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Timeline of Mars Science Laboratory: Difference between revisions

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This is a chronological list of discovery, information, pictures, and videos about the Mars NASA MSL Curiosity mission.

Before landing on Mars

November 2011

November 26 - Launch from Earth

November 28 - Separation

Landing on Mars

• The Curiosity Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) captured the rover's descent to the surface of Mars. The instrument shot 4 fps video from heatshield separation to the ground.^[14]
• 
  This image was taken by Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 0 (2012-08-06 05:15:30 UTC).^[15]
• 
  NASA's Curiosity rover and its parachute were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as Curiosity descended to the surface on 5 Aug 2012 PDT (6 Aug EDT).^[16]
• 
  The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA's Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).^[17]

The following data were compiled by Curiosity's Entry, Descent and Landing team at NASA's Jet Propulsion LaboratoryinPasadena, California. It provides a timeline of critical mission events that occurred on the evening of August 5 PDT (early on August 6 EDT).^[21]

Curiosity's EDL team releases a timeline for mission milestones (depicted in this artist's concept) surrounding the landing of the Mars rover.

After landing on Mars

Surface mission start

Sol 0

• 
  First picture by MSL Curiosity from Mars^[22]
• 
  This is the full-resolution version of one of the first images taken by a rear Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA's Curiosity rover.^[23]
• 
  The Curiosity rover landed on August 6, 2012 about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the base of Aeolis Mons (or Mount Sharp)^[24]

Sol 1

First Color Image of the Martian Landscape Returned from Curiosity ^[25]

Sol 2

This is the first 360-degree panoramic view from NASA's Curiosity rover, taken with the Navigation cameras.^[28][29]

This is the first image taken by the Navigation cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover. It shows the shadow of the rover's now-upright mast in the center, and the arm's shadow at left. The arm itself can be seen in the foreground. ^[30]

This mosaic image shows part of the left side of NASA's Curiosity rover and two blast marks from the descent stage's rocket engines. The images that were used to make the mosaic were obtained by the rover's Navigation cameras.^[31]

This self portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover was taken by its navigation cameras, located on the now-upright mast.^[32]

This image comparison shows a view through a Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA's Curiosity rover before and after the clear dust cover was removed.^[33]

Sol 3

This is the first 360-degree panorama in color of the Gale Crater landing site taken by NASA's Curiosity rover. The panorama was made from thumbnail versions of images taken by the Mast Camera.^[34]

These images were taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 3^[36][37]

This color image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows part of the wall of Gale Crater, the location on Mars where the rover landed on August 5, 2012 PDT (August 6, 2012 EDT). This is part of a larger, high-resolution color mosaic made from images obtained by Curiosity's Mast Camera.^[38]

Pictures acquired by the Mastcam of the surface of Mars. ^{[39][40][41][42][43][44]}

Sol 4

Sol 5

No science or instrument activities planned on Sol 5 ^[48]

Sol 6

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2012)

Sol 7

Sol 8

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2012)

Sol 9

Sol 10

This image was taken by Navcam: Left A (NAV_LEFT_A) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity ^[54]

Sol 11

MSL Curiosity rover Experiment No. 1[55]
Image	Instrument	Notes	Status
	Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument	This close-up image shows the first target NASA's Curiosity rover aims to zap with its Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument. ChemCam will be firing a laser at this rock, provisionally named N165, and analyzing the glowing, ionized gas, called plasma, that the laser excites. The instrument will analyze that spark with a telescope and identify the chemical elements in the target.[56]	Planned [56]

Sol 12

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Planned events

Sol

The term sol is used by planetary astronomers to refer to the duration of a solar day on Mars.^[61] A mean Martian solar day, or "sol", is 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds.^[62]

See also

• Mars
• Exploration of Mars
• NASA Missions

References

External links

• MSL Official Page
• NASA Official MSL Page
• JPL Official MSL Page

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