MSL Curiosity Lands Safely in Gale Crater, Landing and Commissioning Activity Period 1A, sols 0-8 Options

[JRehling]

The paper Oersted linked to is an amazing resource. I spent about three days working through the long version, taking copious notes a few months back.

The very short answer about the origin of Mt. Sharp includes: (1) Different processes at different times. (2) Wind and water were involved. (3) There are considerable unknowns, some quite puzzling. (4) The bottom of the stack is extremely old, and even the middle of the stack is extremely old.

Despite the thrill of the huge climb, the most anticipated layers will be near the bottom, because they are the oldest. The most interesting possibility, in a nutshell, is that era in martian history when it had a thicker atmosphere, more water, and - unlike Meridiani - a moderate pH. But the prospects for surprises are, to say the least, vast.

[mcaplinger]

Mike, just curious, are you colocated at JPL, or did they leave you minding the house in San Diego?

I'm in San Diego. I have a low tolerance for meetings and this way if there's a problem I'm better positioned to do troubleshooting on engineering model hardware.

[Gladstoner]

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[stewjack]

Are there any Hirise images of the Victoria-like crater on the west side of the landing ellipse? It may provide some insight into the nature of the landing site deposits.

Try this - look at reduced resolution first
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_024234_1755

[jmknapp]

Don't look to these things being lake sediments. We are probably looking at a stack of material with different sources - at the base, mass wasting and alluvium off the walls, plus ejecta, aeolian deposits, volcanic ash layers etc. probably built up thick enough to completely cover the crater, and then eroded away leaving a remnant inside the crater - a pattern seen in dozens if not hundreds of other craters on Mars. During the process it becomes saturated with groundwater, maybe in multiple cycles. Lakes, if any, probably small and ephemeral.

Have to say that layers of wind-borne material are a little less interesting than the Grand Canyon analogy. Anyway, I guess I'll take reports of Lake Gale with a grain of (perchlorate) salt.

[jmknapp]

There is good info in the MSL FAQ thread, including this page:

http://martianchronicles.wordpress.com/201...aper-published/

Good to see a summary of that paper. I downloaded a copy of it a while back but haven't had the heart to actually read it, written as it is for specialists.

[Gladstoner]

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[Pertinax]

But yikes, what a first navcam view! I love the hazy rim. And to me it actually looks like we're substantially higher up than MER PMA!

It's nice to see others perceiving the height difference as well (it's not just in my head). The sense of being taller was amongst the first impressions I had when seeing the first fullres NAVCAMS this morning.


-- Pertinax

[SFJCody]

Next step: try replacing 'T' in the filename with an 'F'



http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...AUT_04096M_.JPG


http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...AUT_04096M_.JPG

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...AUT_04096M_.JPG

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...AUT_04096M_.JPG

[Josh Cryer]

Next step: try replacing 'T' in the filename with an 'F'

Very cool, that was the next thing I was going to try but I was trying to write a script to do it for me.

Is someone harvesting these to post to another site? I seem to recall that being done with MER. Nevermind, I was told elsewhere, was thinking of LyleSearch.

[marsophile]

I was looking forward to seeing a recording of the Sol 3 news briefing on USTREAM, but they seem to have stopped providing the recordings at Sol 2 (Aug 7). Is there any other source to see the briefing? It is on NASA TV again at 3am and 5am PDT tomorrow, but I expect to be asleep at those times!

[ EDIT: found it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f8HHQ2U2jg&feature=plcp ]

[djellison]

http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/inde...;catid=1:latest

[SFJCody]

I really should write a script to do this properly but trial and error is too much fun atm!

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...AUT_04096M_.JPG

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...AUT_04096M_.JPG

[SFJCody]

The raw images page is up to date now. No need to do this anymore!

[Josh Cryer]

The raws page has updated now. No need to do this anymore!

Ha! SFJCody you're my hero anyway, glad someone was doing all the hard guesswork.

Perhaps it updates every hour or something. Still it was a nice surprise.

Here's a (really crummy) colorize attempt: http://i.imgur.com/qZBQx.jpg

Might try a bit later to make something pretty. I remember someone here did an amazing Pathfinder colorize pano way back when.

BTW, marsophile, Doug posted a link to Space Multimedia but NASA has been very quick at putting up the conferences on YouTube. I'd recommend getting jdownloader and copying the link, it lets you download the conference in 720p.