Curiosity

Catching up with the MARS Curiosity rover

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While in the US I had the privilege of listening to Nagin Cox from the mission operations team for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) – NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover. Who? OK, first a bit of background on her … Nagin graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering and a BA in Psychology … Read more

The First Color Panorama from Mars by Curiosity

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OK yes, I’m a bit late to the game with this one, it has been around for some time … but this is MARS, I just had to do it. This is indeed a strange gravelly place with a large mountain in the distance. Curiosity has landed on target near the edge of 150-km wide Gale Crater, with Mount Sharp on the horizon being the … Read more

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snaps pic of Curiosity Rover’s Descent

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NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured an impressive picture of the Curiosity rover’s nail-biting and extremely successful descent. This was no accident, the MRS team had been planning this since last March, they reckoned they had a 60% chance of getting this shot. Now leat you wonder, MRO is a satellite flying high above … Read more

17 Cameras and one complete Chemistry Lab on wheels … successfully landed on MARS

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If you don’t by now know, there where the heck have you been for the last 24 hours … on MARS? Well we have a slightly higher resolution image now (left) taken by one of the vehicle’s lower-fidelity, black-and-white Hazard Avoidance Cameras – or Hazcams. “Curiosity’s landing site is beginning to come into focus,” said John … Read more

Curiosity … touchdown looms

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Hopefully you know all about “Curiosity” … well, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft and its Curiosity rover are in the final stages of preparing for entry, descent and landing on the Red Planet at 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5 (1:31 a.m. EDT Aug. 6). -Translation for UK folks … that will be 06:31 on Monday … Read more