So much of the Mars missions is about astrogeological research. I just read a very interesting article about scientists with the US Geological Survey who are part of teams that work with the rovers on Mars.
The descent phase of the Curiosity rover offered an important opportunity to survey the landing area in greater detail than would be possible from orbiting imagers. The instrument for this purpose is called the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI). We already saw some preview lo-res images from this instrument showing the view from Curiosity as it landed.
Today the first hi-res image of the MARDI has been released. This would have been one of the first if not the very first image it would have taken during descent, when it was still relatively high up and only seconds after the heat shield had dropped away from Curiosity during descent.
But the coming MARDI images will be of high interest because they will show in detail the features of a wide area around where Curiosity has set down and these images will help guide the scientists to determine where to take the rover. These images have already been taken during descent and are stored in memory and will soon be transmitted back to Earth. The first MARDI images transmitted back were downsampled (reduced in resolution and size) in order to enable speedy relay back to Earth.
One interesting thing mentioned in the article is that the science teams which deal with operating the Mars rovers actually have to live on a wake-sleep cycle timed to the Martian day, which is 40 minutes longer than an Earth day.
As another side note, Google Earth (which now must be a misnomer) actually has an option to view Mars. You can actually search for Opportunity and see the landing site of the Opportunity (and its now-defunct sister, Spirit) and the path it has traced since landing on Mars 8 years ago. I was astounded to see that it has traversed over 20 miles and, just last year, it reached the edge of a large crater called Endeavour, the scientific significance of which is so great that it is actually being considered as equivalent to a second landing site.
Beyond this, the openness that one finds with NASA’s conscientiously disclosing almost all informtation about its rovers, and in fact about all its missions, is nothing less than extraordinary. I think this alone – this openness – is an achievement to be highly proud of. When they say that these missions are for everyone, they really mean it.
A higher-res version of the above image, along with caption is available at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia16021.html
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