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Sols 4331-4333: Today’s Rover ABC – Aurora, Backwards Driving, and Chemistry, with a Side of Images
This image shows just how variable and interesting the terrain is in the area that NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is currently investigating. Curiosity captured this long-distance Remote Micro Imager (RMI) image using the Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) aboard the rover on sol 4329 — Martian day 4,329 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — on Oct. 10, 2024 at 02:30:12 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL Earth planning date: Friday, Oct. 11, 2024
This blogger is in the United Kingdom, just north of London, where we yesterday had beautiful night skies with a red aurora that was even visible with the unaided eye, and looked stunning on photographs. That reminded me of the solar storm that made it all the way to Mars earlier this year. Here is my colleague Deborah’s blog about it: “Aurora Watch on Mars.” And, of course, that was a great opportunity to do atmospheric science and prepare for future crewed missions, to assess radiation that future astronauts might encounter. You can read about it in the article, “NASA Watches Mars Light Up During Epic Solar Storm.” But now, back from shiny red night skies north of London, and auroras on Mars six months ago, to today’s planning!
Power — always a negotiation! Today, I was the Science Operations Working Group chair, the one who has to watch for the more technical side of things, such as the question if all the activities will fit into the plan. Today there were many imaging ideas to capture the stunning landscape in detail with Mastcam and very close close-ups with the long-distance imaging capability of ChemCam (RMI). Overall, we have two long-distance RMIs in the plan to capture the details of the ridge we are investigating. You can see in the accompanying image an example from last sol of just how many stunning details we can see. I so want to go and pick up that smooth white-ish looking rock to find out if it is just the light that makes it so bright, or if the surface is different from the underside… but that’s just me, a mineralogist by training, used to wandering around a field site! Do you notice the different patterns — textures as we call them in geology — on the rocks to the left of that white-ish rock and the right of it? So much stunning detail, and we are getting two more RMI observations of 10 frames each in today’s plan! In addition there are more than 80 Mastcam frames planned. Lots of images to learn from!
Chemistry is also featuring in the plan. The rover is stable on its wheels, which means we can get the arm out and do an APXS measurement on the target “Midnight Lake,” which MAHLI also images. The LIBS investigations are seconding the APXS investigation on Midnight Lake, and add another target to the plan, “Pyramidal Pinnacle.” On the third sol there is an AEGIS, the LIBS measurement where the rover picks its own target before we here on Earth even see where it is! Power was especially tight today, because the CheMin team does some housekeeping, in particular looking at empty cells in preparation for the next drill. The atmosphere team adds many investigations to look out for dust devils and the dustiness of the atmosphere, and APXS measures the argon content of the atmosphere. This is a measure for the seasonal changes of the atmosphere, as argon is an inert gas that does not react with other components of the atmosphere. It is only controlled by the temperature in various places of the planet — mainly the poles. DAN continues to monitor water in the subsurface, and RAD — prominently featured during the solar storm I was talking about earlier — continues to collect data on the radiation environment.
Let’s close with a fun fact from planning today: During one of the meetings, the rover drivers were asked, “Are you driving backwards again?” … and the answer was yes! The reason: We need to make sure that in this rugged terrain, with its many interesting walls (interesting for the geologists!), the antenna can still see Earth when we want to send the plan. So the drive on sol 4332 is all backwards. I am glad we have hazard cameras on the front and the back of the vehicle!
Written by Susanne Schwenzer, Planetary Geologist at The Open University
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Last Updated Oct 13, 2024 Related Terms
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A major component of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope just took a spin on the centrifuge at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Called the Outer Barrel Assembly, this piece of the observatory is designed to keep the telescope at a stable temperature and shield it from stray light.
This structure, called the Outer Barrel Assembly, will surround and protect NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from stray light that could interfere with its observations. In this photo, engineers prepare the assembly for testing.NASA/Chris Gunn The two-part spin test took place in a large, round test chamber. Stretching across the room, a 600,000-pound (272,000-kilogram) steel arm extends from a giant rotating bearing in the center of the floor.
The test itself is like a sophisticated version of a popular carnival attraction, designed to apply centrifugal force to the rider — in this case, the outer covering for Roman’s telescope. It spun up to 18.4 rotations per minute. That may not sound like much, but it generated force equivalent to just over seven times Earth’s gravity, or 7 g, and sent the assembly whipping around at 80 miles per hour.
“We couldn’t test the entire Outer Barrel Assembly in the centrifuge in one piece because it’s too large to fit in the room,” said Jay Parker, product design lead for the assembly at Goddard. The structure stands about 17 feet (5 meters) tall and is about 13.5 feet (4 meters) wide. “It’s designed a bit like a house on stilts, so we tested the ‘house’ and ‘stilts’ separately.”
The “stilts” went first. Technically referred to as the elephant stand because of its similarity to structures used in circuses, this part of the assembly is designed to surround Roman’s Wide Field Instrument and Coronagraph Instrument like scaffolding. It connects the upper portion of the Outer Barrel Assembly to the spacecraft bus, which will maneuver the observatory to its place in space and support it while there. The elephant stand was tested with weights attached to it to simulate the rest of the assembly’s mass.
This photo shows a view from inside the Outer Barrel Assembly for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The inner rings, called baffles, will help protect the observatory’s primary mirror from stray light.NASA/Chris Gunn Next, the team tested the “house” — the shell and a connecting ring that surround the telescope. These parts of the assembly will ultimately be fitted with heaters to help ensure the telescope’s mirrors won’t experience wide temperature swings, which make materials expand and contract.
To further protect against temperature fluctuations, the Outer Barrel Assembly is mainly made of two types of carbon fibers mixed with reinforced plastic and connected with titanium end fittings. These materials are both stiff (so they won’t warp or flex during temperature swings) and lightweight (reducing launch demands).
If you could peel back the side of the upper portion –– the house’s “siding” –– you’d see another weight-reducing measure. Between inner and outer panels, the material is structured like honeycomb. This pattern is very strong and lowers weight by hollowing out portions of the interior.
Designed at Goddard and built by Applied Composites in Los Alamitos, California, Roman’s Outer Barrel Assembly was delivered in pieces and then put together in a series of crane lifts in Goddard’s largest clean room. It was partially disassembled for centrifuge testing, but will now be put back together and integrated with Roman’s solar panels and Deployable Aperture Cover at the end of the year.
In 2025, these freshly integrated components will go through thermal vacuum testing together to ensure they will withstand the temperature and pressure environment of space. Then they’ll move to a shake test to make sure they will hold up against the vibrations they’ll experience during launch. Toward the end of next year, they will be integrated with rest of the observatory.
To virtually tour an interactive version of the telescope, visit:
https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/interactive
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems, Inc in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
By Ashley Balzer
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
301-286-1940
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Last Updated Oct 08, 2024 EditorJamie AdkinsContactClaire Andreoli Related Terms
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA MSFC HERC is the annual engineering competition – one of NASA’s longest standing challenges – held its concluding event April 19 and April 20, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA NASA has selected 75 student teams to begin an engineering design challenge to build rovers that will compete next spring at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center near the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The competition is one of the agency’s Artemis Student Challenges, encouraging students to pursue degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Recognized as NASA’s leading international student challenge, the 31st annual Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) aims to put competitors in the mindset of NASA’s Artemis campaign as they pitch an engineering design for a lunar terrain vehicle which simulates astronauts piloting a vehicle, exploring the lunar surface while overcoming various obstacles.
Participating teams represent 35 colleges and universities, 38 high schools, and two middle schools from 20 states, Puerto Rico, and 16 other nations from around the world. The 31st annual Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) is scheduled to begin on April 11, 2025. The challenge is managed by NASA’s Southeast Regional Office of STEM Engagement at NASA Marshall.
Following a 2024 competition that garnered international attention, NASA expanded the challenge to include a remote-control division, Remote-Operated Vehicular Research, and invited middle school students to participate. The 2025 HERC Handbook includes guidelines for the new remote-control division and updates for the human-powered division.
NASA’s Artemis Student Challenges reflects the goals of the Artemis campaign, which seeks to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon while establishing a long-term presence for science and exploration.
More than 1,000 students with 72 teams from around the world participated in the 2024 challenge as HERC celebrated its 30th anniversary as a NASA competition. Since its inception in 1994, more than 15,000 students have participated in HERC – with many former students now working at NASA, or within the aerospace industry.
To learn more about HERC, please visit:
HERC Website Taylor Goodwin
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034
taylor.goodwin@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 04, 2024 EditorBeth RidgewayLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Gateway’s Habitation and Logistics Outpost stands vertically inside a Thales Alenia Space facility in Turin, Italy, after completing static load testing. Thales Alenia Space Major Gateway hardware recently crossed an important testing milestone on its path to launch to the Moon, where it will support new science and house astronauts in lunar orbit.
Gateway’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) successfully completed static load testing, a rigorous stress test of how well the structure responds to the forces encountered in deep space. Thales Alenia Space, subcontractor to Northrop Grumman, conducted the testing in Turin, Italy. Static load testing is one of the major environmental stress tests HALO will undergo, and once all phases of testing are complete, the module will be ready to move from Italy to Gilbert, Arizona, where Northrop Grumman will complete final outfitting.
HALO is one of four pressurized Gateway modules where astronauts will live, conduct science, and prepare for missions to the lunar South Pole region. It will launch with Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket to lunar orbit.
Gateway is humanity’s first lunar space station supporting a new era of exploration and scientific discovery as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign that will establish a sustained presence on and around the Moon, paving the way for the first crewed mission to Mars.
Gateway’s Habitation and Logistics Outpost stands vertically inside a Thales Alenia Space facility in Turin, Italy, after completing static load testing. Thales Alenia Space Learn More About Gateway Share
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Last Updated Oct 03, 2024 ContactBriana R. Zamorabriana.r.zamora@nasa.govLocationJohnson Space Center Related Terms
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