Mars Rover Curiosity’s Cameras Captured Selfies, Broken Sidewalk, Small Ball, Pyramid, Bird Sculpture & Laser ShotsMon October 6, 2014
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft (launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on Nov. 26, 2011) set down on Mars a large, mobile laboratory — the rover Curiosity — at Gale Crater on the floor of Gale Crater on Aug. 6, 2012 Universal Time (evening of Aug. 5, Pacific Time).
- The rover studies the geology and environment of selected areas in the crater and analyzes samples drilled from rocks or scooped from the ground.
- Within the first eight months of a planned 23-month primary mission, Curiosity met its major objective of finding evidence of a past environment well suited to supporting microbial life.
- Images from the rover showed an area where “water once coursed vigorously over the surface.”
- The evidence for stream flow was in rounded pebbles (spheres up to a few centimeters) mixed with hardened sand in conglomerate rocks at and near the landing site.
- This indicates sustained abrasion of rock fragments within water flows that crossed Gale Crater.
- The touchdown site, Bradbury Landing, is near the foot of a layered mountain, Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons).
- Please note: a Martian day for rover Curiosity is one Sol (in the satellite of our sun).
Curiosity’s 17 cameras consist of both engineering and science cameras.
There are four types of engineering cameras.
Like the Mars Exploration Rovers, Curiosity has a stereo Navigation Camera on its mast and low-slung, stereo Hazard-Avoidance cameras. The wide view of the Navigation Camera is also used to aid targeting of other instruments and to survey the sky for clouds and dust.
- Front Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Front Hazcams)
- Rear Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Rear Hazcams)
- Left Navigation Camera (Navcams)
- Right Navigation Cameras (Navcams)
There are four types of science cameras.
Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)