First Recorded Human Voice from Earth to Another Planet and Back --NASA Mars' Curiosity Mission
First Recorded Human Voice from Earth to Another Planet and Back --NASA Mars' Curiosity MissionThe Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy
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In historic spoken words radioed to the rover on Mars and back to NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) on Earth, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden noted the difficulty of landing a rover on Mars, congratulated NASA employees and the agency's commercial and government partners on the successful landing of Curiosity earlier this month, and said curiosity is what drives humans to explore.
"With this voice, another small step is taken in extending human presence beyond Earth, and the experience of exploring remote worlds is brought a little closer to us all," said Dave Lavery, NASA Curiosity program executive. "As Curiosity continues its mission, we hope these words will be an inspiration to someone alive today who will become the first to stand upon the surface of Mars. And like the great Neil Armstrong, they will speak aloud of that next giant leap in human exploration."
"The knowledge we hope to gain from our observation and analysis of Gale Crater will tell us much about the possibility of life on Mars as well as the past and future possibilities for our own planet. Curiosity will bring benefits to Earth and inspire a new generation of scientists and explorers, as it prepares the way for a human mission in the not too distant future," Bolden said in the recorded message.
The telephoto images beamed back to Earth show a scene of eroded knobs and gulches on a mountainside, with geological layering clearly exposed. The new views were taken by the 100-millimeter telephoto lens and the 34-milllimeter wide angle lens of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument. Mastcam has photographed the lower slope of the nearby mountain called Mount Sharp.
"This is an area on Mount Sharp where Curiosity will go," said Mastcam principal investigator Michael Malin, of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. "Those layers are our ultimate objective. The dark dune field is between us and those layers. In front of the dark sand you see redder sand, with a different composition suggested by its different color. The rocks in the foreground show diversity -- some rounded, some angular, with different histories. This is a very rich geological site to look at and eventually to drive through."
A drive early Monday placed Curiosity directly over a patch where one of the spacecraft's landing engines scoured away a few inches of gravelly soil and exposed underlying rock. Researchers plan to use a neutron-shooting instrument on the rover to check for water molecules bound into minerals at this partially excavated target. *During the news conference, the rover team reported the results of a test on Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, which can measure the composition of samples of atmosphere, powdered rock or soil. The amount of air from Earth's atmosphere remaining in the instrument after Curiosity's launch was more than expected, so a difference in pressure on either side of tiny pumps led SAM operators to stop pumping out the remaining Earth air as a precaution. The pumps subsequently worked, and a chemical analysis was completed on a sample of Earth air.
"As a test of the instrument, the results are beautiful confirmation of the sensitivities for identifying the gases present," said SAM principal investigator Paul Mahaffy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "We're happy with this test and we're looking forward to the next run in a few days when we can get Mars data."
Curiosity already is returning more data from the Martian surface than have all of NASA's earlier rovers combined.
"We have an international network of telecommunications relay orbiters bringing data back from Curiosity," said JPL's Chad Edwards, chief telecommunications engineer for NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "Curiosity is boosting its data return by using a new capability for adjusting its transmission rate."
Curiosity is 3 weeks into a two-year prime mission on Mars. It will use 10 science instruments to assess whether the selected study area ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.
Listen to the Historic NASA/Mars Audio Message
Posted at 08:00 AM | Permalink
Comments
Wouldn't it be better to play this sound on mars itself with loudspeakers, record it with a microphone and send it back to earth, so we could listen the way it sounded on mars? It would also be the first human words uttered on a different planet.
Posted by:DwarfGalaxy |August 27, 2012 at 09:19 PM
'Curiosity already is returning more data from the Martian surface than have all of Nasa's earlier rovers combined.'
Brilliant!
Posted by:Ruth Mc |August 28, 2012 at 10:05 AM
DwarfGalaxy
I like that idea. Hope NASA gets it.
Posted by:smartypants |August 28, 2012 at 06:55 PM
I have a better idea. How about we stop all the cheap publicity stunts and get on with expanding our presence in the solar system and knowledge of the universe?
Posted by:Nick Eftimiades |August 29, 2012 at 02:28 AM
Why is Mars part of the "Deep Space Network"?
Posted by:Robert |August 29, 2012 at 05:54 AM
"small step" and "giant leap". Sound familiar? zzzzzzzzzzzz...
Posted by:Robert |August 29, 2012 at 05:56 AM
Nick
The acoustics would be studied just like any picture for any kinds of anomalys and I am sure would raise new questions and answer some old ones. Or not but its more positive data towards martian environments for when we do go there. And yea, cheap publicity stunt maybe but its still something more solid than "expanding our presence in the solar system and knowledge of the universe" which we are doing more of daily. Really no way to say that without sounding like a smartass i guess.
Posted by:smartypants |August 29, 2012 at 03:21 PM
I have a better idea. How about we stop all the cheap publicity stunts and get on with expanding our presence in the solar system and knowledge of the universe?
Posted by:Jacuba |August 30, 2012 at 03:27 AM
Thats great! We all agree then. MORE cheap publicity stunts for everyone!
Posted by:smartypants |August 30, 2012 at 05:58 PM
Are we gonna do the "small step" "giant leap" thing everything man lands on something? lol I hope that's not our motto
Posted by:ihumanity |August 31, 2012 at 08:05 PM
How about this for a first step motto? As the first astronaut steps on whichever planet, moon or unnatural spot for humans to be, he says to all the native life from amoebas and up "Get the hell off of my planet!!".
Posted by:our motto |September 01, 2012 at 10:23 AM
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