Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Mars Rover Scheduled To Land Tonight At 11:31pm MST- Update- Landed!

troutman · 08-16-2012, 12:39 PM

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...ity-sol-9.html

Commissioning Activity Phase 1B (CURRENT PHASE): Sols 9-?. About a week. Imaging: Chemcam in active (laser) mode; Mastcam panoramas. First driving plan: wheel steering actuator test on sol 13, short drive forward and back on sol 15. REMS begins routine weather observations. At the end of this phase, the commissioning of the remote sensing instruments will be complete.

Intermission: open-ended, but probably about a week. May include a drive to a new location for first sampling, and will include imaging to support that.

Commissioning Activity Phase 2: At least a week, probably more. Major activity of this phase is commissioning of the arm. That includes first arm motions; imaging of all of the tools on the arm; calibration of arm positioning; data acquisition by turret-mounted instruments (MAHLI camera and APXS elemental analyzer). Check out all the mechanical tools on the end of the arm: drill, brush, CHIMRA sieving system. Hopefully this period will include the first rover self-portrait by MAHLI. At the end of this phase, the commissioning of the turret-mounted instruments will be complete.

Next, Curiosity faces a major hurdle: a high-level review by JPL and NASA of the health and operability of the rover. This review must be completed successfully before the mission will receive the go-ahead to prepare and deliver the first soil samples to the laboratory instruments, SAM and Chemin.

The first sample acquisition will likely take a long time -- again, at least a week, probably more.

08-16-2012, 12:39 PM	#222
troutman Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Crowsnest Pass Exp:	http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...ity-sol-9.html Commissioning Activity Phase 1B (CURRENT PHASE): Sols 9-?. About a week. Imaging: Chemcam in active (laser) mode; Mastcam panoramas. First driving plan: wheel steering actuator test on sol 13, short drive forward and back on sol 15. REMS begins routine weather observations. At the end of this phase, the commissioning of the remote sensing instruments will be complete. Intermission: open-ended, but probably about a week. May include a drive to a new location for first sampling, and will include imaging to support that. Commissioning Activity Phase 2: At least a week, probably more. Major activity of this phase is commissioning of the arm. That includes first arm motions; imaging of all of the tools on the arm; calibration of arm positioning; data acquisition by turret-mounted instruments (MAHLI camera and APXS elemental analyzer). Check out all the mechanical tools on the end of the arm: drill, brush, CHIMRA sieving system. Hopefully this period will include the first rover self-portrait by MAHLI. At the end of this phase, the commissioning of the turret-mounted instruments will be complete. Next, Curiosity faces a major hurdle: a high-level review by JPL and NASA of the health and operability of the rover. This review must be completed successfully before the mission will receive the go-ahead to prepare and deliver the first soil samples to the laboratory instruments, SAM and Chemin. The first sample acquisition will likely take a long time -- again, at least a week, probably more.