MARS SCIENCE LABORATORY

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission with the aim to land and operate a rover namedCuriosity on the surface of Mars. Currently in transit to Mars, it was launched November 26, 2011, at 10:02 EST and is scheduled to land on Mars at Gale Crater on August 6, 2012 (about 10pm in the evening of August 5 PDT, the time used by the mission controllers in Pasadena, California).If MSL arrives at Mars, it will attempt a more precise landing than attempted previously and then help assess Mars's habitability. A primary mission objective is to determine whether Mars is or has ever been an environment able to support life, though it will not look for any specific type of life. Rather, it is intended to chemically analyze samples in various ways, including scooping up soil, drill rocks, and with a laser and sensor system.

Curiosity rover is five times larger than Spirit or Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers and carries more than ten times the mass of scientific instruments of that design. MSL was launched by an Atlas V 541 rocket and after its journey to Mars and then landing, is designed to explore for at least 687 Earth days (1 Martian year) over a range of 5-20 km (3-12 miles).

Mars Science Laboratory mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of Mars, and the project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of California Institute of Technology for NASA. Doug McCuistion of NASA's Planetary Science Division is the Director of the Mars Exploration Program. The total cost of the MSL project is about US$2.5 billion.

CONTENTS    [hide]  1 Goals and objectives 2 History 3 Specifications 4 Payload 5 Launch vehicle 6 Landing system 7 Landing site 7.1 Selection criteria 7.2 Location and characteristics 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links

2011 concept artwork
Operator	NASA
Major contractors	Boeing Lockheed Martin
Mission type	Rover
Launch date	November 26, 2011 15:02:00.211 UTC (10:02 EST)
Launch vehicle	Atlas V 541 (AV-028)
Launch site	Cape Canaveral LC-41
Mission duration	668 Martian sols (686 Earth days)
COSPAR ID	MARSCILAB
Homepage	Mars Science Laboratory
Mass	900 kg (2,000 lb)
Power	Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator(RTG)
Mars landing
Date	August 5*, 2012 (planned)*note: landing is evening of August 5 PDT,which is morning of August 6 UT.
Coordinates	Gale Crater, 4° 36′ 0″ S, 137° 12′ 0″ E (planned landing site)
References: [2][8][9][10]

Schematic diagram of the rover.

[EDIT]GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The MSL mission has four scientific goals:

1. Determine whether Mars could ever have supported life
2. Study the climate of Mars
3. Study the geology of Mars
4. Plan for a human mission to Mars

To contribute to these goals, MSL has six main scientific objectives:

1. Determine the mineralogical composition of the Martian surface and near-surface geological materials.
2. Attempt to detect chemical building blocks of life (biosignatures).
3. Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils.
4. Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) Martian atmospheric evolution processes.
5. Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide.
6. Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic radiation, cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons.

[EDIT]HISTORY

Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers test and assemble Curiosity in a large clean-room on June 29, 2010 in preparation for a late 2011 launch

In April 2008, it was reported that the project was $235 million, or 24%, over budget and that the money to compensate this overrun might have to come from other NASA Mars missions. By October 2008 MSL was getting closer to a 30% cost overrun. As of November 2008 development was essentially finished, with much of the MSL hardware and software complete and testing ongoing. On December 3, 2008, NASA announced that the MSL launch would be delayed until the fall of 2011 because of inadequate test time. The technical and budgetary reasons behind the delay were explained to the Planetary Science Community in a January 2009 meeting at NASA Headquarters.

Between March 23–29, 2009, the general public had an opportunity to rank nine finalist names through a public poll on the NASA website as additional input for judges to consider when choosing the name of the MSL rover. On May 27, 2009 the winning name, Curiosity was selected. It was submitted by a sixth-grader, Clara Ma, from Kansas, in an essay contest.

LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS : latest discovery comes after string of recent signs of extraterrestrials

NASA RESEARCH INDICATING THAT HALF OF THE STARS IN THE UNIVERSE ARE ORBITED BY PLANETS MUCH LIKE EARTH HAS REIGNITED SPECULATION ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OF ALIEN LIFE.

Numerous scientists and politicians have stated their belief in the existence of aliens and UFOs Photo: ALAMY

8:30AM GMT 21 Feb 2011

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Experts examining results from the Kepler telescope have identified more than 1,200 planets in orbit around distant stars, 54 of which are a similar size to Earth and in habitable zones from their suns.

The research follows several recent discoveries which point to the possibility of life on other planets.

Last year, Nasa scientists claimed they had found vital clues which appeared to indicate that primitive aliens could be living on Titan, one of Saturn’s biggest moons.

Data from Nasa's Cassini probe revealed the complex chemistry on the surface of Titan, which experts say is the only moon around the planet to have a dense atmosphere.

Experts suggested that life forms may have been breathing in the planet’s atmosphere and also feeding on its surface’s fuel.

UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT

A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object (usually abbreviated toUFO or U.F.O.) is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object. While a small percentage remain unexplained, the majority of UFO sightings are often later identified as any number of various natural phenomenon or man-made objects.^{[citation needed]}

CONTENTS    [hide]  1 Extraterrestrial hypothesis 2 Official White House Position 3 Studies 4 Terminology 5 Early history 5.1 The Kenneth Arnold sightings 6 Investigations 6.1 Project Sign 6.2 Project Magnet 6.3 Project Grudge 6.4 USAF Regulation 200-2 6.5 Project Bluebook 6.6 Scientific studies 6.7 United States 6.7.1 After 1947 sightings 6.7.2 Project Sign 6.7.3 Condon Committee 6.7.4 Notable cases 6.8 Canada 6.9 France 6.10 United Kingdom 6.10.1 Notable cases 6.11 Uruguay 6.12 Astronomer reports 7 Identification of UFOs 7.1 UFO hypotheses 8 Associated claims 8.1 Reverse engineering 9 Ufology 9.1 Researchers 9.2 Sightings 9.3 Organizations 9.4 Categorization 9.5 Scientific skepticism 10 Conspiracy theories 10.1 Allegations of evidence suppression 11 Famous hoaxes 12 In popular culture 13 See also 13.1 General 13.2 Skepticism 13.3 Psychology 13.4 Histories 13.5 Technology 14 External links 15 References

 

15 INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT SPACE

1. Quasars

These mysterious starlike objects shine from the outermost limits of the universe, helping scientists learn about the earliest stages of existence. We’ve since learned that a quasar is actually a black hole at the center of a huge, distant galaxy. Perhaps more interesting, quasars give off 1,000 times more energy than the entire Milky Way galaxy.

2. Lightweight Planets

You may have learned that some planets in the solar system are gaseous, but did you know that Saturn, that blinged-out planet with all the rings, could float in water? The planet’s density is 0.687 g/cm3 versus water’s density of .998 g/cm3. So Saturn would make an awesome rubber ducky in the universe’s largest bathtub. If only we had a prodigal billionaire to help make that happen. Paging Richard Branson?

3. Liquids in Space

Here on Earth, liquids tend to flow downward. But in the zero-gravity vacuum of space, any liquid will shape itself into a sphere. It is surface tension, the same phenomenon that causes water to form as a horizontal surface on Earth, that causes liquids to form spheres in space. Maybe frat guys should start paying attention to this stuff. No doubt they could convince alumni benefactors to send a crew of bro-stronauts up to research a new generation of drinking games.

4. Goodbye, Moon

Tidal effects cause the moon to move about 3.8 cm away from Earth every year. It’s a process called tidal acceleration, the aggregate of competing gravitational forces between a planet and its satellite. As a result, the Earth’s rotation slows down at about .002 seconds a century, and the moon casually inches toward our sister, Venus.

5. Old Light

Believe it or not, the sunlight we see today is actually 30,000 years old. That’s when the energy of sunlight was created in the sun’s core, and it has since then been fighting to penetrate the dense matter of the sun. Once it reaches the surface, the light takes only about eight minutes to reach us. Scientists have confirmed that, due to its age, sunlight does in fact smell like old people. More specifically, like Magda from There’s Something About Mary.

6. Extra Moons?

In 1986, a scientist named Duncan Waldron discovered an asteroid in elliptical orbit around the sun that seemed to mimic Earth’s revolution. Because the asteroid appeared to be following our planet, it was sometimes referred to as Earth’s second moon. Since then, at least three similar asteroids have been discovered. Most recently, the Earth and the moon went on “Maury” to discover that, as suspected, Earth is the father of those asteroids.

7. Cold Welding

In space, pressing two uncoated pieces of metal will eventually fuse them together. The Earth’s atmosphere coats metallic surfaces with a layer of oxidized material, but in the vacuum of space, that layer barely exists. NASA used to be hyper-sensitive to cold welding, so the metal used in many spaceships is coated to prevent the reaction. But it takes more than a brief bump for two metals to fuse in space, and in the 1960s the phenomenon of instant, accidental cold welding was dispelled as a myth.

8. Extra Inches

All human beings are about two inches taller in space. On Earth, gravity compresses the spine, but in the vacuum of space, the spring-like spine is free to elongate. Short astronauts are thus more confident pick-up artists when floating around in space. The bad news? Back on Earth, they shrink back down to normal height. Also, girls get taller in space, too.

9. Diamond Star

In 2004, astronomers discovered a star composed entirely of diamond, measuring 4,000 km across and 10 billion trillion trillion carats. 50 light years from Earth, the diamond star is classified as a crystallized white dwarf, the hot core that remains after a star burns out. Only recently have scientists been able to study the contents of the white dwarf, and they’ve confirmed that the crystallized carbon interior of the star is, in fact, the galaxy’s largest diamond. In other news, Elizabeth Taylor is studying to become an astronaut.

10. Shrinking Sun

Solar winds are streams of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the sun that cause it to lose up to a billion kilograms of mass a second. For such an extreme dieting regimen, the sun still looks pretty damn enormous.

11. Lasting Footprints

Due to the absence of air and wind on the moon, all astronaut footprints last for millions of years, longer than the most permanent structures on Earth. As long as a meteor or any other space particle does not hit the moon, any impressions made into its surface will virtually last forever. Just imagine all the penis doodles the moon would wake up with if the aforementioned frat-boy excursion were to go down.

12. Electrostatic Levitation

During the first Apollo missions, astronauts reported a hazy glow on the moon’s horizon that looked a little like an atmosphere. This was weird since, well, the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere. The glow was actually the sun’s reflection of floating dust particles. Because the sunlight gives an electrostatic charge to dust particles on the moon, some particles float in the air, a process known as electrostatic levitation. It’s just a matter of time until Criss Angel claims the phenomenon as proof of his supernatural powers.

13. Long Day

Amazingly, a single day on Venus is longer than its entire year. It takes Venus 243 Earth days to completely rotate on its axis, but just 225 days to orbit the sun. Stranger still, Venus is one of two planets that rotates in reverse, a phenomenon called retrograde motion. Most theories attribute the reverse rotation to an ancient planetary collision. That’s what happens when you make fun of Pluto’s mom.

14. Milky Way Satellites

Planets in the solar system aren’t the only celestial bodies with satellites in orbit. The Milky Way galaxy itself has at least 15 satellite galaxies in orbit around it. Just as the moon is gravitationally bound to the Earth, these satellite galaxies are gravitationally bound to the Milky Way, which lovingly refers to them as “ma’ bitches.”

15. Cold Steel

On the former planet Pluto (now designated a dwarf planet), the temperature is a brisk -390 degrees Fahrenheit. Expectedly, temperatures become progressively colder as you move away from the sun, and Pluto is about as far as you can get within our solar system. In fact, it is so cold that Pluto’s ice is harder than steel. Needless to say, your nipples can cut glass on Pluto.