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TOPIC: Mars Science Laboratory mission
Blobrana


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Mars Science Laboratory mission
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Next Mars Rover Sports a Set of New Wheels

NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity, is sitting pretty on a set of spiffy new wheels that would be the envy of any car show on Earth.
The wheels and a suspension system were added this week by spacecraft technicians and engineers. These new and important touches are a key step in assembling and testing the flight system in advance of a planned 2011 launch.
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Blobrana


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Curiosity rover
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NASA Instrument Will Identify Clues to Martian Past

NASA's Curiosity rover, coming together for a late 2011 launch to Mars, has a newly installed component: a key onboard X-ray instrument for helping the mission achieve its goals. Researchers will use Curiosity in an intriguing area of Mars to search for modern or ancient habitable environments, including any that may have also been favourable for preserving clues about life and environment.
The team assembling and testing Curiosity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., fastened the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument inside the rover body on June 15. CheMin will identify the minerals in samples of powdered rock or soil that the rover's robotic arm will deliver to an input funnel.
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Blobrana


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Mars Science Laboratory mission
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NASA Dryden Hosts Radar Tests for Next Mars Landing

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 Centre, Edwards, Calif., in May 2010 used flights with a helicopter simulating specific descent paths anticipated for Martian sites.
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Blobrana


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RE: Mars Science Laboratory mission
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MSL EDL



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Blobrana


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Planners of NASA's next Mars mission have selected a flight schedule that will use favourable positions for two currently orbiting NASA Mars orbiters to obtain maximum information during descent and landing.
Continuing analysis of the geometry and communications options for the arrival at Mars have led planners for the Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity, to choose an Earth-to-Mars trajectory that schedules launch between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18, 2011. Landing will take place between Aug. 6 and Aug. 20, 2012. Due to an Earth-Mars planetary alignment, this launch period actually allows for a Mars arrival in the earlier portion of the landing dates under consideration.
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Blobrana


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Goddard Scientist's Breakthrough Given Ticket to Mars

The quest to discover whether Mars ever hosted an environment friendly to microscopic forms of life has just gotten a shot in the arm.

"Mars was a lot different 3½ billion years ago. It was more like Earth with liquid water. Maybe life existed back then. Maybe it has persisted, which is possible given the fact that we've found life in every extreme environment here on Earth. If life existed on Mars, maybe it adapted very much like life adapted here"- Jennifer Eigenbrode, a scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Md.

An experiment proposed by Eigenbrode has been added to the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on a mobile NASA laboratory that will land on Mars in 2012. Goddard scientists developed SAM. The newly added experiment will enhance SAM's ability to analyse large carbon molecules if the mission is fortunate enough to find any.

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Blobrana


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RE: Mars Science Laboratory mission
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Send your name to Mars
Fill in an online form and your name will be included with others on a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011.

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Blobrana


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The largest heat shield ever built for a probe bound for Mars is ready for the new rover Curiosity, a massive Martian robot the size of a car.
The immense heat shield will shroud the Mars Science Laboratory rover, now named Curiosity, to protect it during its deep space cruise to Mars and the searing heat of entry into the Martian atmosphere. Lockheed Martin unveiled the heat shield this week and delivered its conical backshell to NASA last year.

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Blobrana


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Posts: 131433
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Send your name to Mars
Fill in an online form and your name will be included with others on a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011.

Weblink

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Blobrana


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Curiosity
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NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, scheduled for launch in 2011, has a new name thanks to a sixth-grade student from Kansas. Twelve-year-old Clara Ma from the Sunflower Elementary school in Lenexa submitted the winning entry, "Curiosity." As her prize, Ma wins a trip to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., where she will be invited to sign her name directly onto the rover as it is being assembled.

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