President Obama phoned the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team on Monday, congratulating them on their amazing Entry, Landing and Descent (EDL) efforts that resulted in NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover landing safely on the surface of Mars. He also joked that if Curiosity makes contact with Martians, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team should inform him right away.<\/p>\n
Praise for Curiosity:<\/p>\n
The President phoned the mission control room at JPL, to congratulate Center Director Charles Elachi and the Mars Science Laboratory team currently operating the rover, which landed on Mars a week ago.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Z49.jpg\" "\\"Z4\\"")
The EDL success was nothing short of amazing, debuting the SkyCrane method of gently placing the large Rover just 2.4kms from its target on the flat area of the Gale Crater, a deep depression located on Mars\u2019 equator \u2013 some achievement when taking into account the entry speed of Mach 24, just seven short minutes prior to the touchdown.<\/p>\n
Although additional EDL data will be gathered in the short term, engineers believe a tail wind may have been one of the factors as to why they landed ever so slightly downrange of the target.<\/p>\n
The Rover is currently sat patiently on the \u201cRed Planet\u201d during her checkout operations, with the major task of transitioning Curiosity\u2019s two main computers to a version of software suited for the vehicle\u2019s work on the surface of Mars heading into its final phase.<\/p>\n
Prior to the transition, Curiosity\u2019s computers used a version of flight software loaded with the EDL capabilities that are no longer required for the rest of the Rover\u2019s operational lifetime.<\/p>\n
Based on the current timeline, Curiosity is expected to stretch her wheels as early as next week.<\/p>\n
Spaceflight news subscription (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the software transition, we go back to preparing the rover to be fully functional for surface operations,\u201d noted Curiosity mission manager Art Thompson. \u201cWe are looking forward to a first drive in about a week.\u201d<\/p>\n The Gale Crater landing site at 4.59 degrees south, 137.44 degrees east, places the rover within driving distance of layers of the crater\u2019s interior mountain. Observations from orbit have identified clay and sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history. The Rover has already taken a few vacation snaps, showing the crater rim and features of Mount Sharp.<\/p>\n \u201cI just wanted you to know we could not be more excited about what you\u2019ve been doing,\u201d noted the President in his opening comments, before moving on to the more jovial subject of the shy locals in Curiosity\u2019s neighborhood. \u201cSomebody asked me the other day if you have already found Martians. I told them we have to give you a little bit of time.<\/p>\n \u201cIf in fact you do make contact with Martians, please let me know right away. I\u2019ve got a lot of things on my plate, but I suspect that would go to the top of my list \u2013 even if they are just microbes, it\u2019ll be pretty exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the kind of thing that inspires kids across the country,\u201d added the President. \u201cThey are telling their Mums and Dads they want to be part of a Mars mission, maybe even the first person to walk on Mars. That kind of inspiration is the by-product of the work you guys have done.\u201d<\/p>\n NASA managers have had plans for such missions for decades, always at least a few frustrating decades into the future, something that continues to be the situation with the latest Mars mission proposals.<\/p>\n Officially, NASA leaders do not sway from the \u201ccompany line\u201d of saying the often-repeated \u201csometime in the mid 2030s\u201d sound-byte. Internally, the Exploration Roadmap planning phase \u2013 otherwise known as the Design Reference Mission (DRM) documentation (L2 LINK) \u2013 only lists the missions as \u201cTBD \u2013 To Be Determined\u201d.<\/p>\n However, notional clues into what a Mars mission would look like can be found in documentation surrounding \u2013 and including \u2013 the extensive Flexible Path presentation (L2 LINK), content that lists a mission to the Martian moon of Phobos as the initial destination \u2013 including a close fly-by of Venus en-route.<\/p>\n Some claim the political will would only become viable via an international agreement \u2013 not unlike the successful arrangement with the International Space Station (ISS). Others claim it would be a viable proposal through a commercial\/private effort via the likes of SpaceX.<\/p>\n Something that would help grease the wheels of the money men may arrive via Curiosity, should she find Martians \u2013 albeit is very tiny ones \u2013 during her exploration of the Red Planet. So long as she remembers to phone the President.<\/p>\n (Images: Via NASA and L2). L2\u2019s growing sections include presentations, videos, graphics and internal updates on Orion and other future spacecraft, all available no where else on a public website.<\/p>\n (L2 is \u2013 as it has been for the past several years \u2013 providing full exclusive future vehicle coverage. To join L2, and directly support NSF\u2019s running costs, click here: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Obama phoned the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team on Monday, congratulating them on their amazing Entry, Landing and Descent (EDL) efforts that resulted in NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover landing safely on the surface of Mars. He also joked that if Curiosity makes contact with Martians, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team should inform him right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[367,4217],"class_list":["post-40046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-mars","tag-msl"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Z67.jpg\" "\\"Z6\\"")
That first movement will allow for the initial checkouts to access the status of the Rover\u2019s primary exploration assets, lasting a few additional weeks. All checkouts to date \u2013 including radiation measurements, camera evaluations and the lofting of MSL\u2019s all-important Mast \u2013 have all been deemed successful.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Z199.jpg\" "\\"Z199\\"")
Although there has been a drop-off in public interest in the mission since the intense EDL events, President Obama firmly placed Curiosity back into the news via his phone call with the assembled team at the Mission Control Room in California.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Z200.jpg\" "\\"Z200\\"")
Large parts of the call was dedicated to the more serious nature of the mission, heaping praise on the team, including the most notable names to find their way into public fandom \u2013 such as charismatic EDL lead Adam Steltzner and \u201cMohawk Guy\u201d Bobak Ferdowsi. He also noted the inspirational aspects of the mission for the next generation.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Z201.jpg\" "\\"Z201\\"")
The only problem with the next step up, from the robotic to the human exploration of Mars, is the leap in technology required to transport, sustain and return a crew safely from a mission involving the Red Planet.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Z117.jpg\" "\\"Z117\\"")
All notional human missions to Mars will require advances in life support systems, habitat modules for the journeys, potential advancements in propulsion technology, an array of hardware to be delivered to the surface, all launched by a fleet of Heavy Lift Launch Vehicles (HLVs) \u2013 known as the Space Launch System (SLS) \u2013 and a very large truck to carry the billions it would all cost.<\/p>\n