Mission curiosity
Probably many habrazhiteli know that yesterday NASA successfully launched the rover MSL, better known as Curiosity. According to calculations, the journey to Mars will take 9 months from the rover; in August 2012, MSL will have to end up in the Gale crater.
The purpose of the mission is to search for traces of life on Mars and study the geological history of the planet. MSL is equipped with three cameras and four spectrometers, one of which is called SAM and is designed to search for organic materials. The CheMin device is intended for chemical analysis of rocks, it can be used to determine whether there was once water on the surface of Mars.
The first source of energy for Curiosity will not be solar panels, but a plutonium-based electric generator. This will ensure the work of a larger number of scientific instruments, including two color 2Mpx cameras for three-dimensional video shooting and a Russian neutron albedo detector. In addition, thanks to the plutonium energy source, Curiosity will be able to function during the cold Martian winter, when the temperature on the planet reaches -80 ° and below. The same source of energy will allow to solve the problem of pollution of the solar batteries of the rover with the dust, as a result of which the device could be without electricity.
In this regard, I would like to offer a video to Habr’s audience, demonstrating the future course of the Curiosity mission - takeoff, interplanetary flight, primarsenie and, in fact, work on the Red Planet. The video was made effectively, realistically and, most importantly, reliably - the channel of the California Institute of Technology - and very impressive. So I want to note that the future is already very close!
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The purpose of the mission is to search for traces of life on Mars and study the geological history of the planet. MSL is equipped with three cameras and four spectrometers, one of which is called SAM and is designed to search for organic materials. The CheMin device is intended for chemical analysis of rocks, it can be used to determine whether there was once water on the surface of Mars.
The first source of energy for Curiosity will not be solar panels, but a plutonium-based electric generator. This will ensure the work of a larger number of scientific instruments, including two color 2Mpx cameras for three-dimensional video shooting and a Russian neutron albedo detector. In addition, thanks to the plutonium energy source, Curiosity will be able to function during the cold Martian winter, when the temperature on the planet reaches -80 ° and below. The same source of energy will allow to solve the problem of pollution of the solar batteries of the rover with the dust, as a result of which the device could be without electricity.
In this regard, I would like to offer a video to Habr’s audience, demonstrating the future course of the Curiosity mission - takeoff, interplanetary flight, primarsenie and, in fact, work on the Red Planet. The video was made effectively, realistically and, most importantly, reliably - the channel of the California Institute of Technology - and very impressive. So I want to note that the future is already very close!
')
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/133455/
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