加载中…[转载]“好奇号”即将开始探测工作
(2012-08-09 11:31:51)
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从“好奇号”发回的第一张彩色图像显示火星车登陆的陨石坑底部，图中远处是陨石坑的一段边缘。
Curiosity's New Home
These are the first two full-resolution images of the Martian
surface from the Navigation cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover,
which are located on the rover's "head" or mast. The rim of Gale
Crater can be seen in the distance beyond the pebbly
ground.
The topography of the rim is very mountainous due to erosion. The
ground seen in the middle shows low-relief scarps and plains. The
foreground shows two distinct zones of excavation likely carved out
by blasts from the rover's descent stage
thrusters.
These are full-resolution images, 1024 by 1024 pixels in
size.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/674814main_pia16010-full_full.jpg
Curiosity Looks Away from the Sun
This is the first image taken by the Navigation cameras on NASA's
Curiosity rover. It shows the shadow of the rover's now-upright
mast in the center, and the arm's shadow at left. The arm itself
can be seen in the foreground.
The navigation camera is used to help find the sun -- information
that is needed for locating, and communicating, with Earth. After
the camera pointed at the sun, it turned in the opposite direction
and took this picture. The position of the shadow helps confirm the
sun's location.
The "augmented reality" or AR tag seen in the foreground can be
used in the future with smart phones to obtain more information
about the mission.
This is a full-resolution image, 1024 by 1024
pixels.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
美国国务院国际信息局（IIP）《美国参考》Charlene Porter从华盛顿报道，新的火星漫游车在火星表面登陆一天半后，喷气推进实验室（JPL）内仍洋溢着高度兴奋的气氛。设在加州的该实验室负责执行美国国家航空航天局（NASA）的这项使命。
控制“好奇号”在火星表面登陆的团队正在为即将开展的科研工作做准备，一面检查设备状况，一面密切注视周围的地形。现在还不是作出重大发现的阶段，但航行管理主任迈克尔·沃特金斯（Mike Watkins）8月7日在加利福尼亚州的一次简报会上说，负责火星车登陆的团队多年来一直在学习和演练如何操纵“好奇号”的运作。
沃特金斯说：“让火星车真正开动起来实在是妙极了。人们为眼前的日子准备了5年至10年，现在终于来到了。”
沃特金斯表示，他最喜爱的图象总是执行登陆任务中最早拍摄的一些照片，因为这些照片给地面人员一种他称之为“地段景观”（the neighborhood）的初步印象。
“好奇号”的新地段在早期的任务规划中经过精心挑选。科学家们把这个地点命名为盖尔陨石坑（Gale Crater）。选择它为着陆点的原因是：据认为该地段的表明轮廓由曾在目前已干燥的火星上流动的表面流水冲击而成。
喷气推进实验室的科学家们已经确定，火星漫游车的登陆地点离陨石坑的边缘约20公里，离夏普山（Mount Sharp）的山脚约12公里。这座山约有五公里高，预计其梯形层面将提供关于火星历史的大量信息，就像不同地质层帮助科学家了解地球的历史一样。
“好奇号”在未来的日子里将要执行的其他任务包括测量火星上的辐射水平和其他环境状况。十多个摄像头安装在漫游车的不同角度，它们在运转测试后将收集更多的图像。
肯·埃杰特（Ken Edgett）是一个摄像机系统的首席科学家。该系统安装在将提供一系列有利位置的两米长的机器人手臂上。
埃杰特说：“我们可以作直线上升，也可以不停向下抵达表面。我们可以到达离岩石或土壤不到一英寸的距离，所获得图像的分辨率比以往火星车拍摄图像的分辨率大两倍。”
在历时8个月、行程5.7亿公里的飞行后，“好奇号”于8月6日凌晨（喷气推进实验室所在地太平洋时区的8月5日）在火星登陆。这架飞船降落到火星表面时使用了一个特别设计的着陆系统，科学家们把它称之为“工程学的奇迹”。
“好奇号”携带10台科学仪器，其中包括一个真正的实验室，这是登上另一个星球的第一个实验室，其能力比2004年以来先后在火星上登陆的两个火星车——“勇气号”（Spirit）和“机遇号”（Opportunity）——远为强大。在以后的任务中，“好奇号”会使用机器人手臂的一端用钻和铲的方式收集土壤和岩石样本，以便通过实验室仪器来分析其成份和起源。
Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/chinese/article/2012/08/20120808134363.html#ixzz230klTyUZ
Curiosity Rover Readies for Science on Mars
By Charlene Porter | Staff Writer | 07 August 2012
The first color image returned by Curiosity shows the floor of the crater where the craft landed, with one segment of the crater’s rim in the distance.
Washington — A day and a half after a new rover vehicle landed on the surface of Mars, the excitement level remains high at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the California-based agency managing the mission for NASA.
The surface team is preparing the rover Curiosity for the scientific work to come, checking equipment status and staking out the surrounding terrain. It is not yet the work of great discovery, but mission manager Mike Watkins said at an August 7 briefing in California that members of the surface team have been learning and practicing to operate Curiosity for years now.
“It’s great to actually put our rover through the motions,” Watkins said. “These are the days that people worked five and 10 years for, going on right now.”
Watkins said his favorite images are always the first to be taken on a landing mission, because they give the ground crew the first inkling of “the neighborhood,” as he calls it.
Curiosity’s new neighborhood was carefully selected in early mission planning. Scientists named the spot Gale Crater, choosing it for touchdown because land contours in the area are thought to have been formed by surface water that once flowed on the now-dry planet.
JPL scientists have determined that the rover came down about 20 kilometers from the rim of the crater and about 12 kilometers from the base of Mount Sharp. The stratified layers of this mountain — about five kilometers high — are expected to reveal a lot about the planet’s history, just as soil layers help Earth-bound geologists understand the history of our planet.
Other tasks Curiosity will perform in the days ahead include taking measurements of radiation levels and other environmental conditions on Mars. More than a dozen cameras are mounted at different points on the rover, and they’ll all undergo operational tests and collect more imagery.
Ken Edgett is the principal investigator for one camera system mounted on a two-meter arm that will provide an array of vantage points.
“We can go straight up, we can go all the way down to the ground,” Edgett said. “We can get within an inch of the rock or an inch of the soil and get an image about twice the resolution” of those taken by previous rovers.
Curiosity landed on Mars in the early hours of August 6 (August 5 in the Pacific time zone, where JPL is located) after an eight-month, 570-million-kilometer voyage. The craft descended to the Martian surface using a specially designed landing system that scientists are calling “a miracle of engineering.”
Curiosity carries 10 science instruments that comprise an actual laboratory, the first ever landed on another planet, with far greater capabilities than the two rovers on the planet since 2004, Spirit and Opportunity. Later in the mission, Curiosity will use a drill and scoop at the end of its robotic arm to gather soil and rock samples for analysis of their composition and origins by its laboratory instruments.
Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2012/08/20120807134288.html#ixzz230kpWynf
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