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Subscribe to RSSNew pictures from the Mars rover Curiosity include the first panoramic view of the Red Planet. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
The first pictures from the best cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover document a Martian landscape so Earthlike it reminds scientists of home.
"The first impression that you get is how Earthlike this seems, looking at that landscape," said Caltech's John Grotzinger, chief scientist for the $2.5 billion mission. "You would really be forgiven for thinking that NASA was trying to pull a fast one on you, and we actually put a rover out in the Mojave Desert and took a picture."
California's Mojave Desert is less than 100 miles away from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, where Grotzinger and his colleagues are poring over each batch of images sent back by the car-sized rover.
Mission manager Jennifer Trosper said 100 megabytes of data had been received from Curiosity as of today, and that figure is sure to grow rapidly once the spacecraft's high-gain antenna gets up to speed.
The day's biggest milestone was the raising of the rover's 3.6-foot-tall (1.1-meter-tall) camera mast on Curiosity's deck, which provides a vantage point 7 feet (2.1 meters) above the Martian surface. The mast houses Curiosity's high-resolution navigation camera system, also known as Navcam, as well as the two-camera Mastcam imaging system — and a laser-zapping rock analysis experiment known as ChemCam.
Damian Dovarganes / AP
Curiosity rover scientists Justin Maki, John Grotzinger and Michael Malin discuss Martian imagery showing a Mojave-like scene on Wednesday.
Justin Maki of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory guides you through the first images from the navigation cameras on the Mars Curiosity rover, including a low-resolution panorama.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
This Picassoesque self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover is based on images taken by the navigation cameras on the rover's mast. The camera snapped pictures all the way around the rover while pointing down at the rover deck, up and straight ahead. Those images are shown here in a polar projection.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
The first image taken by the navigation cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover shows the shadow of the rover's now-upright mast in the center, and the arm's shadow at left. The arm itself can be seen in the foreground. The position of the shadow helps confirm the sun's location. The rover's name and a simplified smartphone tag are emblazoned on a piece of hardware in the foreground.
One Navcam image shows the shadow of the mast against the gravelly ground surrounding the rover, with pieces of hardware in the foreground. The picture includes a pixelated rover logo that JPL plans to incorporate into an augmented-reality "Virtual Rover" smartphone app.
"Right now, [the logo] does not link to anything, as we will be working with it as Curiosity begins exploring," Michelle Viotti, Mars public engagement manager at JPL, said in an email. "It's a way to increase immersion for public audiences following the mission through 3-D modeling and other techniques — bringing supplemental info into a real environment in a way that's interactive."
Another black-and-white image documents Curiosity's environment at Gale Crater: There's an intriguing trench that was apparently scoured out during the rover's descent, just a few yards (meters) away; and there are what appear to be imposing peaks at the crater rim, more than 12 miles (20 kilometers) away.
Grotzinger said the trench could serve as a "freebie" for studying the Martian subsurface. "It's a bird in the hand right there," he said. When asked whether the blast of the thrusters on Curiosity's sky-crane descent stage might have exposed minerals worth analyzing, Grotzinger replied, "Sure, why not."
Rover is in for the long haul
Curiosity's prime mission is to study Martian rock and soil to find out whether the types of carbon compounds associated with organic processes might be present. Finding such compounds might lead scientists to conclude that the Red Planet was potentially habitable in ancient times, and provide pointers for future exploration. The big prize is a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain in the crater's interior, known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp. The mountain's layers of rock are expected to document billions of years of Mars' geological history.
Grotzinger and his colleagues say they may devote the first Earth year of the mission to studying the ground between the landing site and the mountain, roughly 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) away. Curiosity's primary mission is due to last almost two Earth years, or one complete Mars year, but scientists hope that the nuclear-powered rover will last much longer than that.
Trosper said that the rover was in good shape, and that previously reported problems with Curiosity's REMS weather station have been cleared. "The instrument is completely healthy," she said.
Another scientific instrument, known as the Radiation Assessment Detector or RAD, took its first measurements of cosmic rays and solar radiation on the Martian surface over the past day, said Don Hassler, a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute who's in charge of the RAD experiment. He noted that the measurements were made 100 years after Austrian physicist Victor Hess made the first observations of cosmic rays from Earth.
"We've learned a lot in the last 100 years," Hassler said. The RAD instrument picked up multiple spikes of heavy-ion radiation that could be a concern for future human explorers, he said.
Sharper images
Michael Malin, a Curiosity team member as well as the head of San Diego-based Malin Space Science Systems, said that high-resolution color pictures taken by the rover during its descent on Sunday night were gradually being sent down to Earth. They'll soon be assembled into an animation with much more detail than the low-res version that was released earlier this week.
Mike Malin, a member of the Mars Curiosity rover science team, unveils imagery showing where the rover's ballasts hit the surface — as well as a high-resolution view of the rover's heat shield flying away during descent.
Malin also showed off before-and-after imagery from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, pointing out six disturbed spots where tungsten ballast weights fell after they were discarded by the descending spacecraft. Previous imagery from MRO showed where Curiosity's parachute and backshell, as well as its heat shield and descent stage, hit the dirt. There are currently no plans to visit any of those sites, primarily because they're low-priority scientific targets.
The Curiosity team is currently considering what route the rover should take in the short term, even as the instrument checkout continues. The next milestones on the time line include the return of high-resolution color pictures from the two Mastcam imagers, and the release of high-resolution, 360-degree panoramas. (A low-resolution all-around panorama from the navigation cameras was made available today.)
The six-wheeled rover is expected to take its first drive sometime during the next few weeks, depending on how the checkout goes.
Trosper cleared up one question that has bedeviled the clock-watchers covering the mission: Exactly when did Curiosity touch down? The official time, she said, was 10:17:57 p.m. PT on Sunday (1:17:57 a.m. ET or 05:17:57 GMT Monday). When the 14 minutes of light-travel time between Mars and Earth are added in, that suggests that first word of the landing was received at 10:31 p.m. PT, which is in line with the schedule that NASA announced in advance. It took at least a few seconds more for Curiosity's fans, in JPL's mission control room and around the world, to react to the alert.
More about Mars:
- Tour the Martian Mojave in 3-D
- Flying saucer spotted over Mars
- First 3-D pictures sent by Curiosity
- Orbital photo spots rover and its trash
- Curiosity sends color snapshot from Mars
- Rover video looks down on Mars during landing
- Mars orbiter spots rover in midair
- NASA's Mohawk Guy marvels at his fame
- Curiosity rover scores touchdown on Mars
- Mars probe provides radiation revelations
- Video: Highlights from rover's first two days on Mars
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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The NASA / JPL-Caltech photo is amazingly clear ....
This is going to be good and it's just getting started with its work on Mars ....
Thanks Alan ....
Another nice article ....
Love it dont ya Ben! Thanks Alan
Another terrific story, Alan.
Keep em coming.
I saw the movie Transformers. I know what the blur in the background is in that one image.
In all seriousness, I'm happy it landed safely. I can't wait to see what we learn from this scientific laboratory on wheels. Lets hope that Curiosity gives us an extended long life like Spirit and Opportunity.
I get the biggest smile on my face when I imagine a group of Martians standing around chatting and all of a sudden they see something falling from the sky and then Rover lands on the ground in front of them. Can you imagine? Hey -- stranger things have happened. Well... maybe not, but it sure is exciting!
It is awesome to think that this amazing piece of machinery was built here on earth - that when I look up at the night sky at Mars, I can say that there is this piece of man-made machinery on that planet, taking high-res pictures, and sending them back. I mean, seriously. How awesome is this.
FYI... Followers of this page, science nerds and classes should pay attention to the speed of light delay that is central to this article. The speed of light was first determined albeit inaccurately when the sea fairing nations were trying to use the frequent eclipse of Io, a Jupiter moon as a universal clock so they could determine longitude. Like the Jupiter moon, as Mars makes its way from the far side of the Sun and gets much closer to Earth the time delay will shorten considerably. This effect caused a lot of head scratching during the 1600's because of the inaccuracies encountered until the aha moment arrived and it was realized that light takes time to travel and is not instantaneous. See "Longitude."
This isn't an indictment of Mr. Boyle or "News" reporting agencies, but, is there a "public dump site" for curiosity photos...I'm guessing there are a lot of "Cool" photos that aren't striking the fancy of the media outlets....
now.
Oh boy Mars has land, I can just see the Real Estate Agents now lining up the clients. Just like Earth! tap your wheels together three times and squeak, There's no place like home, There's No Place Like Home. This isn't the Mojave any More Curiosity!
I jest good job!
Good Lord! It appears to be a carbon copy of China Lake, CA.
In our Human gut, we know that this looks like home....and a lot more going on there than previously thought.
NASA: A fine job, well done.
El_Duderino - you do know that there are two other rovers that are sitting on mars right?
Doubtful. Most people don't know that the U.S. or USSR has had probes flying by since the 60s and landers and orbiters since the 70s.
1. We spent 804 billion dollars in Iraq and didn't even get a "thank you card"..or a drop of oil
2. We spent 90 billion dollars on reconstruction in Afghanistan to "win hearts and minds"...and they hate us
3. We spent 2.5 billion dollars sending CURIOSITY to MARS, a technological feat that set space exploration ahead 50 years, sent a message to the world that the US is still the leader in technology.... and will provide us with a wealth of scientific data for years to come. PLUS not a single life was lost, no buildings were destroyed, and no refugees had to flee their homes.
It's time the US started spending MORE money building a positive image, making new discoveries , and advancing human achievement ........and spend LESS money trying to become the policeman of the world
Right on Ernie. It's about time we start doing what we were made to do... Exploration and discovery. We showed the world what we were made of back in the 1960's and it's time to do so again. Let's stop wasting money on foolish military expenditures and more on our space-based efforts.
Nobody lands on other planets better than the USofA!
NASA--a world without Islam.
Pretty much explains the positive.
Ernie....So true.
Timmer2 - NASA: Science a world free of religion and superstition. Ok that is enough .... are we bad or what.
Ernie - absolutely! Placed in those terms means money well invested.
1969 we placed men on the moon, no one so far has repeated that trick. Anyone doubt our comeptience, abilities and can do attitude just read all this great stuff .... just loving it.
From a fiscal standpoint I don't see how anybody could disagree with Ernie. Or from a philosophical standpoint as well.
You nailed it Ernie! Time to focus and spend more on what we do best. Look at what NASA did on what is basically a shoestring budget. Imagine what they could do with some more money. We could probably shorten that human Moon and Mars mission gap by several years,as well as getting back to LEO in our own vehicles months or years sooner than currently scheduled. Our talent and ability is limitless. What's holding us back is funding. We all need to work on that.
Very cool, but what happened to the true-color images? :-(
And where are the giant sand worms?
Skip, the giant sand worms (Shai-Hulud) are still on Arrakis...
Thanks Jay, finally somebody took the bait (uh..so to speak) LOL!
Yup, the tricky part is getting it on the hook...
They're gonna need a bigger hook (when they find those sand worms) :) have a great day Jay.
They probably won't start transmitting those until the high-gain antenna is up to speed.
Ah, ok,thanks. I can't wait to see the true color pics of the giant sand worms.
The best part will be when NASA figures out how to get the spice back to earth!!
Yes Earnie, humanity has learned little since the sixties. Oh and no thanks from Iran for taking out Saddam either. Iraq and Iran would probably have been at war by now.
I like the way you think, Ernie.
good one ernie,maybe if we stopped taking picture's of ashtrashinacan and more on space we can start taking better care of our needs here ... but im still for a bucket of water and some bandaids for that poor country
This is by far some of the most exciting stuff. I don’t think that I’ve ever woke up several days in a row with news of Mars on my mind.
You're right Nicole. I rush to check NBC each morning to see what's new on Mars. It's very exciting.
Dog gone it this is so cool. I'm glad to see NASA back at it. This is the stuff that separates the men and the boys. Of course the boys being China that copies most everything western but they can't copy this. Nor could they copy what America did in the 1960's with landing men on the moon. I was 12 at the time and to this day I still remember that July 20th. I built a Saturn Five Rocket model that was about 4 ft tall sitting next to my bed. It had the three stages and working parts. It sat next to my SR-71 and Gemini-Mercury-Titan models. I'm now 55 years old and I'm still like a kid with space exploration. GO AMERICA....ALWAYS...WE LEAD in technology no matter what people think about us.
"GO AMERICA....ALWAYS...WE LEAD in technology no matter what people think about us." Unless that technology goes against peoples religious beliefs... Stem Cell research is the leading medical technology but we are behind other country's because we let religion dictate our advancements in the field. Too bad we elected people that would rather prevent making the rich pay the same tax rate as a normal American and cut the 0.005% that was dedicated to the Space program and must resort to Russia to send us into space now...
jt4ya, do you really believe that BS you just spouted?
Stem cell research is a hot-button issue because it involves using the stem cells of aborted fetuses. Some people think it is wrong to abort a fetus, and it's not just religous types. Nobody has a problem with stem cell research they have a problem with where those stem cells come from. What you or I personally think about stem cell research doesn't matter. But if you don't understand the argument of the people who oppose it and just attribute it all to religion then you'll never change anything.
As for the taxes, do you even understand the difference between income taxes and taxes on capital gains? Or do you just listen to what people tell you about it and decide that rich people aren't paying any taxes? Capital gains are earned with income that was already taxed. The low rate of taxation on capital gains helps everyone, including the middle class. Try selling a house if the capital gains taxes are raised and then tell me how happy you are when Uncle Sam comes knocking.
Finally, we didn't cut the space program, we cut the shuttle program and then scrapped the program following to go back to using expendable launch vehicles. We are TEMPORARILY hitching a ride with the Russians until privately developed launch vehicles are ready to go. This decision was the best NASA has ever made. Private companies have always engineered and built our launch vehicles, but now they'll be able to do it without all the red-tape BS that comes with working on a government contract. The shuttle program never even came close to realizing its orginal goals for number of launches or the cost per launch. NASA said that eventually there would be fifty launches a year and the cost to LEO would be $115 per pound. It never got below about $10,000 per pound, and there were an average of six launches per year. NASA knows how to live in space, but it's time we let someone else take us there.
careful about china...they may just become the first to have a resort up there
Billions of of dollars spent and they didn't even install a damn color camera??? This is like the moon landing, they want people to doubt we actually did it. WTF really... pictures that look like they are 60 years old.
The color cam is going up right now. They even have a color correcting disk to ensure accuracy. The BW pics are a LOT smaller when it comes to bandwidth utilization. It looks like they have pretty good Internet on Mars though not a bad connection.
They have color cameras soon to be turned on or data is already being downloaded ... did I miss on this one?
Relax everyone.......we will get the low resolution color pictures as soon as they are sanitized for your protection
People, remember this is science, not a video game. In science you do things methodically and one step at a time. Color images require four times the amount of data as a B/W one, and until they get the high gain antenna checked-out and deployed properly they're limited in the amount of data that can be relayed through the current set of Mars satellites since they're only overhead a few times a day.
Some people cannot read and/or think.
Thanks for clearing things up, Jimbo. The anticipation is almost unbearable!
I learn something new with each article. Keep the news and pics coming!
Wouldn't it be awesome if we could take all the money being wasted on politics, and the current ugly election cycle and spend it on exploration and discovery?
Here, here!!!
The black and white image showing the desert plain and low mountain range is eerie. Mars!
Nice pictures, so when are we going to nuke this planet? Just kidding.
Only NASA would call their HD cameras high resolution. My phone takes better pictures than this junk.
GRRRR. Monkey no like more2bits-4021678 for calling NASA rover junk. GRRR.
The low number of comments in these articles as compared to pop culture related ones saddens me -- almost as much as the ignorance displayed by more2bits and his ilk.
Instant gratification please! Never mind the distances involved and the difficulty transmitting data over that distance.
The high-gain antenna has still not been deployed and calibrated yet. In the mean time their dependent upon periodic uploads via satellites which are only overhead a few times a day, which in turn limits the amount of data that can be returned. HD and color require between 4 to 10 times the amount of data as low res and B/W. This generation of instant gratification needs to learn patience!
@more2bits
please post a link to the photos your cellphone took of the Mars surface, so we can decide which pictures are clearer
More2bits, they have to get the HD film developed first.
These are just the Polaroid Instamatic shots.
more2bits,
I'm more than willing to donate a few bucks so that YOU can strap a rocket to your A$$ and demonstrate your awesome phone techniques............ BTW- the SPF 1,000,000 sunblock isn't included.
I agree with monkey. Grrrrrrr I so want to bite you.
Also I LOVE the landscape view of the Martian plain with the mountain range in the background. Can't wait to see it in color..........just amazing and breathtaking.
Our NASA scientists are way better than Hollywood or rockstars...........GO NASA!!!
I just love the people whining about the poor picture quality. Obviously they are too ignorant to know that they are not trying to use all of the nice cameras right now, they are in the process of testing the rover to make sure all of the hardware is working. They don't want to run the risk of breaking any of the instruments.
The guy that thinks his cellphone camera is better never had any experience with space projects. His cellphone would probably explode soon after leaving Earth from out-gassing any small bubbles in the phones materials -- or die quickly from radiation and/or gamma rays -- and never have a chance to take one picture.
Stop acting pedantic and sophomoric as if the engineers in NASA are stupid. 99.99-percent of people here could never get work there even managing the parking lot.
The processor needed on this mission is more than enough for the tasks planned. It's not up there to run global airline reservation software or run election-predication software. Anything beyond what they provided would be needless-complexity and an invitation for problems.
NASA: Your smartphone is as smart as the Curiosity rover.
While the Mars Curiosity rover is the most complex machine NASA has ever sent to another planet, the computer that runs it is no more powerful than the one in your smartphone.
Here take a look:
wire/show/3391035
Whats up with the conspiracy theory Jab? Subliminal Psyop...
As an "old" fella that is quite young at heart - 69, I marvel at these accomplishments; the space station; the Hubble; landing on the moon; the small rovers; the orbiters; the "seven minutes of terror"; and now Curiosity has outdone them all. What a terrific country we live in. Multi-national to boot (regardless of your feelings towards immigration). I believe Ernie has my sentiments exactly. I'm proud to be an American and very proud of NASA and their accomplishments. Finally, I enjoy reading many of the positive comments and less of the negative...but guess thats why we live here, for the freedom to speak our mind. Thank you all for this incredible life's journey.
Bob
Naw, I'm into easy...
I missed the rad report....not even a comparison to the level 100 years ago??? wtf?...news, not fluff...what was the rad report levels???
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2330.html
I did find it on image twelve....for the 7th...
There was a "rad report" for Mars that was taken 100 years ago?? There was a "rad report" for much of anything 100 years ago??
Spectacular stuff. The "easiest" world to reach and a huge accomplishment. But isn't going there to colonize and live a genuine one way ticket? Maybe the coolest retirement community ever?
..............and God was pleased.
There is nothing quite like the sound of silence and the lack of color to show the world how much we paid for this mission...
It's a science mission, not the next season of a reality tv show.
Color pics are coming. And what sounds whould you expect to hear?
He expects to hear crickets and birds and automobiles and the whirring of the rover's servos.
"And what sounds would you expect to hear?"
Ummmm.......Probably just the sound of the wind whistling between his ears;)
The Curiosity landing was an historic achievement. But, I hope people don't get the impression that the Mojave Desert looks like those images. It is a beautiful place, filled with fantastic plant life; nothing like that barren surface shown in the recently received images from Mars. I lived in the Mojave Desert back in the late 60s, and drove three days across it on the Mojave Trail earlier this year. That was an incredible off-highway experience. You may view a video here of that trip (includes other areas I traveled, too) ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9UCabyrYfI
Perhaps those JPL scientists need to get out of the office more. :-)
Latest Photo From Mars Rover Curiosity Solves One Of The Mysteries Of The Universe http://wp.me/p1VsTV-2ov
Ok I took the bait:) That was pretty good actually:)
Not to take away from these great images but NASA previously said that true color photos were supposed be coming. I know they have a schedule to test each system as the next month rolls along so it might take some time.
Just wondering.
NASA are clueless when it comes to PR and marketing. They have a rover on Mars, yet job #1 is apparently NOT to send home high def images of Mars to quickly show the general public that the landing is a success. Instead, they're messing around with black and white navigation cameras that show everyone that Curiosity is (so far) no better than the Viking landers we put on Mars 36 years ago. Meanwhile, the high def cameras could go wrong and we might never see the best images that the rover could supply.
Honestly, get a clue, NASA! Yes, your experiments are important, but they'll be useless if the general public - you know, the folks who fund these missions - can't SEE some evidence quickly to show that they're getting more than they've got before.
No Ian - it appears you are clueless. Right now they are gradually checking out the rover bit by bit, making sure everything looks OK. Do you really think they land, and boom pop up the mast and they go?
It takes days to check things out. Especially when a command takes 13 minutes to get there and then 13 minutes for the status to return. Unreal...
speaking of your PR, how would it look if NASA rushed to get a good pic immedately and broke something in the process? then people would really go nuts over the money 'going to waste' (which is rediculous in either case b/c we learn something from both scenarios, but you get the picture). Better to take your time than have the public (and therefore the politicians) pulling more funding
It does look remarkably similar to Phoenix. Mars is, of course, a far more hospitable place to live. The climate is better too.
Well, we haven't detected any aliens yet...and they wouldn't be illegal on Mars. More hospitable? Surely you jest. Picture Antarctica with <1% of Earth's atmosphere, constantly bathed in solar and cosmic radiation, with 953,200 ppm CO2 in its atmosphere (compared to 395 ppm on Earth).
Now that was funny! :-D
Wait till it goes over the next hill and the see this sign "Welcome to Kansas".
haa!
i was hoping nobody would say that ...
2.5 billion well spent ...dead on a rock next to sign.