ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated NASA scientists on Monday for landing a rover on Mars, promising to keep up key space investments and jokingly asking if they could keep him posted on any contact with Martians. In a phone call from Air Force One to the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Obama lauded their "incredible success" of ...
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Obama lauds NASA for Mars landing, pledges continued investment
In this frame provided by NASA of a stop motion video taken during the NASA rover Mars landing, the heat shield falls away during Curiosity's descent to the surface of Mars on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS / AP
In this frame provided by NASA of a stop motion video taken during...
This image taken by NASA's Curiosity shows what lies ahead for the rover -- its main science target, informally called Mount Sharp Monday, Aug. 6, 2012. The rover's shadow can be seen in the foreground, and the dark bands beyond are dunes. Rising up in the distance is the highest peak of Mount Sharp at a height of about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers), taller than Mt. Whitney in California. The Curiosity team hopes to drive the rover to the mountain to investigate its lower layers, which scientists think hold clues to past environmental change. This image was captured by the rover's front left Hazard-Avoidance camera at full resolution shortly after it landed. It has not yet been linearized to remove the distorted appearance that results from its fisheye lens. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech / AP
This image taken by NASA's Curiosity shows what lies ahead for the...
Jennifer Trosper, Mars Science Laboratory, MSL mission manager, JPL, adjusts the high-gain antenna on a rover model during a news briefing on the last data and imagery from Sol 1 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Monday, August 6, 2012. The rover's primary mission today will be raising its high-gain antenna, which will enable better communication with JPL scientists. Photo: Damian Dovarganes / AP
Jennifer Trosper, Mars Science Laboratory, MSL mission manager,...
This photo provided by NASA shows a full-resolution version of one of the first images taken by a rear Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the Sunday evening, Aug. 5, 2012. The image was originally taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens, but has been "linearized" so that the horizon looks flat rather than curved. A Hazard-avoidance camera on the rear-left side of Curiosity obtained this image. Part of the rim of Gale Crater, which is a feature the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, stretches from the top middle to the top right of the image. One of the rover's wheels can be seen at bottom right. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech / AP
This photo provided by NASA shows a full-resolution version of one...
In this image released by NASA/JPL-Caltech, a green diamond shows approximately where NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars, a region about 2 kilometers northeast of its target in the center of the estimated landing region (blue ellipse). The location of the diamond is based on Earth-based navigation data taken prior to Curiosity's entry into the Martian atmosphere, as well as data taken by the rover's navigation instruments during descent. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech / AP
In this image released by NASA/JPL-Caltech, a green diamond shows...
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NASAs Mars rover Curiosity is spending its first weekend on Mars getting a software update to give it pointers on how to drive on the red planet.
NASA officials said the update prepares the rover for some of the tasks it must perform going forward, including driving and using its strong robotic arm.
NASA said Curiosity's "brain transplant" began Aug. 10 and will be completed Aug. 13. The upgrade will install a new version of software on both of the rover's redundant main computers. This software for Mars surface operations was uploaded to the rover's memory during the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's flight from Earth, NASA said.
"We designed the mission from the start to be able to upgrade the software as needed for different phases of the mission," said Ben Cichy of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., chief software engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory mission, in a statement. "The flight software version Curiosity currently is using was really focused on landing the vehicle. It includes many capabilities we just don't need any more. It gives us basic capabilities for operating the rover on the surface, but we have planned all along to switch over after landing to a version of flight software that is really optimized for surface operations."
For instance, a key capability in the new software is image processing to check for obstacles. This allows for longer drives by giving the rover more autonomy to identify and avoid potential hazards and drive along a safe path the rover identifies for itself. Other new capabilities facilitate use of the tools at the end of the rover's robotic arm.
Meanwhile, as Curiosity completes its software transition, the mission's science team is continuing to analyze images that the rover has taken of its surroundings inside Gale Crater. Gale Crater is the landing site for Curiosity. Researchers are discussing which features in the scene to investigate after a few weeks of initial checkouts and observations to assess equipment on the rover and characteristics of the landing site.
The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft delivered Curiosity to its target area on Mars at 10:31:45 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5 (1:31:45 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6), which includes the 13.8 minutes needed for confirmation of the touchdown to be radioed to Earth at the speed of light, NASA said.
Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, NASA said. Some of the tools, such as a laser-firing instrument for checking rocks' elemental composition from a distance, are the first of their kind on Mars. Curiosity will use a drill and scoop, which are located at the end of its robotic arm, to gather soil and powdered samples of rock interiors, then sift and parcel out these samples into the rover's analytical laboratory instruments.
Moreover, to handle this science toolkit, Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity, NASA officials said. The Gale Crater landing site at 4.59 degrees south, 137.44 degrees east, places the rover within driving distance of layers of the crater's interior mountain. Observations from orbit have identified clay and sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history, NASA said.
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PRESS RELEASE Date Released: Friday, August 10, 2012 Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA Curiosity Mars Rover Installing Driving Software
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity will spend its first weekend on Mars transitioning to software better suited for tasks ahead, such as driving and using its strong robotic arm.
The rover's "brain transplant," which will occur during a series of steps Aug. 10 through Aug. 13, will install a new version of software on both of the rover's redundant main computers. This software for Mars surface operations was uploaded to the rover's memory during the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's flight from Earth.
"We designed the mission from the start to be able to upgrade the software as needed for different phases of the mission," said Ben Cichy of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., chief software engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory mission. "The flight software version Curiosity currently is using was really focused on landing the vehicle. It includes many capabilities we just don't need any more. It gives us basic capabilities for operating the rover on the surface, but we have planned all along to switch over after landing to a version of flight software that is really optimized for surface operations."
A key capability in the new version is image processing to check for obstacles. This allows for longer drives by giving the rover more autonomy to identify and avoid potential hazards and drive along a safe path the rover identifies for itself. Other new capabilities facilitate use of the tools at the end of the rover's robotic arm.
While Curiosity is completing the software transition, the mission's science team is continuing to analyze images that the rover has taken of its surroundings inside Gale Crater. Researchers are discussing which features in the scene to investigate after a few weeks of initial checkouts and observations to assess equipment on the rover and characteristics of the landing site.
The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft delivered Curiosity to its target area on Mars at 10:31:45 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5 (1:31:45 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6), which includes the 13.8 minutes needed for confirmation of the touchdown to be radioed to Earth at the speed of light.
Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some of the tools, such as a laser-firing instrument for checking rocks' elemental composition from a distance, are the first of their kind on Mars. Curiosity will use a drill and scoop, which are located at the end of its robotic arm, to gather soil and powdered samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into the rover's analytical laboratory instruments.
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NASA engineers are forging ahead on work with an experimental planetary lander after a test vehicle's crash Thursday (Aug. 9), agency officials say.
The unmanned Morpheus lander exploded shortly after lifting off Thursday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, putting a premature end to its first-ever free-flight test. But the setback won't put an end to Project Morpheus, officials said.
"Unfortunately, that's part of development, especially lean development," said Brandi Dean, a spokeswoman at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, which is leading the Morpheus program. Morpheus has cost about $7 million over the last 2 1/2 years.
"We learned a lot from the tests we've done so far, including yesterday's," Dean told SPACE.com.
The experimental Morpheus lander, which is about the size of an SUV, is powered by liquid oxygen and methane propellants. These are safer and cheaper to operate than traditional rocket fuels and can be stored for longer stretches in space, NASA officials say.
The vehicle is also testing out automated hazard-detection technology, which would use lasers to spot dangerous boulders or craters on the surface of another world. Morpheus could eventually deliver about 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of payload to the moon, NASA officials say.
The hazard-detection system could also be modified to help spacecraft rendezvous with asteroids in deep space, a key priority for NASA. In 2010, President Barack Obama directed the space agency to work toward getting astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025.
The lander that crashed Thursday is apparently a lost cause. But JSC and its Morpheus partner, private spaceflight firm Armadillo Aerospace, have already begun work on another vehicle, which could be ready for its first tests by early 2013, Dean said.
The second lander will not pick up where the first left off, however. It would have to work up to a free-flight test, going through a series of tethered flights first, Dean said. The vehicle that crashed Thursday made 20 tethered flights before NASA cut the apron strings.
Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwallor SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on FacebookandGoogle+.
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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- NASA and Louisiana leaders Thursday committed to a five-year extension of their partnership in the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing (NCAM). NCAM is a principal NASA resource in Louisiana that supports aerospace manufacturing research, development and innovation critical to the goals of the nation's space program.
NCAM was formed in 1999 and includes NASA, NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, the state of Louisiana and the University of New Orleans. This new agreement will expand the NCAM partnership to include Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, which has engineering and research capabilities that can assist NCAM in fulfilling the nation's aerospace technology needs.
About 400 of the 2,600 employees at the multi-use, multi-tenant Michoud facility are associated with and benefit from NCAM. The partners strive to improve U.S. competitiveness in aerospace and commercial markets, and enable transfer of technology to industry partners and educational institutions within the partnership and across the nation. NCAM also has a strong education role, sponsoring a consortium of Louisiana research universities developing advanced materials and manufacturing technologies key to the production of aerospace hardware and structures.
"Advanced manufacturing is a matter of fundamental importance to the economic strength and national security of the United States," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "The President's manufacturing initiative is helping us forge partnerships like this that are closing the gap between research and development activities and the deployment of technological innovations in domestic production of goods. And at NASA, whether we're developing needed technologies for space exploration or advancing the nation's aeronautics capabilities, great ideas are benefiting our nation, creating jobs and making life better here on Earth."
NASA and the state of Louisiana enhanced the NCAM partnership beginning in 2004 with a joint investment of more than $62 million to date. Their key goals are to promote growth of Louisiana's trained aerospace workforce and sustain world-class manufacturing capabilities, such as those at Michoud, where work is under way on elements of NASA's Space Launch System, the heavy-lift vehicle that will usher in a new era of exploration and discovery beyond Earth orbit.
"This renewed agreement reflects and amplifies NASA's long commitment to sustaining a strong, technologically trained work force in New Orleans and across Louisiana," said Marshall Center Associate Director Robin Henderson. "The National Center for Advanced Manufacturing has proven itself vital to NASA's work at Michoud and to the agency's overall mission of exploration and discovery."
Under the newly restructured NCAM agreement, NASA and its academic and industry partners will continue to work jointly on research, development and test activities to meet future space systems needs. New goals for NCAM are intensive new education outreach across the greater New Orleans region through a partnership with the University of New Orleans and expansion of NCAM research and development activities on a national scale.
For more information about NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility, visit: http://mafspace.msfc.nasa.gov/
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NASA, Louisiana Officials Renew Partnership With National Center For Advanced Manufacturing
Among those enthralled last week by NASA's landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars was President Barack Obama, apparently.
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NASA has released the first images from the Mars rover which landed earlier in the week.
The rover was sent on a fact finding mission, attempting to analyze and discover whether elements on Mars contain the potential to harbor life.
The rover sent back its first images within moments of landing inside a crater.
'I really love these images because you know, later we are going to get magnificent color panoramas and 3d images and magnificent things on Mars. But these first images somehow are always the best ones to me,' Mission manager Mike Watkins told Reuters.
'You know, to me, it's representative of, of course a successful landing on Mars, it's representative of a new home, for the rover, of a new mars we have never seen before, and so every one of those pictures is the most beautiful I have ever seen'.
This history making moment was a rare opportunity for celebration by NASA which has had a tough few years with the cancellation of the space shuttle and budget cuts.
'It's just mind blowing to me, I think to all of us, so, I cannot say more than that, it's just the coolest thing,' added Miguel San Martin, of NASA's Descent and Landing Team.
Despite these tougher times the $US2.5 billion project is the first biological endeavor since the 70s.
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The Mars rover Curiosity -- and NASA scientists -- are taking a little break.
After transmitting dramatic photos from the Red Planet during the first week of the operation, NASA said the rover is going through a four-day "brain transplant."
As the rover goes under the digital knife, many scientists will be taking a break and getting used to their newfound fame.
"I got recognized in a pizza parlor on Wednesday," said systems engineer Allen Chen, who emceed the rover's landing on Aug. 5. "That was a little weird for me."
During the "brain transplant," engineers are to be updating Curiosity's software, currently primed for its flight stage, to prepare it for its operations on the surface of Mars. The update will add two crucial functions -- the ability to use the geochemistry lab's sampling system, and to drive.
The update had to wait until after the rover landed because its processor, built years ago to withstand the harsh environment of interplanetary space, is limited compared with today's consumer technology, said senior software engineer Ben Cichy.
"My phone has a processor that is 10 times as fast as the processor that's on Curiosity and has 16 times as much storage as Curiosity has," Cichy said. "And my phone doesn't have to land anything on Mars."
Also Friday, engineers offered their most detailed assessment of Curiosity's landing. The craft, they said, landed about 1.5 miles away from its predicted touchdown zone -- not bad, given that the site was more than 150 million miles away and that the projected landing zone was an ellipse 12 miles wide.
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Curiosity's mysterious Mars photo stirs speculation
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Mars rover Curiosity, and NASA scientists, take a little break
The patch of Mars where NASA's Curiosity rover touched down Sunday night (Aug. 5) has a name: Yellowknife.
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NASA has apps to help you waste time. But you might learn something as well.
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PASADENA, Ca. (Reuters) - This week's arrival of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity set the stage for a potentially game-changing quest to learn whether the planet most like Earth ever had a shot at developing life, but follow-up missions exist only on drawing boards. The United States had planned to team up with Europe on a trio of missions beginning in 2016 that would culminate in the return of Mars ...
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) are set to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Aug. 23. The 20-minute launch window for the twin probes at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41 begins at 4:08 a.m. EDT.
Launch commentary coverage, as well as prelaunch media briefings, will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website.
RBSP will explore space weather -- changes in Earth's space environment caused by the sun -- that can disable satellites, create power grid failures and disrupt GPS service. The mission also will allow researchers to understand fundamental radiation and particle acceleration processes throughout the universe.
Prelaunch News Conference
A prelaunch news conference on NASA TV will be held at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Press Site at 1 p.m. Monday, Aug. 20.
Briefing participants are:
-- Michael Luther, deputy associate administrator for programs, NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington
-- Tim Dunn, NASA launch director, Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
-- Vernon Thorp, program manager, NASA Missions, United Launch Alliance, Denver, Colo.
-- Richard Fitzgerald, RBSP project manager, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
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NASA Sets Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission Launch Events Coverage
NASA's experimental Moon lander crashed and burst into flames seconds after takeoff due to a hardware fault, the US space agency said, prompting an investigation but no casualties.
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As NASA's Curiosity Mars rover prepares for its surface mission, it will download the latest version of its operating system.
With NASA's Mars rover Curiosity safely on the Red Planet, mission controllers are now preparing the robotic explorer to begin its mission on the Martian surface.
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Engineers have been testing theCuriosity rover's instruments and systems ever since the spacecraft touched down on Mars on Sunday (Aug. 5 PDT; Aug. 6 EDT). So far, Curiosity is performing flawlessly, NASA officials said, and the next major procedure is to send the rover new software for its transition from its landing phase into the two-year long haul on the surface of the Mars.
"We're about to upgrade our software on the rover," Mike Watkins, Curiosity mission manager Mike at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told reporters in a news briefing Thursday (Aug. 9). "Just like we upgrade our operating system on our home computer or laptop or something, we're going to do the same thing."
The new software will help mission controllers drive the $2.5 billion Mars rover, use its science instruments and operate its robotic arm.
"We want to switch to this new flight software that's optimized for surface operations," Watkins said.
Mission managers count Curiosity's days in "Sols," which are the number of full Martian days the rover has spent on the Red Planet. [Gallery: 1st Mars Photos by Curiosity Rover]
Curiosity will begin this software transition on Sol 5, which translates to Saturday (Aug. 11) on Earth. The software upgrade process is expected to last roughly four days, Watkins explained. During this time, all other activities, including science, will temporarily be put on hold.
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Earlier this week NASA safely landed a robotic rover on Mars about 150 million miles away. But on Thursday here on Earth, a test model planetary lander crashed and burned at Kennedy Space Center in Florida just seconds after liftoff.
The spider-like spacecraft called Morpheus was on a test flight at Cape Canaveral when it tilted, crashed to the ground and erupted in flames. It got only a few feet up in the air, NASA said.
NASA spokeswoman Lisa Malone said it appears that the methane-and-liquid oxygen powered lander is a total loss. Nobody was hurt in the unmanned experiment and the flames were put out, she said.
NASA suspects a mechanical device that is part of its GPS navigation system, spokeswoman Brandi Dean said.
So far NASA has spent $7 million on the Morpheus program, but that includes parts for a still-to-be-built second lander.
Morpheus is a prototype for a cheap, environmentally friendly planetary lander. Thursday was the first time it had been tested untethered in a free flight. It had performed 19 flights at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where it was designed and made, and one more in Florida, but it was always tethered to a crane, Dean said.
AP
The testing moved from Texas to Florida last week and Morpheus had a successful tether test on Friday. NASA had planned to run tests for three months. The plan was for flights over a specially created field designed to mimic the surface of the moon, with boulders, rocks, slopes and craters.
The lander was built mostly with low-cost, off-the-shelf materials. It was an attempt by NASA to use cheaper, more readily available and environmentally friendly rocket fuel. The space agency was considering it as a potential lander for places like the moon or an asteroid, figuring it would carry a human-like robot or small rover.
NASA promoted Morpheus as a "green" project because methane is more environmentally friendly than the toxic rocket fuels it uses. Methane, which is the main component of natural gas, is also cheaper and could even be made from ice on the moon or Mars, NASA figured.
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As NASA's Curiosity Mars rover prepares for its surface mission, it will download the latest version of its operating system.
With NASA's Mars rover Curiosity safely on the Red Planet, mission controllers are now preparing the robotic explorer to begin its mission on the Martian surface.
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
Engineers have been testing theCuriosity rover's instruments and systems ever since the spacecraft touched down on Mars on Sunday (Aug. 5 PDT; Aug. 6 EDT). So far, Curiosity is performing flawlessly, NASA officials said, and the next major procedure is to send the rover new software for its transition from its landing phase into the two-year long haul on the surface of the Mars.
"We're about to upgrade our software on the rover," Mike Watkins, Curiosity mission manager Mike at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told reporters in a news briefing Thursday (Aug. 9). "Just like we upgrade our operating system on our home computer or laptop or something, we're going to do the same thing."
The new software will help mission controllers drive the $2.5 billion Mars rover, use its science instruments and operate its robotic arm.
"We want to switch to this new flight software that's optimized for surface operations," Watkins said.
Mission managers count Curiosity's days in "Sols," which are the number of full Martian days the rover has spent on the Red Planet. [Gallery: 1st Mars Photos by Curiosity Rover]
Curiosity will begin this software transition on Sol 5, which translates to Saturday (Aug. 11) on Earth. The software upgrade process is expected to last roughly four days, Watkins explained. During this time, all other activities, including science, will temporarily be put on hold.
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NASA's Curiosity Mars rover to get software upgrade (+video)
NASA has apps to help you waste time. But you might learn something as well.
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With NASA's Mars rover Curiosity safely on the Red Planet, mission controllers are now preparing the robotic explorer to begin its mission on the Martian surface.
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