Mars Science Laboratory Lands on Mars

First Picture from the Curiosity Explorer on Mars. One of the rover's wheels appears in the corner. The horizon is curved due to a fish-eye lens on the camera.

"Seven minutes of terror" was a good prediction! As the Mars Science Laboratory hurtled from space into the atmosphere of Mars, ground controllers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and NASA were biting their nails and anxiously awaiting signals from the sensors. Of course, since Mars is so far away, it takes about 15 minutes for the signals to reach Earth, and there is nothing the controllers can do; the landing (or crash!) had already happened! As the signals came in, though, each signal received showed each step in the landing proceeding as expected, and the rover Curiosity made a safe landing on Martian soil.

The JPL control room erupted in cheers.

You would have thought Neil Armstrong had just walked on Mars. But after all, it was just a robot. Then again, this was no ordinary robot! Unlike the tiny Sojourner, or the medium sized Spirit and Opportunity rovers, Curiosity is a big auto-sized robotic rover that will explore a good chunk of Martian territory over the next two or more years. Instead of using the inflatable bounce-landing balloon approach, NASA opted for a new risky landing due to the rover's size. When the re-entry shield dropped off, a large hypersonic parachute deployed to slow the craft's descent to the surface. Just before reaching the surface, the protective structure (Mars Science Laboratory) housing and protecting the rover (Curiosity) fired thrusters to hover above the surface. The rover was then lowered by cables below the MSL's structure. With the rover ready, the thrusters reduced power and the entire system moved down until Curiosity landed, and sensors on the cables indicated to the MSL that there was no weight on them anymore. With that signal, the cables released the rover and the MSL rocketed away from the rover site.

Curiosity experiment diagram.

The landing actually occurred at about 11:15 p.m. MDT, with the signals reaching us on Earth at about 11:32 p.m. MDT. Within minutes, as the cheering continued at JPL, the first pictures arrived as "thumbnails" (small in signal size) showing the shadow of the rover and the horizon of Mars. Over the next couple of days, color pictures and images with higher HD resolution will be plastered all over the Internet and television screens as Curiosity begins its exploration. The mission: a 2-year investigation of Gale Crater, 96 miles in diameter and what NASA thinks is the best chance so far to examine the geology of Mars searching for signs of past or present life.

The current Mars Scoreboard.

Lest anyone get the idea that this landing was easy, NASA published a "Scoreboard" showing our human success rate at sending probes to Mars. So far, only the USA and Russia have been sending probes at the red planet, and to show you how hard that really is, take a look at the score: 15 successful missions and 24 failures! Unfortunately for Russia, they have experienced nothing but failures. Rather than look at their efforts as cursed, however, it's valuable to realize how HARD it is to send a probe through 350 million + miles of radiation-filled space and land it or orbit it exactly where you want.

It's just that NASA is REALLY good, and they make it look easy.

Foreign Affairs: Russian Curse vs. Chinese Success

Phobos-Grunt being prepared for launch.

Russia continues to suffer under a curse. The Phobos-Grunt satellite, launched on November 9, remains in Earth orbit suffering a profound silence. The Zenit rocket carrying Phobos-Grunt had placed the exploration robot in a temporary orbit before heading out towards Mars and the Martian moon Phobos. However, the necessary signals to send the craft outward from Earth did not ignite the engines and the craft went silent. Russian and international scientists have struggled intensely to repair communications in the last couple of weeks. Suddenly, a signal got through a few days before Thanksgiving, and there was some hope communications could be restored as telemetry got through on our holiday. Thanks should be given to technicians at the European Space Agency station near Perth in Australia. Sadly, this success was not repeated and the robotic explorer remains silent now.

Phobos-Grunt launches on a Zenit rocket.

Recently Russia has had some mishaps with the Soyuz rocket series, prompting a temporary grounding of spaceflights to the ISS while engineers worked to solve the problem. With the success of recent launches to ISS, the problem seemed solved, but now the Phobos- Grunt satellite remains stranded in orbit, with the fear that it could crash back to Earth with a significant supply of toxic fuel on board.

This was Russia's 4th attempt to reach Mars. It had not launched an interplanetary probe in 15 years. The other three launches to Mars also met with failure. In 1988, Russia sent Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 to reach the planet. Phobos 1 failed soon after launch. Phobos 2 reached MArtian orbit, only to go suddenly silent and was never heard from again. In 1996, the launch of a Mars probe went wrong and the satellite crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Are the Russians cursed when it comes to reaching Mars? Actually it goes to prove how difficult an interplanetary probe mission really is, and how amazing the American results have been.

Meanwhile, China keeps launching satellites with uneventful regularity.

Long March 2D blasts off from China.

So far this year, China has made 15 satellite launches, and only one was a failure. China usually uses the Long March 2D rocket. Years ago China would have suffered more failures, but since their "acquisition" of American rocket and satellite technology from Loreal and other American space firms, they have had a much higher success rate. While some of the technology was improperly transfered to China as a result of Clinton administration "deals", some has been determined to be lost to China as a result of Chinese computer hacking and corporate spying.

This week China launched 2 satellites from the Jinquan Satellite Launch Center, testing new technologies and observing environmental situations in China.

MSL on its way to Mars!

Atlas V liftoff from Launch Complex 41.

At 8:02 a.m. MST, NASA ignited the engines of the Atlas V rocket carrying the MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) on its way to Mars. The launch has proceeded very well so far, with the separation of the nose cone fairings. The second stage Centaur rocket is expected to fire at about 8:45 a.m. (Update: Stage firing and spacecraft separation confirmed - MSL is on its way to MARS!).

MSL rover in the lab with scientists.

The MSL rover (named Curiosity) is the largest that has been sent to Mars. Its wide variety of sensors and controls will enable it to explore terrain unaccessible to prior rovers such as Spirit, Opportunity and Pathfinder. Scheduled to land on Mars in August 2012, Curiosity is expected to run a mission length of 23-24 months. Those of you who have been watching Mars rovers so far understand that the craft may last MUCH longer than that.

You can download a PDF fact sheet from NASA at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/mars-science-laboratory.pdf