Curiosity is getting ready to make a grand entrance!
The largest rover ever sent to another planet, will
touch down in the middle of the night, after a spectacular
entry into the Martian atmosphere and descent to the surface.
And liftoff of the Atlas V with Curiosity.
Curiosity rover made a picture-perfect launch in
November 2011. And Now, after more than 8 months and
350 million miles, it’s time to get down to business.
But first Curiosity must get down to that surface safely.
When she arrives at Mars, Curiosity has seven minutes to
go from 13,000 miles an hour to a soft landing. These so
called “seven minutes of terror” encompass a sequence of
steps that we cannot control or even witness in real time
because signals take fourteen minutes to reach Earth from Mars.
Curiosity’s heat shield burning at a temperature of nearly
3000 degrees Fahrenheit will protect the rover as it slows
down rapidly. On the way down, the spacecraft fires
thrusters to stay on target for Gail Crater.
Then, at 1000 miles per hour, the chute opens, slowing the
spacecraft below the speed of sound. Next, the heat shield
is jettisoned, and Curiosity begins looking for the surface
with landing radars that lets onboard computers
know how far it is above the ground.
About five minutes into entry, the spacecraft is moving
about 200 miles per hour and is about a mile up, the
Descent Stage with curiosity fastened underneath, tucked
drops from the parachute, fires up its landing engines
and slows the system to a near stop.
Curiosity first gets to stretch her legs at approximately
2 miles per hour, about 60 feet above the ground. With
wheels deployed, Curiosity is lowered on a Skycrane to
the surface. After touch down, the Sky Crane’s work is
done and it cuts loose to fly a safe distance
away from our newest rover on Mars.
In a few days as Curiosity stands up her mast, she will
give us our first close up of Gale Crater—an impact crater
96 miles wide with a 3-mile high mountain at its center.
The crater’s rock layers were laid down and then eroded
away, showing us a cross-section of Mars’ history. Liquid
water was necessary to form the geology we’ve seen from
orbit…and that makes Gale Crater a great place to look for
evidence of places that could have once harbored life.
During her two Earth year primary mission, Curiosity will
tell us about Mars’ geology, weather and current radiation
levels, which are key to sending humans there someday.
The rover’s laser will examine rocks and will help find
places to take samples for the onboard chemistry lab that
can identify minerals and organic materials—the building blocks of life.
This nuclear-powered, one-ton rover will take us ever closer
to examining deep layers of history, and perhaps closer to an
answer to the ancient question: was there ever life on Mars?