by Rod Pyle
Ashwin Vasavada, Deputy Project Scientist: “About a year and a half ago, I was out…[filming an] outreach video about why we selected Gale as a landing site; and, walking around back there [behind JPL]—and it was springtime—water was coming down…the mountains and forming a little stream through the arroyo and carrying debris…. The stream was full of little pebbles, rounded as they make their way down the mountains, sand with them…. Looking around, I told the camera man as we were filming this video, ‘if we ever found something like this on Mars, it [would] be a homerun.’…I think all of us…say those things, but in our hearts we knew it was a long shot, it wasn't to be taken for granted. And then you fast-forward to landing a year ago. As the rover landed, its rocket engines were scouring through the gravel. And the next morning, we get this picture from Mars and look in the scour mark—and, what do you know, its bedrock, [a] conglomerate of rock made of rounded pebbles and sand melted together. Even before Curiosity landed, she already hit this homerun for us and revealed this ancient Mars to us that [we] were hoping to find. So we drove literally through a streambed on Mars that flowed ankle-deep a few billion years ago…. I'm getting goose bumps just telling you that.”
Fig. E.1. ONWARD! This depiction of NASA's Mars 2020 rover is tentative but shows the strong family resemblance to Curiosity. The instrument package had not yet been defined when this was released, but one idea currently popular is to have the rover find interesting samples, then package them up and leave them for a later sample-return mission to bring them back to Earth. Only then will we be able to really peel back the remaining veil of mystery surrounding Mars. Image from NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Adam Steltzner: “Prior to landing, I'd been asking myself this question—why we do what we are doing, and why it is important to us? Although we go to Mars for the science questions, I don't think that those hundreds of people in Times Square watching the landing were there at 1:30 in the morning because they were dying to know about the pH, the salinity, and the environmental surface of Mars. I think when we explore, we're asking questions about ourselves as individuals, as a society, as a people. Neil Armstrong, I think, hinted at that with the words he chose to say when he set foot on the surface of the Moon: ‘That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.’ What he was hinting at was that he was carrying us with him in that exploration. I think Curiosity carries us with her when she's on the surface of Mars and helps us ask questions about who we are, how grand we are. What questions do we dare ask, and hope to be able to answer? I think [that] through it, we dream a little bigger, maybe aspire a little higher, and in some sense we're a little better.”
Fig. E.2. SOMEDAY…The ultimate goal for the world's major space programs—those of the United States, Russia, and now China—is a crewed mission to Mars. It's been seriously discussed since the mid-twentieth century; it's time to step up the pace. Curiosity has provided data critical to protecting astronauts on the long trip to the red planet. Image from Pat Rawlings/NASA.
And perhaps Al Chen, the voice of EDL on that amazing night almost two years ago, said it best as he recalled something Steltzner said just before MSL entered the Martian atmosphere: “I really love our team. We did everything we planned to do and we were right on track. This is everything we could have wanted. As Adam said that night, ‘We should do everything we can to deserve victory.’ I thought that was pretty special. We may not always gain victory, but at the end of the day we should feel like we deserve it.”
“We should do everything we can to deserve victory.”…The people of JPL and their associated institutions did, and they continue to do so, every day.
Curiosity roves on.
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INTERVIEWS
Al Chen, May 3, 2013; August 6, 2013
Ashwin Vasavada, November 13, 2013
Bobak Ferdowsi, March 24, 2014
Brian Cooper, October 10, 2013
Dan Limonadi, December 18, 2013
David Oh, August 21, 2012
Doug Ming, December 18, 2013
Guy Webster, March 18, 2012; July 1, 2013
Jakob van Zyl, April 24, 2013
John Beck-Hoffman, June 12, 2012
John Casani, April 30, 2013
John Grotzinger, May 3, 2013; August 14, 2013; August 30, 2013; November 6, 2013; November 14, 2013; November 18, 2013; December 4, 2013
Joy Crisp, December 2, 2013
Justin Maki, December 12, 2013
Ken Edgett, January 23, 2014
Lauren DeFlores, November 12, 2013
Lawren Markle, June 12, 2012
Melissa Rice, May 1, 2013
Mike Malin, June 12, 2012
Mike Wall, June 12, 2012
Rebecca Williams, December 17, 2013
Rob Manning, February 10, 2012; August 12, 2012; August 4, 2013; October 22, 2013
Scott McLennon, December 12, 2013
Steve Squyres, June 27, 2011
Suzanne Dodd, August 22, 2013
Vandi Tompkins, May 16, 2013
Page numbers in bold indicate images within the text. See also the photo insert.
Aeolus Mons. See Mount Sharp
aerobraking, 63, 132
aeroshell, 132, 134, 136, 138, 151, 154, 156
airbags, concept for landing on Mars, 84, 142
for MER rovers, 67–69, 68, 137, 141
not applicable to Curiosity landing, 140, 145
for Pathfinder, 56–60, 79, 137
Alan Hills Martian meteorite of 1994, ALH84001, 116, 117, 210
alluvial fan, 41, 86, 87, 102, 199, 271
Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. See APXS, used on Curiosity and MERs
Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer. See APXS, used on Sojourner
Amazonian period on Mars, 262
American Geophysical Union (AGU), 210–16, 212
Ames Research Center, 226, 252
Anserlian, Garo, 160, 161, 162, 164
Antarctica, 76, 100, 116, 117, 210
Anthill (place on Mars), 193
Apollo program, 36, 74, 80, 132, 142, 178, 244
Apollo 11 landing, 13, 149
contamination issues, 111, 114–16, 115
Curiosity compared to Apollo lunar lander, 89
expense of, 43, 50, 118–19
reentering Earth's atmosphere, 133, 135
Apple computers and chips, 25, 50, 66, 134, 181
APXS (Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer), used on Curiosity, and MERs, 77, 90, 93–94, 202, 212, 229
analyzing samples in place, 97, 204, 207, 214, 218, 233, 240, 245, 247–48
APXS (Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer), used on Sojourner, 61, 62, 66, 77
Arabia Terra (area on Mars), 105, 263
Ares (Greek name for Mars), 30, 172, 193
Ares Vallis (area on Mars), 60, 193
argon on Mars, 256, 258, 266
Aristotle, 29
Armstrong, Neil, 276
Atacama Desert, 100
Atlas V (rocket), 131
atmosphere on Mars, 170, 274
changes in atmospheric pressure, 207
Curiosity's analysis of, 207, 213, 231, 240, 255, 256, 271
elements found, 167, 213, 254, 255, 256
and landing of Curiosity, 153, 175, 177
loss of atmosphere, 254, 255, 262, 274
autonomous driving, 73
Baby Otter (place on Mars), 193
backshell (part of MSL during EDL), 156
Bamm-Bamm (rock near Sojourner), 194
Barnacle Bill (Sojourner's first rock), 60–61, 193, 194
&n
bsp; Barnum, P. T., 33
basalt rock, 18, 69, 71, 200–201, 202, 206, 275
beach balls. See airbags, concept for landing on Mars
Beck-Hoffman, John, 16, 20, 48–49, 52
bedrock, 199–200, 252, 275
Bellutta, Paolo, 183
“Berry Bowl” (place on Mars), 71
Biehl, James, 188
Big Joe (in Viking landing area), 192
Big Kahuna. See Grotzinger, John
biological pollution. See contamination issues
Bish, David, 206–207
“black smokers” on Earth, 76, 100, 101
Blake, David, 252, 274
“blueberries” (hematite spherules), 69–71, 70, 73
Bolden, Charles, 146, 201
Bonneville (in Viking landing area), 192
Bradbury, Ray, 38–39, 127, 195
Bradbury Landing (Curiosity's landing site), 102, 195, 198, 201, 270
“brain transplant,” 176–77
Broken Wall (rock near Sojourner), 194
Brooks, Bob, 149
brush, wire. See DRT; RAT
Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 34, 127, 167
Caltech (California Institute of Technology), 13–14, 23, 38, 129, 208, 210
managing and operating JPL, 181, 219
summary of discoveries and information gathered, 246–54, 260–67
See also Jet Propulsion Laboratory; names of individual employees; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; specific projects, e.g., Apollo program, Voyager program, etc.
cameras on board Curiosity, 90, 91–93. See also names of specific cameras, e.g., ChemCam, Hazcams, MAHLI, etc.
Canadarm, 94
Canadian Space Agency, 93–94
canals of Mars theory, 31–33, 32, 34
carbonate rocks, 18, 83
carbon dioxide on Mars, 213, 266
carbon 14, 44, 258
carbon on Mars, 95, 98, 103–104, 207, 238, 266