connecting strips + holes? Is that for mass savings, or perhaps an artifact of the fabrication process, or is there an operational reason?

You guys are going to love this (I was clued into it by a guy on the MSL ATLO team)! There's a Morse code message hidden in those gaps. The video shows it pretty clearly too, though I guess the pattern is backwards if you look at the rover from the front
.---
.--.
.-..

[charborob]

Unnecessary quote removed Admin

Translation: "JPL".

[djellison]

That's quite a giggle for those that remember the wheels on the MSL Scarecrow mobility model - check the tread on that

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001010/

[sgendreau]

.---
.--.
.-..

That rocks.

(Oh, and it rolls.) [ducks]

[nprev]

LOVE it!!!

[punkboi]

MSL now has her Remote Sensing Mast

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[James Sorenson]

Can't wait till we get higher res pics of the New mast. Ohh and a clean room panorama of the rover taken by Mastcam's perspective .

[punkboi]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?rele...elease_2010-239

Video Camera Will Show Mars Rover's Touchdown

July 19, 2010

A downward-pointing camera on the front-left side of NASA's Curiosity rover will give adventure fans worldwide an unprecedented sense of riding a spacecraft to a landing on Mars.

The Mars Descent Imager, or MARDI, will start recording high-resolution video about two minutes before landing in August 2012. Initial frames will glimpse the heat shield falling away from beneath the rover, revealing a swath of Martian terrain below illuminated in afternoon sunlight. The first scenes will cover ground several kilometers (a few miles) across. Successive images will close in and cover a smaller area each second.

[climber]

Weeks or months to get the full resolution video.
I can't wait for Dan Maas animation.

[ustrax]

Initial frames will glimpse the heat shield falling away from beneath the rover, revealing a swath of Martian terrain below illuminated in afternoon sunlight.

Madrecita de Dios!
How many sols left for total aweness?

[djellison]

I can't wait for Dan Maas animation.

Dan's not doing this one - but an updated version of the MSL animation that already exists is in production.

[punkboi]

Looking forward to the new MSL video. Dan Maas' video for Phoenix was awesome

[djellison]

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

Tune in tomorrow from 11 - 3 PST. Live from the clean room, should be worth watching!

[toddbronco2]

THe video streaming today is occurring because the plan is to drive the rover on the floor for the first time this afternoon.

[djellison]

Live a bit early - http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

First drive expected at about 2pm

[punkboi]

Another pic of MSL with its new "neck and head"

http://twitpic.com/27xag9

[punkboi]

Curiosity Rover Grows by Leaps and Bounds

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?rele...elease_2010-245

Talk about a growth-spurt. In one week, Curiosity grew by approximately 1 meter (3.5 feet) when spacecraft technicians and engineers attached the rover's neck and head (called the Remote Sensing Mast) to its body. At around 2 meters (about 7 feet) tall, the next rover to Mars now stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Mounted on Curiosity's mast are two navigation cameras (Navcams), two mast cameras (Mastcam), and the laser-carrying chemistry camera (ChemCam).

While it now has a good head on its shoulders, Curiosity's "eyes" (the Mastcam), have been blindfolded in a protective silvery material. The Mastcam, containing two digital cameras, will soon be unveiled, so engineers can test its picture-taking abilities.

Up next today (July 23), the towering rover will take its first baby steps: a slow roll on the floor of the clean room where it's being built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Watch Curiosity's progress live from the clean room on Ustream until 3:30 p.m. PDT today: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl .

[sgendreau]

Wow...it works!

(watching http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl)

[nprev]

All good till she tried to turn-in-place; no-go. Doubtless a minor problem, and that's exactly what testing's for!

[Ant103]

Anyway, that was a very nice live coverage of this event, like the very first steps of a baby

Pretty incredible to see Curiosity moving. Hope there will more coverage like this in future.

[punkboi]

Props to Emily for capturing Curiosity's baby steps and turning 'em into an animated GIF

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002597/

[Stu]

http://cumbriansky.wordpress.com/2010/07/2...irst-baby-steps

Great night's viewing!

[AndyG]

^ Nice piece, Stu.

Dumb question I can't find an answer for: is the RTG currently on the back of MSL a correct-weight mock-up for these experiments, given there's a substantial cable connected to Curiosity, and - if so - when does the real one get fitted?

Andy

Edited for typo

[ElkGroveDan]

is the RTG currently on the back of MSL a correct-weight mock-up for these experiments, given there's a substantial cable connected to Curiosity,

Everything is so out of whack with respect to the weight when you consider that they are testing in 1.0g something meant to operate in 0.37g, what equipment is on or not on the vehicle is mostly irrelevant. I'm sure there's a whole lot of equipment either dummied-up or missing entirely. Ultimately they know the total wight of the vehicle during the testing and if it's a load-critical test they make certain that the weight is 0.37 of the fully assembled vehicle. Stripping off components is one way to do that (attaching helium balloons might be another ) so removing the RTG or its mock-up twin would make a lot of sense. The cable is probably a minor consideration but could be easily taken into account.

[djellison]

Dumb question I can't find an answer for: is the RTG currently on the back of MSL a correct-weight mock-up for these experiments, given there's a substantial cable connected to Curiosity, and - if so - when does the real one get fitted?

There isn't an RTG of any sort fitted on the back right now. Weight corrected or otherwise. What you're seing is the radiator fins. The gap between them is where the RTG goes.

And these tests are only an experiment in so far as making sure everything works. There is the scarecrow MSL that is literally just suspension and an electronics box for the purpose of mobility testing with an equiv 1/3rd mass.

There will be a model of the RTG fitted for thermal-vac testing I would guess, but the real one will not get fitted - as with Cassini and New Horizons - until it's on the rocket read for launch. There will be a door on the rockets fairing and there's a door on the back of the backshell to let them insert it into the back of the rover whilst in the fairing on the Atlas V in Florida.

[nprev]

There will be a door on the rockets fairing and there's a door on the back of the backshell to let them insert it into the back of the rover whilst in the fairing on the Atlas V in Florida.

Huh. Is that standard procedure for RTGs? Seems like a fair amount of added complexity; that's a tight space for all the inspections, close-outs, etc. to happen, besides the fact that they'll be doing it high off the ground.

[djellison]

Well - Cassini did it, NH did it, MSL will do it - I'd called it standard procedure to be honest.

[nprev]

Yeah, that would meet the definition. Never knew that; cool.

[brellis]

Just to consider that they've kept all that stuff 'clean' is amazing, let alone transportation issues.

[punkboi]

Yeah, that would meet the definition. Never knew that; cool.

http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail.cfm?mediaid=27823
http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail.cfm?mediaid=27824
http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail.cfm?mediaid=27825
http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail.cfm?mediaid=27826
http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail.cfm?mediaid=27827

Photos of the RTG being installed onto New Horizons inside Atlas V's payload shroud

[monty python]

I would think an RTG would release quite a bit of heat.

The wikipedia entry for RTG's quite interesting. They are not very efficient so to generate 300 watts I'm thinking WARM! They say in the USSR they had some remote lighthouses powered by RTG's. One winter night some people found one of these and gathered around it for warmth.

They also say the radiation degrades the materials that convert heat to electricity so maybe they keep them separate until shortly before launch.

Brian

[Mirek]

Funny video of one of the engineers doing Robot Dance in front of MSL:

Link to YouTube

P.S. It was me who asked him to do that.

[punkboi]

Funny video of one of the engineers doing Robot Dance in front of MSL:

Link to YouTube

P.S. It was me who asked him to do that.

Funny video. Hopefully all of you JPL folks will have a much bigger reason to do the Robot Dance in November '11 and then August of '12

[Stu]

P.S. It was me who asked him to do that.

Haha! I remember, I was with you in the "audience" in the Ustream chat room, watching. (Which was a GREAT event, BTW; anyone who missed it should try to make the next one. Thanks to JPL for letting us watch, much appreciated!)

Those techs really joined in with the spirit of things, didn't they? (maybe it was just a way of coping with the nerves!) I was still hoping they'd all gather around the rover and put on a performance of "Greased Lightning", but maybe next time...

[Drkskywxlt]

Just attended a talk by Sylvestre Maurice, deputy PI for ChemCam. Some interesting facts:

- ChemCam is planning to zap 7-20 targets per day for the entire 2 Earth-year mission (!!!!)
- ChemCam sees alkali metals extremely well and the transitional metals and other metals reasonably well
-- It has a harder time (but doable) with H, C, O, N, P, S, Si ...those elements need .5-10% by weight fractions of the zapped rock to be identified. He said they need 3-5% for C, in particular, depending on range.
-- They can't get any of the noble gases (but who cares?) or F and unfortunately, they can't get Cl at all. APXS will have to look for Cl
- They're operational range is 1.5-7m
-- It would take double the power to extend it to 9m, which was their initial goal
- They added a cooler to their body unit, because the heat from the RTGs would have been too much for it to handle. They were in an awkward spot for awhile where the mast-mounted laser wasn't going to work well when it was too cold, while the body unit was going to be too hot! He feels confident the electric cooler resolves this.

[Stu]

Some memories of a fun evening watching Ustream with fellow rover-huggers!

http://astropoetry.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/first-drive

[MahFL]

Just attended a talk by Sylvestre Maurice, deputy PI for ChemCam. Some interesting facts:

- ChemCam is planning to zap 7-20 targets per day for the entire 2 Earth-year mission (!!!!)

Frankly that does not sound posssible.

[Drkskywxlt]

Yeah, that kind of blew me away as well. I looked into detail on ChemCam's documentation available online, and it corroborates his statement saying "~15 targets" per day.

It seems that such frequent use of a complicated system in a harsh near-vacuum environment would eventually degrade it to uselessness.

[ugordan]

It seems that such frequent use of a complicated system in a harsh near-vacuum environment would eventually degrade it to uselessness.

As opposed to any other system that is somehow immune to degradation?

[djellison]

It seems that such frequent use of a complicated system in a harsh near-vacuum environment would eventually degrade it to uselessness.

How, exactly?

[Drkskywxlt]

No doubt the other systems are complex too...just seems that an operating laser might even be beyond what's already flown. It is the first LIBS instrument to ever fly. He already said that severe cold might limit/halt operations to the mast-mounted unit.

[ugordan]

So how does severe cold play into the usage frequency, or alternatively, why would one want to spare an instrument of frequent usage if it's more prone to failure in the first place? I say use it while you can to the fullest extent possible. Extended missions are gravy, but shouldn't be primary mission decision drivers.

[Drkskywxlt]

He didn't go into specifics. He said the cold limits the mobility of the mast and would narrow/eliminate their targeting thusly. I'm speculating with what affect it will have long-term. The primary mission is 2 Earth years long! So, that works out to 2555-7300 targets, each of which will include ~20-50 laser pulses. That's a lot of operation!

[djellison]

So you think they're using it too quickly? Where is your MTBF number to suggest that's the case? 500,000 pulses is 'a lot of operation' ?

MOLA fired 390,000,000+ times in its primary mission.

What is it that makes you think the ChemCam team are going to do more with the laser than it is designed to do, or that they have designed it to do less than is required?

In short - what are you going on about?

[Drkskywxlt]

I admire their confidence. I hope it's warranted. I have no technical expertise to cast doubt on it.

If I were in their shoes, I'd have to be supremely confident to set my mission baseline at sampling so many targets. I'd rather aim lower, particularly with a never-flown before instrument and then have it overperform. Same way the MERs were only baselined for 600m and 3 months. Steve Squyres himself said in his book he thought they'd be able to go longer, but didn't want to oversell.

MOLA is not in the same class as ChemCam. MOLA had a much higher TRL when it flew with a long heritage. Although LIBS technology is well established, it has never flown in space before.

[ugordan]

I'd rather aim lower, particularly with a never-flown before instrument and then have it overperform.

The point is, what makes you think they aren't being conservative in their estimates?

I have no technical expertise to cast doubt on it.

So why do it in the first place, then?

[Drkskywxlt]

The point is, what makes you think they aren't being conservative in their estimates?

Maybe they are. Each target obviously takes time to identify, prepare the system, fire, analyze the results, possibly fire again (the first firing might be to remove dust), analyze again, and then move in closer for APXS or other instrument analysis. Some targeting apparently will be autonomous. Only so many hours in a day though.

So why do it in the first place, then?

To make conversation. I want to see if someone knows better. If no one does, we can have the conversation.

[djellison]

Maybe they are. Each target obviously takes time to identify, prepare the system, fire, analyze the results, possibly fire again (the first firing might be to remove dust), analyze again, and then move in closer for APXS or other instrument analysis.

Why are you assuming they'll move in and APXS every ChemCam target?

[Drkskywxlt]

Why are you assuming they'll move in and APXS every ChemCam target?

They won't. Didn't mean to give that impression. But, ChemCam is serving as a target ID'er for APXS, SAM, and Chemin.

[hendric]

Did they mention how they're going to handle dust on the optics? A laser powerful enough to vaporize rock is going to vaporize any dust on the optics as well. That's probably not a good thing.

[Syrinx]

Jen Blank presented information about ChemCam at Seti Institute two months ago. The video is here:

http://www.youtube.com/setiinstitute#p/u/11/887bilE-C4s

I can't remember if she addressed the questions posed in this thread, but I do remember the talk being informative.

[Mirek]

Curiosity's Robotic Arm attached:

Video: link

[nprev]

Glad to see her coming together so well!

Late comment on duty cycles for complex systems: Ask any aircraft mechanic anywhere in the world how planes behave if they sit idle for too long; you'll get an earful.

My guess is that near-continuous operation of a system within normal parameters (vs. near upper tolerances, as is often necessary with high-current devices) actually reduces the likelihood of malfunction since the individual components are subjected to their designed operational loads & environment (thermal being probably the most significant) as well as generally steady inputs from interfacing devices.

What frequently kills integrated systems are abrupt transients (mechanical & electrical), and those are more likely to arise due to subtle, often random, changes in the performance of individual components that occur for a variety of reasons as a result of prolonged periods of inactivity.

[Juramike]

Some really beautiful pictures of MSL cruise stage testing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa-jpl/4954...in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa-jpl/4954...in/photostream/

(I love the lighting!)

[punkboi]

NASA's Next Mars Rover Rolls Over Ramps

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-297

[climber]

Thanks + I see there'll be a "A public lecture by Mars Science Laboratory Chief Scientist John Grotzinger, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, will take place at JPL on Thursday, Sept. 16, beginning at 7 p.m. PDT Time (10 p.m. EDT). Live video streaming, supplemented by a real-time web chat to take public questions, will air on Ustream at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasajpl"

[djellison]

I'm going to go to the PCC one on the Friday.