MSL Post Landing - Commissioning Period & Early Observations, Commissioning Activity Period 1B - Sols 9 through 16 Options

[climber]

I'm wondering about the drill's longevity myself. I know Spirit's wore out a lot faster than Oppy's because of the difference in rock hardness, and so had to limit themselves to very interesting targets.
Will we have to wait until a drilling is done to see how much wear and tear it can take?

Listen to Emily here: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakda...-curiosity.html
They've got 2 more spare once the first one will be out

Edited: or read here: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs...rs-1-tools.html

[Ondaweb]

Can the ChemCam wear out? I'm not sure if this is a silly question, but one of the replies in the Telecon seemed fairly specific in terms of the maximum number of pulses that they'd be using in the coming weeks.

I heard this as referring to the design criteria, i.e., the minimum it should be able to do.

[akuo]

I got the impression that they were not so much afraid of the drill getting damaged, but that the rock at the rocket impigment site wouldn't be good to drill into. It has been suggested that it may be duricrust. Would that be too fragile to get a good sample out of with the drill?

Also I think it was mentioned that the first sample to go into the labrotary kits would be dust or some other fines that is scoopable.

[elakdawalla]

I think it's just not a good first sample to drill. They're going to want something that has a horizontal surface and that is a piece of rock that looks homogeneous, not a conglomerate of chunks of rock that may be more or less strongly cemented together by something else.

[craigmcg]

Also sounded like we will be waiting a while before the photos of the top of Mt. Sharp will be takend and transmitted. Originally, I believe it was hoped to get them in during the past few days. (If my memory is correct?)

[Phil Stooke]

Here's a circular version of the full navcam pan:



And this is the middle bit with labels to put our newest names into a more maplike perspective:



Phil

[djellison]

I'm wondering about the drill's longevity myself.

The spares are not there because they worry the drill will wear out. They're there in case the drill gets stuck.

[fredk]

Also sounded like we will be waiting a while before the photos of the top of Mt. Sharp will be taken

We'll actually have to wait a very long time to see the absolute summit. From here we can only see the northern part of the central mound.

[MahFL]

The sun is in the south a lot, so they have to be super careful not to point at the sun with the normal filters. Also they seemed to indicate they wern't sure of the exposures needed. I am am sure Mike Malin will sort it all out.

[elakdawalla]

There would be a Big Problem if ChemCam inadvertently pointed at the Sun. No more ChemCam.

[Joffan]

If they really want to exercise the laser pointing, they should try writing "JPL" on N165. It's basically the landing reference, so a little commemorative grafitti seems in order.

My suggested name for N165: Zero Pebble.

[djellison]

Yeah- there are some serious flight rules about sun-pointing the mast. You can do it for a few minutes, but then you have to turn away and let the ChemCam unit cool down. It's a big-ol reflecting telescope in there , and even at 1.5au - the sun can still do damage when you focus an area of its power.

[Tom Tamlyn]

From http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/pdf/1500.pdf -- "However, the instrument was limited to 30 analyses per sol, realistic for its expected laser lifetime of ~20,000 analyses."
I'm not sure this applies to the flight unit but I would expect the laser to have some finite lifetime.

At approximately 11:30 in today's press conference, Roger Wiens, ChemCam principal investigator, said that ChemCam's "benchmark qualification" was the ability to do 14,000 analyses.

You can replay the press conference on ustream here.

I have to say that it took me a little bit of googling to find the replay website. A reference to that url on the media announcements would have been helpful, or even just a mention that the replay would be hosted on ustream.

TTT (It's probably a sign that I'm past my "sell by" date, but ustream is not a site that's in my brain's short-term RAM, or a term that I would have thought to have included in searching for NASA press conferences. Of course I know better now, but still ....)

[elakdawalla]

Recording teleconferences to UStream is brand new for JPL. They've streamed TV conferences there for a long time, but the audio-only ones are a new thing.

[mcaplinger]

The sun is in the south a lot...

We're in the southern hemisphere, so the sun is in the north a lot. Maybe that's what you meant? Playing with Mars24 is instructive.

AFAIK sun avoidance shouldn't be a huge factor in imaging the summit, though it does have to be checked.

Some of us would appreciate it if you said "MSSS will sort it all out" instead of ascribing the entire operation of the instrument to one person