jbridges
Subscribe to jbridges's postsTuesday 18th September Sol 42
We have paused to take a panorama of the landscape: Mt Sharp, crater walls and local terrain before we descend into GlenElg. This could be one of the most dramatic landscape photographs of the mission. The nature of our enquiries has a heritage dating back to earlier scientific explorers like Charles Darwin in his voyages […]
Sunday 16th September Sol 40
As we move forward we are making remarkable new discoveries. There is a palpable air of excitement in the Science Discussions as the MastCam images appear. Every sol we assess what was received in the most recent downlinks and plan images and data to collect next. Our constraints are data volume (e.g. how many megabits) […]
Friday 14th September Sol 38
The MastCam has finished imaging of different parts of the rover and we are driving again. On our way to Glenelg we will stop to analyse a basaltic rock. That will be useful to cross-calibrate the APXS and ChemCam analyses. The MastCam image (looking East) shows Mount Sharp in the distance, with the dark dune […]
Wednesday 12th September Sol 36
We have been working on data today – a variety of scientists from different specialities, nationalities and approaches to the data. Thats how we will solve the scientific issues. A fascinating process even if it is the middle of the night. I have got used to Mars time. You can follow Mars time by downloading a […]
Tuesday 11th September Sol 35
One of the activities in the next few sols we are looking forward to include using the video facility on MastCam to observe a transit of Phobos across the Sun. Phobos is one of the 2 moons of Mars, thought to be primitive asteroidal type bodies captured in the orbit of Mars. We have new […]
Sunday 9th September Sol 34
Just like in a terrestrial laboratory we have to analyse standards of known composition. Before we publish important new data about Mars and its atmosphere we want to be sure as we can that the data is as accurate as possible. To test the Alpha particle source X-ray Spectrometer we are putting the robotic […]
Friday 7th September Sol 32
We are testing out the robotic arm for the next few sols. This 70 kg instrument is essential to the long term success of the mission as it carries the Alpha particle source X-ray Spectrometer (for elemental compositions of rocks), a brush to get rid of dust from rock surfaces, the microscopic imager (MAHLI), the […]
Thursday 6th September Sol 30
Telescopes on Earth need to measure ‘flat’ and ‘dark’ frames with every set of observations in order to correct for distortions on the telescope mirror and any false detections on the light detector. Likewise we take flats and dark frames for our ChemCam instrument. Much of our daily upload commands, like those we have done […]
Wednesday 5th September Sol 29
We have been making initial analyses of the Mars atmosphere using SAM (Surface Analysis at Mars) which includes a mass spectrometer with gas chromatography. This instrument is hoped to provide us with the most accurate analysis of the Mars atmosphere so far achieved. Parts of SAM can also analyse solid samples for organic compounds but […]
Tuesday 4th September Sol 28
The High Resolution Stereo Imager Experiment (HiRise) onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter MRO has returned new images of the Bradbury landing site and Curiosity itself. HiRise at full resolution has pixel sizes of 25 cm which means it can resolve objects that are about 3 times that size, the 3 m long rover thus be […]
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