4. MARS
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the
Second smallest planet in the Solar System.
it is often described as the "Red Planet" because
the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it
a reddish appearance. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a
thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent both of
the impact craters of the Moon and the volcanoes, valleys,
deserts, and polar ice caps ofEarth. The rotational period and
seasonal cycles of Mars are likewise similar to those of Earth,
as is the tilt that produces the seasons. Mars is the site
of Olympus Mons, the second highest known mountain within
the Solar System (the tallest on a planet), and of Valles
Marineris, one of the largest canyons. The smooth Borealis
basin in the northern hemisphere covers 40% of the planet
and may be a giant impact feature. Mars has two
known moons, Phobos and Deimos
5. Until the first successful Mars flyby in 1965 by Mariner 4,
many speculated about the presence of liquid water on the
planet's surface. This was based on observed periodic
variations in light and dark patches, particularly in the
polar latitudes, which appeared to be seas and continents;
long, dark striations were interpreted by some as irrigation
channels for liquid water. These straight line features were
later explained as optical illusions, though geological
evidence gathered by unmanned missions suggest that
Mars once had large-scale water coverage on its surface.
In 2005, radar data revealed the presence of large
quantities of water ice at the poles and at mid-latitudes.
The Mars rover Spirit sampled chemical compounds
containing water molecules in March 2007.
The Phoenix lander directly sampled water ice in shallow
Martian soil on July 31, 2008.
6.
7. Curiosity is a car-sized robotic rover exploring Gale
Crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science
Laboratory mission (MSL).
Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on
November 26, 2011, at 10:02 EST aboard the MSL
spacecraft and successfully landed on Aeolis
Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012,
05:17 UTC. The Bradbury Landing site was
less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the center of the
rover's touchdown target after a 563,000,000 km
(350,000,000 mi) journey.
CURIOSITY (ROVER)
8.
9. The rover's goals include: investigation of the
Martian climate and geology; assessment of whether the
selected field site inside Gale Crater has ever offered
environmental conditions favorable for microbial life,
including investigation of the role of water; and planetary
habitability studies in preparation for future human
exploration. Curiosity's design will serve as the basis for a
planned unnamed 2020 Mars rover mission. In December
2012, Curiosity's two-year mission was extended
indefinitely. In April and early May 2013, Curiosity went
into an autonomous operation mode for approximately 25
days during Earth-Mars solar conjunction. During this time,
the rover continued to monitor atmospheric and radiation
data, but did not move on the Martian surface.
10. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
As established by the Mars Exploration Program, the main scientific goals of the MSL mission
are to help determine whether Mars could ever have supported life, as well as determining
the role of water, and to study the climate and geology of Mars. The mission will
also help prepare for human exploration. To contribute to these goals, MSL has eight main
scientific objectives:
Biological
(1) Determine the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds
(2) Investigate the chemical building blocks of life (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and
sulfur)
(3) Identify features that may represent the effects of biological processes (biosignatures)
Geological and geochemical
(4) Investigate the chemical, isotopic, and mineralogical composition of the Martian surface and near-
surface geological materials
(5) Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils
Planetary process
(6) Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) Martian atmospheric evolution processes
(7) Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide
Surface radiation
(8) Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic
radiation, cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons
11. As part of its exploration, it also measured the radiation exposure in the interior of the
spacecraft as it traveled to Mars, and it is continuing radiation measurements as it
explores the surface of Mars. This data would be important for a future manned
mission.
12.
13. COMPARISONS
Curiosity has an advanced payload of scientific
equipment on Mars.[45] It is the fourth NASA
unmanned surface rover sent to Mars since 1996.
Previous successful Mars rovers are
the Sojourner rover from the Mars
Pathfinder mission (1997), the Spirit rover (2004-
2010) and the Opportunity rover (2004–present).
Curiosity is 2.9 m (9.5 ft) long by 2.7 m (8.9 ft) wide by 2.2 m
(7.2 ft) in height, larger than Mars Exploration Rovers,
which are 1.5 m (4.9 ft) long and have a mass of 174 kg
(380 lb) including 6.8 kg (15 lb) of scientific
instruments. In comparison to Pancam on
the Mars Exploration Rover (MER)s, the MastCam-34 has
1.25× higher spatial resolution and the MastCam-100 has
3.67× higher spatial resolution.
14. The leader of Beagle 2 reacted emotionally to the
large number of technicians
monitoring Curiosity's descent because the Beagle
2 had only had four people monitoring
it. The Curiosity mission cost over 25
times Beagle 2, which was praised, albeit only by
its builders, for its low cost, but it has been
missing since released by Mars Express for
landing. The region the rover is set to explore has been
compared to the Four Corners region of the North
American west. Gale Crater has an area similar
to Connecticut and Rhode Island combined.
15. Two Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers stand with three vehicles,
providing a size comparison of three generations of Mars rovers.
Front and center is the flight spare for the first Mars rover,
Sojourner, which landed on Mars in 1997 as part of the Mars Pathfinder Project.
On the left is a 'Mars Exploration Rover' (MER) test rover that is a working sibling to Spirit and Opportunity,
which landed on Mars in 2004.
On the right is a Mars Science Laboratory test rover,
which landed on Mars in 2012.
Sojourner is 65 cm (2.13 ft) long.
The Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) are 1.6 m (5.2 ft) long.
The Curiosity rover on the right is 3 m (9.8 ft)) long.
16. SUPERSONIC PARACHUTE
Supersonic parachutes have been used as aerodynamic decelerators during entry and decent
into low-density atmospheres, e.g., for Mars space exploration missions. Owing to their low
mass and high packaging efficiency, they provide a highly efficient means of deceleration from
supersonic to subsonic speeds. The behavior of these parachutes, at supersonic speeds,
encompasses complex interdependent phenomena in fluid structure interaction (FSI) research.
It involves bluff and porous body aerodynamics, nonlinear structural dynamics and fully
coupled interaction between the compressible fluid flow, with shocks, and the membrane
structure undergoing large deformations. As observed in some flight regimes, the inflated
parachute undergoes rapid oscillatory deformations which greatly affects the parachutes'
structural integrity and drag characteristics. This results from inevitable tight coupling
between the parachute structure and the surrounding flow. The complex dynamics observed is
related to the oscillatory axial movement of the bow shock upstream of the parachute canopy
due to over/under pressurization, the disparity between the tensile and compressive
stiffnesses of the suspension lines connecting the parachute with the capsule (entry
vehicle), inflation instabilities due to the imbalance of fluid forces with structural forces,
which are aggravated by the very low inertia of the parachute, and contact forces due to the folding of the
canopy. The performance of the parachute is a function of Mach number, shape and size of the capsule, distance
between the capsule and the parachute, the shape and size of the canopy, the material properties of the canopy
and the cables, and the angle of attack of the capsule. These complex systems have been studied experimentally,
mostly in the 60s, sponsored by the US Air Force, and later by NASA during the qualification of the Viking
mission to Mars. The modified cross, disk-gap-band and modified ring-sail parachutes are a legacy of this era.
17.
18.
19. LANDING
Curiosity landed in "Yellowknife" Quad 51 of Aeolis
Palus in Gale Crater. The landing site
coordinates are: 4.5895°S 137.4417°E. The location has
been named Bradbury Landing in honor of science fiction
author Ray Bradbury. Gale crater, an estimated 3.5 to 3.8
billion-year-old impact crater, is hypothesized to have first
been gradually filled in by sediments; first water-deposited, and
then wind-deposited, possibly until it was completely covered.
Wind erosion then scoured out the sediments, leaving an isolated 5.5 km
(3.4 mi) high mountain, Aeolis Mons ("Mount Sharp"),
at the center of the 154 km (96 mi) wide crater. Thus, it is
believed that the rover may have the opportunity to study two
billion years of Martian history in the sediments exposed in the
mountain. Additionally, its landing site is near an alluvial fan, which is
hypothesized to be the result of a flow of ground water, either before the
deposition of the eroded sediments or else in relatively recent geologic
history.
20. Curiosity and surrounding area as viewed by HiRISE (MRO).
North is left. (August 14, 2012) (Enhanced colors)
21. CURIOSITY FOR MARS,
YAMAHA FOR LA
Rocket science and sports bikes! Shera Bengali
Anita Sengupta was at home on both topics at a
Programme in Kolkata on 16th august 2013.
The engineer at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory spoke about the supersonic parachute
As big as the Science City auditorium, Kolkata –
The venue of her talk – that she had designed to
put Curiosity on Mars.
Later, the daughter of a Bengali father and a
British mother explained why she prefers a 600cc
Yamaha to a car in LA traffic.
“Motorcycles are more fuel-efficient, cost less and
We get through Los Angeles traffic faster because we
can ride between cars just like in India. The traffic in not
As bad in Los Angeles as it is here but it’s the same principle,”
she said.
22. Before she walked on stage to deliver her lecture – Curiosity’s Entry Descent and Landing on
Mars –
Acting US consul-general and the director of American Center, Jeffrey Reneau, introduced her
as “who loves fast motorcycles and travelling. She Rides a 600cc Yamaha through the busy streets of
Los Angeles”. The packed auditorium applauded,while about 1,000 people watching the
show on a
screen outside went into raptures.
“The Mars atmosphere is so thin that you have to
have a big parachute. The parachute will probably occupy this room. So imagine a parachute the size
of
this with the rover the size of a car landing on Mars,”
she said.
The talk was organised by the Center of Excellence
in Space Sciences India (CESSI)-IISER Calcutta in
association with American Center, Pashchim Banga Vigyan Mancha and Science
City.
23. Sengupta was a member of the team responsible
for slowing down the spacecraft so Martian surface
on August 6, 2012. “The rover was coming at
13,000 miles per hour… a traditional airplane flies
at 500 miles per hour. (The rover’s speed had to be
reduced) From 13,000 miles per hour to 2 miles per
hour in less than seven minutes.”
The principle of aerodynamic drag was used to
reduce the speed to 900mph, the supersonic
parachute reduced it to 250mph and retrorockets
cut it down to 2mph before the rover landed
perfectly on the red planet.
24. “Perhaps one day human beings would want to
colonise another world… Mars is a perfectly good
place we could colonise,” Sengupta said.
Since Mars’s gravity is one-third of our planet’s
gravitational pull and its atmospheric pressure
is just one percent of what we have on Earth, she
said the future colonisers would have to wear
pressure suits and carry their own air and water
supply.
“It’s feasible, something that will probably
happen in future.”
On why Curiosity was landed on Gale Crater that
holds an ancient water body, she explained with a
question: Would an alien race looking for life go to the middle
of the Sahara desert or try their luck in Calcutta? “You would
probably go to Calcutta.”
25. What about biking on Mars? “That won’t be
efficient use of oxygen… there are better ways of
getting around.”
