MSL at Rocknest, First scoop samples - sols 57-101 |
MSL at Rocknest, First scoop samples - sols 57-101 |
Oct 3 2012, 12:30 AM
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#1
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
Curiosity has put more than 400 meters on the odometer and tosol (sol 56) she bumped up to a sand drift that we now know (via Twitter) is named Rocknest and will be the site of the first sample grab. In last week's press briefing, John Grotzinger warned that we will be here for "what seems like a very long time," 2-3 weeks. They will have to run several samples through the SA-SPaH (Sample Acquisition, Processing and Handling subsystem, pronounced "Saw-spa") and in particular CHIMRA (Collection and Handling for In situ Martian Rock Analysis, pronounced "chimera") in order to "clean" it of any remaining Earthly contamination with good Mars dirt before they deliver the first sample to SAM or Chemin. So this seems like a good place to start a new thread.
As usual, discuss stuff that happened through sol 56 in the previous thread. -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Oct 12 2012, 03:41 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 4256 Joined: 17-January 05 Member No.: 152 |
Another bright bit to add to the list, at the bottom of the frame:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/ms...9000E1_DXXX.jpg (And there's an old one that you could add as well in this post) |
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Oct 12 2012, 06:15 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 866 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Santa Cruz, CA Member No.: 196 |
Another bright bit to add to the list, at the bottom of the frame: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/ms...9000E1_DXXX.jpg (And there's an old one that you could add as well in this post) Thanks for the heads-up, indeed The List keeps growing. Surprising to me that the SOL 60 scrap (has it been positively identifed as tape wrap vs pyro scraps?) 'The Fragment' (thanks Jam) was explained as "possibly having fallen onto the rover from the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's descent stage during the landing in August". ..perhaps that was a mistatement or misconveyance.. it seems unlikely to me that it would have somehow stuck 'onto the rover' though all that EDL thrashing just to be deposited here much later by some unknown 'release' event. It seems far more likely it simply fell to this location from the EDL sequence, perhaps blown a few meters or so, as it looks quite lightweight. Anyone know if the entry path and wind directions rule this out? im under the impression we are in a location where we can expect to see more EDL confetti. |
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