At 8:02 a.m. MT, on November 26th, NASA will attempt to launch the new Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, Curiosity, and three Denver-area groups have contributed to the endeavor.
The aeroshell capsule for Curiosity was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Littleton. The aeroshell will protect the rover during the trip to Mars and during its descent through the extreme temperatures of the Martian atmosphere. The aeroshell is 14.8 feet in diameter and consists of a heat shield that will face in the direction of travel toward Mars and a backshell.
United Launch Alliance (a joint venture of the Boeing Co. and the Lockheed Martin Corp.) in Centennial is contributing the Atlas V-541 launch vehicle that will make lift-off possible.
The Atlas V-541 rocket is capable of handling heavy weight lift-offs. The rocket itself weighs 1.17 million pounds when fully fueled; the rough equivalent of 14 big rigs ... more than enough muscle to carry Curiosity (weighing in at just a little more than most cars) into space.
This type of launch rocket is expendable and used only once. The main components of the Atlas V-541 rocket are the stage 1 Atlas V rocket, containing the fuel and oxygen that feed the ascent engine, the four solid rocket motors that are used to initiate thrust, the stage two Centaur that fires to insert into low orbit and again to accelerate out of Earth's orbit, and the payload fairing, which is a thin composite "nose" for protection during ascent.
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder has built a part of the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD). Ten different science instruments will be on board, though Don M. Hassler of SwRI is the principal investigator for the RAD, an energetic particle spectrometer.
The instument has a solid-state detector stack and Csl calorimeter. It identifies charged energetic particles using active conicidence logic. It is specifiacally designed for study of the Martian surface. Its primary goal is to assess the radiation present in both the Mars atmosphere and regolith, thereby determining the amount of radiation humans would be exposed to. Also, in the course of determining if microbial life existed on Mars, the amount of radiation commonly present can give clues to either that life's demise or survival. The RAD will help make this assessment.
The rover's other equipment will also be used in the prime mission to attempt to discern whether microbial life has ever had favorable conditions on the Red Planet and whether life existed. These studies will take place at the landing region.
Curiosity will be conducting the most intensive study of the Mars surface ever attempted to date. It is the size of an SUV and carries cameras, is equipped with a robotic arm, drill and a rock vaporizing laser.
Solar panels will not provide enough power for equipment like this, so a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG) will be used, powered with ten pounds of plutonium. This is expected to last the duration of the mission.
Though extremely dangerous, the plutonium has a very low chance of escaping the casing and NASA is taking precautions nevertheless.
This kind of power source is not unique and has been used 26 times before in missions including the Apollo moon landings, the Viking Mars landers, the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft, the Galileo Jupiter mission, the Cassini Saturn mission, the New Horizons Pluto mission, and Juno, to name a few.
The launch will take place from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Force Station in Florida, inside of the one-hour and 43 minute launch window.
The expected date of arrival to Mars is early August of 2012. The primary mission will last one Martian year which is the equivalent of almost 2 Earth years.
Managing the MSL Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington will be NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is a part of the California Institute of Technology in Pasedena, California.
attribution: nasa.gov, Gary Napier
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