Curiosity Rover Pictures

[dualmeister]

One of the latest images captured this

James Cameron's film crew > NASA

 

[Fudzy]

The nuclear power packs used to operate Curiosity and space missions before it aren’t actually reactors. Meaning they don’t split atoms. The rover Curiosity is equipped with the Energy Department’s Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG). The system, which is designed to allow the rover to run where the sunlight is too inadequate that solar panel is impractical, uses heat produced by the natural decay of plutonium-238 to generate 110 watts of electricity. The plutonium 238 is a manufactured isotope that has a radioactive decay that is so fast it glows red hot. The plutonium is toxic. However, the material cannot be used in a bomb.

The electricity that’s produced will be used to provide continuous power to the rover and maintain operating temperatures for its 11 scientific instruments, the Energy Department said. Curiosity will investigate whether the Gale Crater on Mars has ever offered environmental conditions that support the development of microbial life. Curiosity is expected to land on Mars in August 2012 and carry out its mission over 23 months, the DOE said.

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/int...ver-curiosity-powered-by-nuclear-energy/10801

Still need to find out now how they convert heat into electricity.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

I'm intrigued, all previous nuclear power sources I've known of require water to convert into steam to turn turbines in a generator.

Thou asked, and Ook, the Librarian, Googled it for thee.

And Ook findeth that :

http://enformable.com/2011/11/nasa-...-powered-assistance-in-space-since-the-1960s/

A few days before the rover’s scheduled launch on November 25, NASA scientists will install the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. The generator is equipped with thermocouples that convert the heat generated from the natural decay of the plutonium dioxide into electricity.

So there you have it

 

[Sinbad]

Thermocouples perhaps?

 

[The_Unbeliever]

And more reading re radioisotope nuclear reactors :

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf82.html

 

[Fudzy]

Interesting, I still don't understand how heat = electricity, need a Dummies guide to Thermoelectrics

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Interesting, I still don't understand how heat = electricity, need a Dummies guide to Thermoelectrics

Power production
Main article: Thermoelectric generator

A thermocouple can produce current to drive some processes directly, without the need for extra circuitry and power sources. For example, the power from a thermocouple can activate a valve when a temperature difference arises. The electrical energy generated by a thermocouple is converted from the heat which must be supplied to the hot side to maintain the electric potential. A continuous transfer of heat is necessary because the current flowing through the thermocouple tends to cause the hot side to cool down and the cold side to heat up (the Peltier effect).

Thermocouples can be connected in series to form a thermopile, where all the hot junctions are exposed to a higher temperature and all the cold junctions to a lower temperature. The output is the sum of the voltages across the individual junctions, giving larger voltage and power output. [highlight]In a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, the radioactive decay of transuranic elements as a heat source has been used to power spacecraft on missions too far from the Sun to use solar power.[/highlight]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermocouple

 

[Crusader]

Sorry for the incorrect terminology on my part, it was based on a live stream which seems to oversimplified things.

Here's some info from the fact sheets:

RTGs (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) work by converting heat from the natural decay of radioisotope materials into electricity. RTGs consists of two major elements: a heat source that contains plutonium-238 dioxide and a set of solid-state thermocouples that convert the plutonium's heat energy to electricity.

An electric voltage is produced when two dissimilar, electrically conductive materials are joined in a closed circuit and the two junctions are kept at different temperatures. Such pairs of junctions are called thermocouples. The power output is a function fo the temperature of each junction and the properties of the thermoelectric materials. The thermocouples in RTGs use heat from the natural radioactive decay of plutonium-238 to heat the hot junction and the cold from outer space (or Mars low temp) to produce the low temperature at the cold junction of the thermocouple.

The MMRTG (Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) contains a total of 4.8kg of plutonium dioxide that initially provides approximately 2,000 watts of thermal power and 120 watts of electrical power.

Seems the MMRTG can produce 2,700 watt hours per sol.

 

[Arthur]

These first images are very basic - the cams still have transparent lens-caps on to protect against dust from the landing. In the next 24 hours or so the lens caps are removed. Later, better cams are deployed.

 

[Crusader]

The ChemCam is the coolest sounding tool:

The investigation using a rock-zapping laser and a telescope mounted atop Curiosity’s mast is the Chemistry and Camera suite, or ChemCam. It also includes spectrometers
and electronics down inside the rover. The laser can hit rock or soil targets up to about 23 feet (7 meters) away with enough energy to excite a pinhead-size spot into a glowing, ionized gas, called plasma. The instrument observes that spark with the telescope and analyzes the spectrum of light to identify the chemical elements in the target.

The spot hit by ChemCam’s infrared laser gets more than a million watts of power focused on it for five one-billionths of a second. Light from the resulting flash
comes back to ChemCam through the telescope, then through about 20 feet (6 meters) of optical fiber down the mast to three spectrometers inside the rover. The spectrometers record intensity at 6,144 different wavelengths of ultraviolet, visible and infrared light (wavelengths from 240 to 850 nanometers). Different chemical elements in the target, in their ionized state, emit light at different wavelengths. Dozens of laser pulses on the same spot will be used to achieve the desired accuracy in identifying elements. Among the many elements that the instrument can identify in rocks and soils are sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, calcium, potassium, titanium, manganese, iron, hydrogen, oxygen, beryllium, lithium, strontium, nitrogen and phosphorus.

And guess what computer hardware the rover is running:

Redundant pair, 200 megahertz, 250 MB of RAM, 2GB of flash memory

I forgot about this, but in 2009 before the rover was even named JPL had a 'send your name to Mars' form where you could enter your name. I found my certificate of participation, so my name is on Mars...

‘Send Your Name to Mars’ Chips
Silicon chips mounted onto Curiosity’s deck bear the names of people who participated in the “Send Your Name to Mars” program online. Each chip is about the size of a dime. More than 1.24 million names were submitted online. These names have been etched into silicon using an electron-beam machine used for fabricating microdevices at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In addition, more than 20,000 visitors to JPL and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center wrote their names on pages that have been scanned and reproduced at microscopic scale on another chip.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

These first images are very basic - the cams still have transparent lens-caps on to protect against dust from the landing. In the next 24 hours or so the lens caps are removed. Later, better cams are deployed.

Here's an image without the dust cap:

 

[Arthur]

Cool! These are still at half-res for the cam. NASA are rightly taking things very, very carefully - you don't rush things on a billion dollar piece of machinery 15 light minutes away.

This is immensely exciting - even more than Spirit and Opportunity. This takes me all the way back to Viking in '76.

Abso-blerry-lutely amaaazing. I don't think most people grasp what an immense achievement this is.

What's happened to Steve Squyres, the previous rover mission boss? I had a great visit to JPL in 2010. Son was at college near Ojai, good friends in Pasadena.

 

[Arthur]

Is see Curiosity's Twitter feed is down ... wassup?

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Cool! These are still at half-res for the cam. NASA are rightly taking things very, very carefully - you don't rush things on a billion dollar piece of machinery 15 light minutes away.

This is immensely exciting - even more than Spirit and Opportunity. This takes me all the way back to Viking in '76.

Abso-blerry-lutely amaaazing. I don't think most people grasp what an immense achievement this is.

What's happened to Steve Squyres, the previous rover mission boss?

It fscking miraculous, I can't even land a beach ball in my neigbours yard nevermind a 1 tonne vehicle on another planet!

 

[Arthur]

It fscking miraculous, I can't even land a beach ball in my neigbours yard nevermind a 1 tonne vehicle on another planet!

Yeah.

And no more quips about stoopid Amurrikins from the usual suspects. This is an amazing people. Doff hat.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Yeah.

And no more quips about stoopid Amurrikins from the usual suspects. This is an amazing people. Doff hat.

There are plenty of stupid Americans, just not these guys

 

[Crusader]

Cool! These are still at half-res for the cam. NASA are rightly taking things very, very carefully - you don't rush things on a billion dollar piece of machinery 15 light minutes away.

This is immensely exciting - even more than Spirit and Opportunity. This takes me all the way back to Viking in '76.

Abso-blerry-lutely amaaazing. I don't think most people grasp what an immense achievement this is.

What's happened to Steve Squyres, the previous rover mission boss? I had a great visit to JPL in 2010. Son was at college near Ojai, good friends in Pasadena.

It's definitely an amazing achievement. They improved on absolutely everything from the rover days. With MSL the landing precision (landing ellipse) went from 80kms to 20km. That's fracking awesome. What bugs me is that the first thing people complain about it the 'poor quality images' and they completely forget that it's not even the main equipment taking shots. Appreciate the amazing accomplishment for a moment people. It's not Youtube or Instagram with instant gratification.

 

[Beachless]

Can we see it on google Mars street view yet?

 

[biometrics]

Can we see it on google Mars street view yet?

Not yet, but there is Google Mars: http://www.google.com/mars/

 

[Geriatrix]

There are plenty of stupid Americans, just not these guys

Here's one. Bobak Ferdowsi, flight director of NASA's Curiosity rover