News Flash: Gale Crater Landing Site for NASA Mar's Science Laboratory's Search for Microbial Life
NASA's next Mars rover will land at the foot of a layered mountain inside the planet's Gale crater the size of the combined area of Connecticut and Rhode Island. The Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity, is scheduled to launch late this year and land in August 2012. The target crater spans 96 miles (154 kilometers) in diameter and holds a mountain rising higher from the crater floor than Mount Rainier rises above Seattle.
"Mars is firmly in our sights," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "Curiosity not only will return a wealth of important science data, but it will serve as a precursor mission for human exploration to the Red Planet."
During a prime mission lasting one Martian year -- nearly two Earth years -- researchers will use the rover's tools to study whether the landing region had favorable environmental conditions for supporting microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life ever existed.
"Scientists identified Gale as their top choice to pursue the ambitious goals of this new rover mission," said Jim Green, director for the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The site offers a visually dramatic landscape and also great potential for significant science findings."
In 2006, more than 100 scientists began to consider about 30 potential landing sites during worldwide workshops. Four candidates were selected in 2008. An abundance of targeted images enabled thorough analysis of the safety concerns and scientific attractions of each site. A team of senior NASA science officials then conducted a detailed review and unanimously agreed to move forward with the MSL Science Team's recommendation. The team is comprised of a host of principal and co-investigators on the project.
Curiosity is about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as any previous Mars rover. Its 10 science instruments include two for ingesting and analyzing samples of powdered rock that the rover's robotic arm collects. A radioisotope power source will provide heat and electric power to the rover. A rocket-powered sky crane suspending Curiosity on tethers will lower the rover directly to the Martian surface.
During a prime mission lasting one Martian year -- nearly two Earth years -- researchers will use the rover's tools to study whether the landing region had favorable environmental conditions for supporting microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life ever existed.
"Scientists identified Gale as their top choice to pursue the ambitious goals of this new rover mission," said Jim Green, director for the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The site offers a visually dramatic landscape and also great potential for significant science findings."
In 2006, more than 100 scientists began to consider about 30 potential landing sites during worldwide workshops. Four candidates were selected in 2008. An abundance of targeted images enabled thorough analysis of the safety concerns and scientific attractions of each site. A team of senior NASA science officials then conducted a detailed review and unanimously agreed to move forward with the MSL Science Team's recommendation. The team is comprised of a host of principal and co-investigators on the project.
Curiosity is about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as any previous Mars rover. Its 10 science instruments include two for ingesting and analyzing samples of powdered rock that the rover's robotic arm collects. A radioisotope power source will provide heat and electric power to the rover. A rocket-powered sky crane suspending Curiosity on tethers will lower the rover directly to the Martian surface.
The Daily Galaxy via NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/UA
Comments
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Forget microbes and water. Start a mining operation. With all the data from Spirit Oppurtunity and Pheonix we should know what valualble comodoties are available. Silicon, phosphorus, iron lead tin copper could not only be processed and returned but we could probably manufacture chips, flash drives and other items on Mars and return them to Earth. Let us start making a profit.
Posted by: Jim R Feliciano | July 23, 2011 at 02:27 PM
Like teacher, like pupil.
Posted by: shop jersey | July 24, 2011 at 01:47 AM
This makes a lot of sense dude.
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Posted by: YakVoo | July 24, 2011 at 11:20 AM
I'm tired of robots taking OUR JOBS -- send some humans there now! If humanity can't pull off something simple like this we deserve to join the dinosaurs who at least left behind some interesting skeletons.
Posted by: Eric | July 24, 2011 at 10:56 PM
Something.. Simple? It's still a gigantic, complex, and risky practice sending humans in the space shuttle up to the ISS let alone another world. It's one thing to send a high tech, long distance, remote controlled science laboratory no bigger than an SUV to research everything more efficiently than any human and space lab could produce.. It's an entirely different thing actually sending all the required housing, laboratory, habitat, and crew to the Moon let alone Mars. Not to mention a return trip.
Posted by: Glen | July 24, 2011 at 10:57 PM
That sounds like an awful lot of wasted dollars. How about that money gets spent on programs and services designed to better the quality of life for the average citizen instead. Thanks.
Posted by: Kyle | July 24, 2011 at 10:58 PM
I don't think NASA is spending lot of money only to search for microbial life.They must doing something underground.
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Posted by: Aleina | July 24, 2011 at 11:19 PM
So, this was the site they landed at that turned out not to be very helpful, and the OTHER site had all the great stratigraphy, right? Isn't this the rover that they decided to just start driving and wound up climbing that moutain? Or do I have it backward?
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Posted by: Thesis Writing | July 25, 2011 at 01:58 AM
Seems to me that a crater wouldn't have any signs of past life since the impact would have vaporized everything that was there. Valles Marinaris would have been a better choice being 7 miles deep. If any water is on the surface that is where it would accumulate,the atmosphere would be thicker also.
Posted by: Paul | July 25, 2011 at 05:22 AM
This is good. It is missions like these and hopefully the following human mission to Mars that we need to drive our space travel technology forward.
Posted by: Greg | July 25, 2011 at 05:57 AM