Beyond Earth, was there ever Life in our Solar System?

Curiosity Rover: Robotic Geologist

Shannon Bohle, BA, MLIS, CDS (CANTAB), FRAS, AHIP

Summer Moon Festival - July 20, 2013Armstrong Air & Space Museum (Wapakoneta, Ohio)

Planetary Science

Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, Director of the Astronomical Museum of Brera,

commissioned Georg Merz to build thisrefractor telescope (1862).

Image Credit: Museo Astronomico Orto Botanico di Brera

Pathfinder

MSLMER

Transportation

● How far will the wheels sink?

● What is the soil resistance?

Curiosity’s wheels have holes in them that leave a pattern: Morse code for JPL

Rocker-Bogie Suspension System

Wheel Sizes for Different Mars Rovers

RAD instrument measures ultraviolet radiation

Typical American = 6.2 millisieverts a year

Trip to Mars = 554 -770 millisieverts

Radiation

Engineers work in clean room conditions so they do not accidentally introduce living organisms that might give false readings while trying to detect life on Mars.

Building Curiosity

Curiosity carried the names of people from around the world to Mars on a microchip.

“The spacecraft's descent into the Martian atmosphere was guided by small rockets on its way toward the surface. “ This is a very human-friendly way of landing and, perhaps in the future, with the crew-carrying Orion Spacecraft. Source: NASA JPL

Entry

“Mars Science Laboratory used a bold, new landing system…As the spacecraft lost speed, rockets fired again, controlling the spacecraft's descent until the rover separated from its final delivery system, the sky crane. Like a large crane on Earth, the sky crane touchdown system lowered the rover to a ‘soft landing’--wheels down-on the surface of Mars, ready to begin its mission.” Source: NASA JPL

Descent and Landing

Touchdown!

Rover Report June 13, 2013 - Curiosity's Camerashttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2rwWECbEHg&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLE8C83FF0367EEF8C

MastCam Finds Evidence of Stream Flow: December 7, 2012

“This stratigraphic unit is called the Shaler Unit. Decimeter-scale cross-bedding in the Shaler Unit is indicative of sediment transport in stream flows.

Currents mold the sediments into small underwater dunes that migrate downstream.

When exposed in cross-section, evidence of this migration is preserved as strata that are steeply inclined relative to the horizontal –

thus the term "cross-bedding." The grain sizes here are coarse enough to exclude wind transport. ” Source and Image Credit: NASA JPL /Caltech / MSSS

Rover Report October 26, 2012 - ChemCam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDgv14Qtl1c&list=PLE8C83FF0367EEF8C

Rover Report March 15, 2013 - Evidence for Life?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUVmyI9yjyU

Rover Report July 11, 2013 - Trek to Mount Sharp Beginshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vluaivJqo9w#at=12

SUMMARYKey Findings and Advances to Date

● Water flowed on Mars in its history ● Soil samples showed chemical elements necessary for life are present, so a ‘return sample’ mission is planned ● Radiation levels are higher than expected

● US is still the only country to successfully land on Mars● The rover ‘s power source changed from solar to nuclear● The rover is much bigger and heavier than earlier rovers, about the size of a car that could potentially hold people

● A completely new human-friendly method of landing on Mars with a parachute succeeded

GEOLOGY AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE

ROVER AND SPACEFLIGHT TECHNOLOGY

Shannon Bohle, BA, MLIS, CDS (CANTAB), FRAS, AHIP

Email: sb838@cantab.netBlog: Scientific and Medical Libraries (Nature.com/Scientific American)

Twitter: @SciMedLibraries