MSL 'Curiosity': SUCCESS!!

[Dr Mordrid]

The Mars Science Laboratory, aka Curiosity, is scheduled for launch Nov. 25, 2011. Curiosity will be the largest robotic rover so far, about the size of a Mini Cooper car & weighing 900 kg, and will be nuclear powered so no downtime due to lack of solar power. It also has a high degree of autonomy - not needing a full time driver they can tell it where to go and it'll drive itself.

Curiosity will have a wide array of sensors ranging from multiple high resolution cameras & HD video to an x-ray spectrometer, chemical laboratory, biological laboratory, radiation sensors, etc. etc. It even has a powerful laser with which it can vaporize materials at a range of up to 7 meters so an optical spectrograph (ChemCam) can analyse the resulting plasma. Energy at the focal point: 10 megawatts. A bigtime powerhouse.

Curiosity will ride on an Atlas V 541 launcher, the numbers indicating a 5.4 meter diameter payload fairing, 1 core booster, and 4 solid fuel rockets strapped to the core. The second stage will have 2 Centaur liquid hydrogen engines. Big.

This is going to be fun

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

MER-Spirit/Opportunity, Sojourner, and MSL-Curiosity

[Evildead666]

Just has to make it there in one piece

[KRSESQ]

Thankfully the Russians aren't sending it up.

[Evildead666]

Not speaking of just the launch. It could quite happily fail on landing
iirc the stats for successful Mars landings is pretty bad.

[VJ]

Thankfully the Russians aren't sending it up.

Funny how this stereotype still remains... while the Russians are currently the only ones capable of sending something to ISS...

[Dr Mordrid]

But since 1960 Russia is 0-17 when it comes to Mars missions, with a real possibility of 0-18 if Phobos-Grunt fails.

As for ISS - Japan and ESA can both haul cargo there, soon to be joined by Dragon and Cygnus from the US and multiple US crew vehicles within a few years, and all of them will have higher capacities than Progress or Soyuz.

Even China's Shenzhou is considerably larger than Soyuz, and the cargo version of Tiangong is going to be huge even if they haven't yet been allowed into the ISS consortium. Solution: they're building their own mini-MIR.

[Evildead666]

I doubt it will be mini at all.

I expect them to build quite large even.

[Dr Mordrid]

MIR: 124,340 kg & 350 m3

China: ~60,000 kg & ~170 m3

Big enough.

The "cargo spaceship" is a cargo version of
with a 6,000 kg pressurized capacity.

[Evildead666]

Thats the current plan, yes.
But whats to stop them from saying "its working so well we're going to treble or quadruple it in size" ?

[Dr Mordrid]

Not a damnd thing, and they have a good spacecraft in Shenzhou.

[Dr Mordrid]

Today's the day for the Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

Get your popcorn ready

http://curiositylaunch.jpl.nasa.gov/Home/LaunchHome

Launch day weather: favorable, 30% chance

Atlas V (AVO 28)

First stage engine: RD180 (Russian - Kerosene and LOX)
Second stage engine: Centaur (US - LH2 and LOX
Solid boosters: 4 (US - first time for this config)
Launch weight: 1.2 million lb
Total thrust: 2 million lb-f
Solids burn out: T+ 90 sec
Main engine cut out: T+ 4:30

First Centaur burn is 7 minutes to parking orbit; 19 1/2 minute coast; a trans-Mars injection (TMI) burn of 8 minutes, then 4 minutes later the spacecraft separates and MSL is on the way.

Total launch time: 42 minutes.

Saturday AM schedule

3 AM powerup (EST)
5:30 AM Call to stations
7 AM weather briefing
30 minute hold at T- 2 hours
Tanking should beging just before 8 AM
Launch scheduled 10:02 AM,
Launch window extends until 11:45 AM

14+ minutes between attempts

[Dr Mordrid]

Smooth launch & flight with a few booster telemetry losses, but a perfect flight computer - no human intervention necessary.

Curiosty is on her way to Mars.

[KRSESQ]

And that, tovarich, is how it's done.

(Actually that was the easy part. The hard part comes in August.)

[Dr Mordrid]

It's looking like the first mid-course correction may be cancelled - they scored a bulls-eye with the launch. Engineering checkout in December.

[Dr Mordrid]

Launch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUzvGGqvZLA

MSL separation (rotation = spin-stabilization)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxzwf99_feo