Topic: Glenelg

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity to drill rock in ditch on Mars named Yellowknife Bay

December 22, 2012 |

Written Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – The NASA Mars rover Curiosity this week is driving within a shallow depression called “Yellowknife Bay,” providing information to help researchers choose a rock to drill.

Using Curiosity’s percussive drill to collect a sample from the interior of a rock, a feat never before attempted on Mars, is the mission’s priority for early 2013. After the powdered-rock sample is sieved and portioned by a sample-processing mechanism on the rover’s arm, it will be analyzed by instruments inside Curiosity.

The NASA Mars rover Curiosity used its left Navigation Camera to record this view of the step down into a shallow depression called “Yellowknife Bay.” (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover prepares to take its first scoop of Martian Soil for Analysis

October 5, 2012 |

Written by Guy Webster and D.C. Agle
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Curiosity rover is in a position on Mars where scientists and engineers can begin preparing the rover to take its first scoop of soil for analysis.

Curiosity is the centerpiece of the two-year Mars Science Laboratory mission. The rover’s ability to put soil samples into analytical instruments is central to assessing whether its present location on Mars, called Gale Crater, ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. Mineral analysis can reveal past environmental conditions. Chemical analysis can check for ingredients necessary for life.

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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity finds unusual football sized Rock to Examine

September 20, 2012 |

Written by Guy Webster and D.C. Agle
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has driven up to a football-size rock that will be the first for the rover’s arm to examine.

Curiosity is about 8 feet (2.5 meters) from the rock. It lies about halfway from the rover’s landing site, Bradbury Landing, to a location called Glenelg. In coming days, the team plans to touch the rock with a spectrometer to determine its elemental composition and use an arm-mounted camera to take close-up photographs.

The drive by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity during the mission’s 43rd Martian day, or sol, (September 19th, 2012) ended with this rock about 8 feet (2.5 meters) in front of the rover. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity continues activities to test it’s Robotic Arm and use of Tools

September 11, 2012 |

Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity stepped through activities on September 7th, 8th and 9th designed to check and characterize precision movements by the rover’s robotic arm and use of tools on the arm.

The activities confirmed good health and usefulness of Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI, and used that camera to check arm placement during several positioning activities.

This view of the lower front and underbelly areas of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity combines nine images taken by the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 34th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work on Mars (Sept. 9, 2012). (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems)

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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity begins activities to test it’s Robotic Arm and other Instruments

September 7, 2012 |

Written by Guy Webster and D.C. Agle
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – After driving more than a football field’s length since landing, NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is spending several days preparing for full use of the tools on its arm.

Curiosity extended its robotic arm Wednesday in the first of six to ten consecutive days of planned activities to test the 7-foot (2.1-meter) arm and the tools it manipulates.

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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity begins drive across Martian Surface to it’s first destination, Glenelg

August 30, 2012 |

Written by Guy Webster and D.C. Agle
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has set off from its landing vicinity on a trek to a science destination about a quarter mile (400 meters) away, where it may begin using its drill.

The rover drove eastward about 52 feet (16 meters) on Tuesday, its 22nd Martian day after landing. This third drive was longer than Curiosity’s first two drives combined. The previous drives tested the mobility system and positioned the rover to examine an area scoured by exhaust from one of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft engines that placed the rover on the ground.

Soil clinging to the right middle and rear wheels of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity can be seen in this image taken by the Curiosity’s Navigation Camera after the rover’s third drive on Mars. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA Scientists select first Driving Mission for the Mars Rover Curiosity

August 19, 2012 |

Written by DC Agle and Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – The scientists and engineers of NASA’s Curiosity rover mission have selected the first driving destination for their one-ton, six-wheeled mobile Mars laboratory. The target area, named Glenelg, is a natural intersection of three kinds of terrain.

The choice was described by Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology during a media teleconference on August 17th.

This image shows a closer view of the landing site of NASA’s Curiosity rover and a destination nearby known as Glenelg. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

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NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity ready to start moving on Mars

August 18, 2012 |

Written by Dauna D. Coulter
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – By now it’s old news that NASA’s new Mars rover Curiosity is resting safely on the surface of Red Planet after a daredevil landing that had the nation holding its breath. Now, mission scientists are anxious to start moving. With such a sweet set of wheels at their disposal and the “open road” before them, just where will they go first?

“We won’t have to travel far for excitement,” says project scientist John Grotzinger. “We landed in the best possible place within the landing ellipse — the bottom of an alluvial fan.”

This image shows destinations scientists want the rover to investigate. First, Curiosity will move toward an area nicknamed Glenelg where three kinds of terrain intersect. The science team thought the name Glenelg was appropriate because, if Curiosity traveled there, it would visit it twice — both coming and going — and the word Glenelg is a palindrome. Then, Curiosity will aim for the base of Mt. Sharp where a natural break in the dunes should allow the rover to begin scaling the lower reaches of the mountain.

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