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Subscribe to RSSNASA's Curiosity rover has been on the Red Planet for a few days and already the conspiracy theories have begun, after a dark spot was captured in an image beamed back to Earth. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.
Updated 3 p.m. ET Aug. 10: When a Red Planet rover has 17 cameras at its disposal, it's sure to pick up some weird sights now and then — and such is the case with the "Puff on Mars" that was spotted just after NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Sunday night.
The puff was a mysterious smudge that popped up on images taken by Curiosity's front-facing hazard avoidance cameras. The smudge could be seen in the first round of pictures, but was missing in a later round that was taken 45 minutes later. Was the puff just dirt on the lens? A dust devil that happened to be passing through the field of view when the image was taken? Or was it debris thrown up by an interplanetary crash? The experts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory now say that last hypothesis is the best one.
Curiosity was delivered to its landing spot on Sunday by a rocket-powered descent stage that came to a near-standstill in midair, lowered the rover to the ground on a set of cables, clipped the cables and then blasted itself out of the area. The mission plan called for the stage to crash-land at a safe distance from the rover.
When scientists checked orbital imagery showing the landing site and its surroundings, they found the dark streaks left behind by the sky crane's crash about a half-mile northwest of the rover — in a direction that was consistent with the puff recorded by the cameras. Was the puff actually the cloud of debris thrown up into the air by the crash? "I don't think you can rule it out," mission manager Mike Watkins said Tuesday.
It may sound like an incredible coincidence that the rover's cameras happened to be pointing in just the right direction at the right time to record the splash from the crash, just 40 seconds after the rover's touchdown. But the puff almost certainly wasn't just a smudge of dirt on the lens cover, because it was picked up by two different cameras, left and right. And the circumstances surrounding the puff match up so well with the crash site that the dust-devil scenario seems much less likely.
Steve Sell, a member of the JPL team that monitored Curiosity's entry, descent and landing, confirmed that view on Friday. He noted that the puff did indeed occur at just the right place and time to match up with the sky crane's impact at 100 miles an hour (160 kilometers per hour). "We're fairly certain that that is the impact plume. ... We expected it to kick up a lot of dust," he told reporters.
The fact that the descent stage kicked up that dust right in front of the rover's cameras was "an amazing coincidence," Sell acknowledged.
Case closed? The puff may still have a whiff of mystery about it, but the best course is to move on and get Curiosity ready to catch the next weird sight. Once the rover's Mastcam system is up and running, it will be able to record high-definition color movies at 5 frames per second. The science team is hoping the cameras will track dust devils on the ground, clouds passing through the sky, and all sorts of other moving targets on Mars. So if there are any Martian smoke monsters out there, like the one on the "Lost" TV series, be on guard: Curiosity will be watching you.
More about Mars:
- Panorama reveals a colorful Mars
- NBC video: Panorama featured on 'Nightly News'
- Curiosity reveals a Martian Mojave
- 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
Heard any good Curiosity conspiracy theories? Keep us posted in a comment below.
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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It could have been a spice blow...
Just saying :-)
Alan, I have a question. How long are they expecting it to be mobile, and why that number?
Mitchell
2 Years is the planned mission duration, and that's simply due to the nuclear power plant in it. They hope it can last longer but they've planned for 2 years from now to be the ideal length. Anything more than that is just icing on the cake of a very successful mission.
The RTG will last several years, but at some point the it will no longer be able to move because it can't generate the require wattage. I was wondering when that point will be.
Mitchell
Spice blow or the dust from a GIANT SAND WORM ducking back into it's hole!
There was allegedly a remake of Dune in the works. Not sure what happened or if its still on.
The Spice Must Flow
Well, since the Opportunity rover was planned for 3 months but now is on 8 years, my bet is quite a bit longer than the advertised 2 years.
Your mileage may vary.
Spirit and Opportunity are different circumstances. They were expecting the dust to layer the solar panels far far quicker than what happen (much to their delight) which would need to the lack of power.
The RTG has a finite amount of fuel that was brought with it. Because of that, NASA should be able to calculate with a bit of precision how long it'll last and when movement won't be possible anymore, barring any mechanical breakdown.
Mitchell
Some of the folks I spoke to at JPL (like Steve Squyres and John Grotzinger) said the RTG system could last for decades ... They didn't seem to have a figure for the "battery life" of an RTG, though there must be one somewhere. Grotzinger told the Mars Society that he hopes Curiosity is still going when the first humans get to Mars, but he may have been playing to the crowd. The question may turn out to be how long the other parts last (e.g., wheels, actuators).
I didn't realize that an RTG could operate for over 100 years!
These RTG's are the same, or very similar to the units launched on the Voyager spacecraft the mid-70's. Of course, the power draw on the different types of spacecraft affect their lifetime. The Voyagers are very low power users.
Its another space craft coming to see why us humans landed on the planet.
@Seriously: Hehe, perhaps :) But the Mars Society would like to get a man there within...30-40 years I believe. They say it would just take about 50 billion and 20 years to get there if we start now. If anything, they are certainly an ambitious lot.
Mitchell
Curiosity is using a "standard" MMRTG. It will last for quite a while although its output will decrease over time. In a decade or so it will lose about 10% capacity. Rated at 125 watts of electrical power initially, NASA says after 14 years it will be putting out 100 watts. More than likely some other parts will fail before it runs out of usable power. The planned mission length was two years. Virtually all mechanical parts where designed and tested to about a four year lifespan. They are expected to last at least that long. It is reasonable to expect that at least some degree of usefulness will be possible for a couple decades or more.
I would like to know why the rush in trying to solve this incident? Researchers should take their time and not rush this.
Yeah, they should probably take a break or two and get some sun, those are some seriously pale scientists, particularly for working in sunny Pasadena, CA!
Spooky .... "LOL"
Thanks Alan ....
I think Mrs. Martian made Mr. Martian go up to the surface to smoke his cigar...
She just had the drapes cleaned too and didn't want them smelling like cigar...
"It may sound like an incredible coincidence that the rover's cameras happened to be pointing in just the right direction at the right time to record the splash from the crash."
I don't think it sounds like an incredible coincidence. The rover and skycrane were in the same orientation (since they were attached), and it seems reasonable to assume that the skycrane would take off in either a forward or backward direction (animations of EDL showed this). Looking at the landing site imagery, it looks like the skycrane flew straight forward after it released the rover (disturbed dust to the left and right of Curiosity give away its orientation, and the heat shield on one side shows the direction it flew in). While it's really cool that this might be a dust plume from the skycrane, it's no coincidence that it was lined up to take the shot.
It makes one wonder if there are any plans in the mission profile to at least do a cursory survey of the skycrane impact sight.
I`m sure there are a ton of people involved with that gadget that would love to look...
http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/07/13165838-martian-crime-scene-photo-shows-rover-and-its-trash
The operations team answered that. They will actually be intentionally avoiding the crash site. The fuel used by the skycrane is potentially dangerous to the rover, and they'd rather not take the risk.
I would also avoid the parachute / back shell site. Although it would provide cool photos, and potentially be very informative to see how the cables and straps and everything held up, it's probably a little too risky. It would kinda suck to go all that way to Mars, and by some wind-blown fluke, end up getting stuck in the parachute.
Meanwhile, the heat shield is always good to examine, but I don't think it's on the way.
Wow, the skycrane still had approx 300lb of fuel after it dropped off Curiosity?
That's nuts! Did they put in all of that extra fuel to allow the skycrane to choose an alternate landing site or needed for extra course corrections just in case there was some sort of other issue that needed to be addressed (Martian storm, bad/uneven disconnect from aero-shell causing a wobble, etc.)
300lbs is A LOT of extra fuel...even cutting that surplus in half could have easily provided another scientific instrument or other capability for Curiosity.
seriously,
When determining fuel load, they look at worst case scenarios, especially since they didn't know where the vehicle would be after the parachute portion of the reentry. It appears as though everything pretty much would have hit the optimal point (I think there was a comment that they were long on the parachute detachment which means that the vehicle would have been closer to the desired landing oval than initially predicted). That would explain the left over fuel.
Interesting!
Man oh man it would have been awesome if we could have seen the landing from a 3rd person perspective from start to finish. The MRO image and the choppy frames of the onboard cameras on the Curiosity mission were sweet, but I would have loved to have seen the Rube Goldberg performance from a much better vantage point.
Actually IIRC that is going to be released, but it is all still on the rover itself.
For what it's worth, today the EDL team said they were somewhat surprised by how much fuel was left over, and they're looking into that question.
I thought I heard a remark during the landing that the chute opening (or release) was long, which would mean that the probe would be closer to the landing oval than might have otherwise been planned. That would have made fuel consumption lower during that phase of the landing.
Now why they said it was long, that I don't know. It could have just been based on timing projections. Probably not on geographical positioning because that wasn't known until after the shield separated from the vehicle.
Remember folks it is a whole lot better to have to much fuel than not enough. I admit it would have been nice to have another instrument in board. HOWEVER it would have been a total loss if the skycrane ran out of fuel while lowering the rover and crashed down on top of it. In other words better safe than sorry when figuring out how much fuel any flying device will use up during a trip.
Meh, if they find life they wont tell us anyway. So fk em. Maybe they will bring a Mars rock back to Earth someday.
I hope this does not become another reality TV show.
Serious money went into this mission to conduct real science and should remain as such. No superstars in this business.
I have searched the JPL site as well as a general search on the net, but have failed to find an answer to my question.
As I've viewed the amazing images we are now getting, I couldn't help but think how cool it would be to be able to hear the world around the rover, hear it's environment. It would make the pictures that much more interesting in my opinion. I'm assuming that there is an atmosphere, and therefore, some type of air movement right?
Anyway, if anyone knows about this, please respond
Excellent question Bill, you`d think someone would`ve thought to put a mic on the thing...
There`s a video out there of one of the shuttles solid fuel stages from lift-off to splash down with sound, it`s an incredibly moving piece of film...
This was discussed in a thread from a previous article, I believe. But its mainly a question of weight and space - if you include a mike and the electronics to process the sounds, then you have to remove some other weight to and electronics to make room. Everything has to be accounted for in a probe/rover like this.
And its unlikely there would much sound anyways - you need air or some other medium to carry sound, and there just isn't very much atmosphere out there. If it came down to a choice of a mike to hear the wind blow vs one of the other science experiments, I think they made the right choice.
The Mars Polar Lander had a microphone but unfortunately that was one of those missions that 'cratered' - literally in this case.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/lidar/microphone/mic_found.html
While probably pretty cool I'm not sure what scientific value it would have and it may have been a choice of what to fit on the rover to get the most bang for the buck.
Right, the Planetary Society has been trying to send a working microphone to Mars, but so far no luck.
"Stars on Mars" comming Fall 2030
Dark spot on mars. Therefore: aliens.
Now for Scully or Mulder to confirm it.
Uh, a billion bucks and where are these dazzling pictures? My Iphone can take better than what they are showing.
Then go there and take them!
I guess actually doing research is against your nature 'Really'? The information is in several articles. The main camera is a 2 Megapixel camera which keeps the size of the pictures small enough to store and transmit back to earth. Now when Verizon sticks a 4G cell phone tower on Mars, I'm sure the engineers will be glad to put a better camera on board.
Seriously, "Really?", your i-phone takes better pictures. Did you ever think, uh, "You are on EARTH!!" and not on Mars, which is 250 million miles away. Have you seen the pictures that the Hubble telescope takes; pictures of solar systems billions of light years away and those pictures are absolutely amazing! But guess what, Hubble is only 366 miles away from Earth. It makes me wonder how many stupid people own smart phones and really think, because of that, they are smart. Good grief!
As far as I know, they're still using the low-gain antenna and (I think) bouncing off of MRO to get data back to Earth. It's pretty much a dial-up connection, which obviously isn't very conducive for large data transfers. Once they get the high-gain antenna unwrapped and fired up, the high-res color pictures will come.
If a penny was laying on the surface, the Mast Cam (so they say) will be able to photograph the "One Cent" that is stamped on it. The cameras are fine.
There's always something in the pictures from Mars that by NASA can't possibly be what it looks like. The face, the petrified trees, the pyramids, now the puff?
Puff the Magic Dragon.
Ok so I thought I would read that people are saying its aliens, or some creature.. Some conspiracy. Come on, we can think of a good one.
Seriously, I love the fact that we keep seeing strange images on Mars. The face, the statue, the building. Makes for cool stories.
Awww...come on, my spice blow was at least decent... hehehe
Mitchell
Oh it was. lol. I meant in the story. I thought for sure it would list the most popular conspiracies and cover-ups.
Ah, I see :-)
hehe
The Crane Lost it in Turn 3!
Oh sure, right. Move along, move along. Nothing to see here. Pay no attention to that alien behind the curtain. It's like aliens sending a probe to Earth - and landing in the middle of Antarctica.
Look at all the total emptiness! No trees, no civilization. Totally devoid of life!
My very educated guess is that it is an alien's sneeze when the rover got too close. I mean geez, isn't it obvious?
Its clearly a vent from the underground Martian civilization.
staaaaart the reaaaaaactooooooor!
Mars needs Air! Free Mars! Quato lives!
Quade... Quade.... You must start the reactor...
Classic. No Quato in the new remake I don't think.
it wasn't in the short story either. The remake is much closer to the story from what I have been told.
But that was my favorite character.. lol
Yes, I heard the same.
There, he lives again in my pic. :)
It's been a really long time, but I think the point of the story was that if you can have memories implanted into your mind, at what point does reality and fantasy become one and the same. Now as I said, it has been about 25 years since I read the short story. The first movie had very little to do with the story.
Now minority report was closer, but even there, the movie diverged about half way through. I never had high hopes for that movie though because of Tom Cruise. Nothing of his to me is more than a pap smear on celluloid.
The closest that I have seen to what Dick wrote was blade runner, though I haven't seen a couple of adaptations.
Blade Runner was neat, but a little too slow and plodding through much of it where dialogue and more back-story would have been great. I think that Ghost in the Shell did a far better job (although that was after-the-fact and Blade Runner was clearly a MAJOR influence). It seemed to have A LOT in common with 2001: A Space Odyssey in terms of spending most of its time appreciating the atmosphere of the story rather than develop the story.
Agreed about Tom Cruise, he does fluff pieces well (Mission Impossible#), but trying to shoehorn him into something that requires decent acting and necessitates that we bond with the main character to appreciate the narrative, results in the film falling flat on its face...case-in-point, Eyes Wide Shut, Vanilla Sky, War of the Worlds, etc.
Personally, I liked Total Recall (1990) because of Paul Verhoeven's involvement (also Robocop1), I don't know if I would have enjoyed it nearly as much were it not for his influence.
what, so are you accusing tom cruise of being a fluffer boy?
And I liked Total Recall, but it wasn't the story that Dick Wrote, and that was really my only point with that.
Martian cookout?
Another mystery:
A person was seen on board the Mars rover.
He's been identified as the CEO of NASA.
Supposedly it's an Undercover Boss episode gone wrong.
More at: http://wp.me/p1VsTV-2oK
That's Newt Gingrich trying to build a straw house, running away from the wolf alien.
Belay my last, the new information of that image was Romney and Obama discussing about Tax return and birth certificate.
Oh that rascal puff; he's (she's?) at it again.
The image actually reminded me of Godzilla beating his chest. Not sure if this means that I need meds or not.....
Have all of you lost your memories, that was caused by Uncle Martin.
Earth Is The True Planet Of War, Not Mars (Curiosity Rover)