CURIOSITY:
Big Mars Rover for Big Mars Science!
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity launched
from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity launched on an Atlas V-541,
the largest rocket for launching to a planet.
It is propelled toward Mars by a Centaur upper stage.
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity is headed to Gale Crater.
You can see where other Mars landers and rovers
have successfully landed on Mars too.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Gale Crater is about
96 miles wide.
It has many
rock layers for
Curiosity to explore,
from canyons
to channels,
all in one place!
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity is targeted to land within the yellow ellipse,
on flat terrain near Gale’s central mound.
Central Mound
NASAJPL-Caltech/ASU/UA
Curiosity is twice the size
of Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity
and five times as heavy.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
To fit all these tools on the rover,
the team had to supersize everything,
from the capsule that holds the rover,
to the parachute that slows it down before landing.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Cruise Stage
Back Shell
To get to Mars,
Curiosity will
travel safely
tucked inside a
protective shell.
Descent Stage
Rover
Heat
Shield
NASAJPL-Caltech
The trip will take over eight months.
The rover will travel about
354 million miles (570 million kilometers).
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Sky Crane
Detail
Altitude: ~20 m
Rover
Velocity: ~0.75 m/s
Separation Time: Entry + ~413 s
Cruise
Stage Time: Entry – 10 min
Separation
CBMD
Separation
Mobility
Deploy
Flyaway
Time: Entry – ~8 min
Entry
Interface
Touchdown
Altitude: ~125 km
Velocity: ~5,900 m/s
Time: Entry + 0 s
Altitude: 0 m
Velocity: ~0.75 m/s
Time: Entry + ~427 s
Peak
Heating
Peak
Deceleration
Parachute
Deploy
Hypersonic
Aeromaneuvering
Altitude: ~11 km
Velocity: ~405 m/s
Time: Entry + ~265 s
Radar
Data
Collection
Heatshield
Separation
Backshell
Separation
Altitude: ~8 km
Velocity: ~125 m/s
Time: Entry + ~289 s
Altitude: ~1.6 km
Velocity: ~80 m/s
Time: Entry + ~375 s
Powered
Descent
This chart shows the entry, descent
and landing sequence
Sky
Crane
Flyaway
NASAJPL-Caltech
11
The spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere
78 miles above the planet. The rover will take approximately
seven minutes to reach the ground.
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
This spacecraft can steer its way through the turbulent
atmosphere so it can land more accurately.
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
The friction of the atmosphere slows the
spacecraft from 13,000 mph to about 900 mph.
The heat shield may reach 3,800 degrees Fahrenheit!
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
A supersonic
parachute slows
the spacecraft
from about
900 mph
to
180 mph,
the speed of a
Formula One
race car.
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
While slowing down using the parachute, the heat shield is
popped off, exposing the rover to the Martian atmosphere.
The rover’s descent camera begins taking a movie of the
remaining five-mile flight to the ground.
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
The engines on the descent stage roar to life
and fly the rover down the last mile to the surface.
As it descends, the rover uses radar to measure its speed and
altitude, which it uses to land safely.
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
The descent stage lowers the rover
on three nylon ropes called bridle.
Coiled electronics and communications cables
also unspool from the descent stage.
This configuration is known as the “Sky Crane.”
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
By the time Curiosity touches down,
the rover is going about two miles per hour.
Less than seven minutes before,
it was traveling at 13,000 miles per hour!
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
When the sky crane “senses” that Curiosity
has touched down, the cables are cut.
The sky crane flies a safe distance away
from the rover before crash-landing.
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
For the first time, a Mars rover will land
with wheels touching down first,
instead of airbags.
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity will start exploring Mars after raising its “head”
and doing a “self-check” to make sure all systems are go.
Driving could take several days to a few weeks after landing.
Artist’s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity is expected to work for one Martian year,
or about two Earth years.
Don’t miss the adventure on Mars, beginning August 2012!
Artist’s Concept. NASAJ/PL-Caltech
Follow Curiosity!
Mission Website:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl
Twitter: @MarsCuriosity
Be A Martian!
beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov
www.nasa.gov/msl