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

[RoverDriver]

...
Actually, I got the impression that the real star of the EDL that allowed the ellipse to shrink so much was the novel guided entry manoeuvre using banking turns to achieve a precise flight path after the entry interface. The Skycrane got all the press because it's sexier . Great blog post, summarises the objectives very clearly.

You are correct.

Paolo

[fredk]

What's this - jpl beat you guys to a thumbnail mosaic?

[JRehling]

I'm a couple of days late on the discussion of imaging the top of Mt. Sharp... I wanted to add that while it's aesthetically nice to get the whole mound in one shot, the relative advantage of rover-imaging versus orbiter imaging declines dramatically for terrain nearer the summit. Not only is the rover relatively far away from the summit, but there is foreshortening in the Y dimension. And in addition, the top has some dust covering, and - as mentioned earlier - is one of the major surface units of comparatively least interest, and least probability of in situ analysis.

More science is always better, but the bottom half of Mt. Sharp is why Curiosity is in Gale. And no matter what Curiosity achieves, we'll end up with the best imaging of lots of Mt. Sharp's highest altitudes still coming from MRO and company up in orbit.

[ugordan]

What's this - jpl beat you guys to a thumbnail mosaic?

Full navcams of the arm are down:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/ra...0105M_&s=14
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/ra...0105M_&s=14

[Cargo Cult]

Full navcams of the arm are down:

Haven't used Hugin in ages. Have a vague attempt at a stitch - I'm sure some much better ones will be along shortly!

https://hylobatidae.org/misc/msl-curiosity-arm-20120821.jpg (359KB JPEG)

[Ondaweb]

CC, you may be rusty but that stitch is a lot better than the one with the press release. Is there something you did they didn't do, e.g., transform it in some way?

[jmknapp]

So why might Curiosity be gazing at the sky, if I read this image from yesterday right:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...NCAM00502M_.JPG

There were a number of shots like that, taken about 18 seconds apart. Looks featureless, except for maybe a dust mote, star or somesuch at about xy 243,220 in all the images.

[MahFL]

So why might Curiosity be gazing at the sky, if I read this image from yesterday right:

Tau measurements maybe ?

[Ant103]

Curiosity's arm fully unstowed. Might she take a portrait of herself with the MARDI MAHLI?

[charleski]

I'm not a geologist, so what am I missing here? Obviously this clay formed a long time ago, would it have undergone some form of alteration that changed its properties compared to fresh clay?

Nevermind, answered my own question: given sufficient compaction clay lithifies and this does indeed change its physical properties, becoming shale which has a higher thermal inertia, though still less than 80% of basalt. To reach a higher thermal inertia it would need to experience still more heat and pressure and metamorphose to slate, which has around 90% the TI of basalt. So the exact nature of the High TI Unit will probably give us an insight into how deeply the Gale floor was covered after the water dried up and how extensive the erosion has been.

[djellison]

So why might Curiosity be gazing at the sky,

Looks like the old MERtian trick of cloud watching.

[climber]

Curiosity's arm fully unstowed. Might she take a portrait of herself with the MARDI ?

You mean MAHLI Damien because Mardi is...today

[djellison]

You mean MAHLI.

There is hope to do a self portrait at some point in the future- but not yet.

[drz1111]

Nevermind, answered my own question: given sufficient compaction clay lithifies and this does indeed change its physical properties, becoming shale which has a higher thermal inertia, though still less than 80% of basalt. To reach a higher thermal inertia it would need to experience still more heat and pressure and metamorphose to slate, which has around 90% the TI of basalt. So the exact nature of the High TI Unit will probably give us an insight into how deeply the Gale floor was covered after the water dried up and how extensive the erosion has been.

Even within the spectrum of what we'd call "shale", a rock can have had significantly different pressure/temperature/diagenitic histories. Butminerologists/petrologists and geochemists, armed with the analytical tools on Curiosity, can back out the T-P history of the rock from what they observe today (and what kind of fluids were involved in diagensis).

[3d_mars]

So why might Curiosity be gazing at the sky

Possibly flat field frame calibration.