Curiosity's Footprint

I posted here that Curiosity's wheels leave a Morse Code "footprint" of J.P.L. as they roll across the Martian surface. This dashes and dots help with odometry and visually checking for wheel slippage. Here is a new photo of the J.P.L. imprint in the rover's tracks and a little tribute to the code in Bobak's hair...

Flight director, Bobak "Mohawk Guy" Ferdowsi, pays tribute to the rover's "footprint" by spelling out JPL in Morse code on his hairdo.

Martian Soil on Curiosity's Wheels

Soil clinging to the right middle and rear wheels of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity can be seen in this image taken by the Curiosity's Navigation Camera after the rover's third drive on Mars. The drive of about 52 feet (16 meters) during the 22nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Aug. 28, 2012), covered more ground than the two previous drives combined.

Photo and Text from JPL

Curiosity Leaves Its First Tracks on Mars

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has begun driving from its landing site, which scientists have named for the late author Ray Bradbury.

Making its first movement on the Martian surface, Curiosity's drive combined forward, turn and reverse segments. This placed the rover roughly 20 feet (6 meters) from the spot where it landed 16 days ago.

Team members celebrate in the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Curiosity Surface Mission Support Area (SMSA) when images are received confirming the rover's first drive on Mars on Aug. 22, 2012. 

So, Curiosity has left its first tracks on Mars.

Only someone who has experimented with robotics can understand why a bunch of grown men would be so excited about some tracks... Although, they are tracks on another planet - made by a robot that traveled through space for almost nine months, survived a very complex landing and has worked flawlessly so far.

As you can tell, I am excited too...

New Favicon!

You might have noticed my new favicon at your browser tab. A larger copy is shown here. I designed the RUS logo for my blog Robotics Under the Stole. It is also a little tip of the hat to R.U.R.

R.U.R. is a 1920 science fiction play in the Czech language by Karel Čapek. R.U.R. stands for Rossum's Universal Robots, an English phrase used as the subtitle in the Czech original. The play premiered in 1921 and introduced the word "robot" to the English language and to science fiction as a whole.

Just so you'll know...

First Laser-Zapped Rock on Mars

This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The composite incorporates a Navigation Camera image taken prior to the test, with insets taken by the camera in ChemCam. The circular insert highlights the rock before the laser test. The square inset is further magnified and processed to show the difference between images taken before and after the laser interrogation of the rock.

The test took place on Aug. 19, 2012. In the composite, the fist-sized rock, called "Coronation," is highlighted. Coronation is the first rock on any extraterrestrial planet to be investigated with such a laser test.

ChemCam hit Coronation with 30 pulses of its laser during a 10-second period. Each pulse delivered more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second. The energy from the laser excited atoms in the rock into an ionized, glowing plasma. ChemCam also caught the light from that spark with a telescope and analyzed it with three spectrometers for information about what elements are in the target.

Text and Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP

Curiosity's Secret Message...

If you look carefully at Curiosity’s wheels, you might notice that along with treads, there are square and rectangular holes. According to JPL Rover Mechanical Engineering Team Manager Richard Rainen, these holes are actually odometer markers. Rainen said,“There are asymmetric patterns, actually holes, inside the wheels of the rover that will leave an imprint on the surface of Mars. We’re going to be looking at these imprints and verifying that it has traversed the distance it expects to traverse. If it looks like it’s not traversing, even though the wheels are going, that is an indication that the vehicle is getting stuck and it will stop and call back home.”

But back in 2007, when the Curiosity team at JPL was putting together the rover, its wheel cleats had a raised pattern with the letters “JPL,” leaving a little stamp of the rover’s birthplace everywhere it rolled. But the finished Curiosity rover wound up with a different pattern with holes and  the engineers got to make the markers in any shape they wanted. So what pattern did JPL choose to put on Curiosity’s wheels? The holes are in a pattern of short squares and longer rectangles - almost like dots and dashes. Morse code… And what does it spell out in Morse code? JPL!

J . - - - 
P . - - . 
L . - . .

The wheels of Curiosity will soon begin to leave there secret message on the surface of Mars. Software is being uploaded now that will allow the rover to begin moving about Gale Crater.

Source - http://www.arrl.org/news

Curiosity's Self Portrait

NASA's Curiosity rover took this self portrait of itself by using its Navigation cameras, located on the now-upright mast. The camera snapped pictures 360-degrees around the rover, while pointing down at the rover deck, up and straight ahead.