SciByte

The signals received from Phobos–Grunt were much stronger than those initially received on 22 November, in part due to having better knowledge of the spacecraft's orbital position

Telemetry typically includes information on the status and health of a spacecraft's systems

24 November

November 24

telemetric data from the spacecraft could help identify the causes of the failure and make adjustments for future interplanetary missions

Elsewhere on the rover is the autograph of the 14-year-old girl from Kansas who gave Curiosity its name

millions of digital signatures from members of the public who signed up through NASA

NASA's Mars program leaders round out the autographs on the plate

It's on the rover in the front left corner

it will be visible and that at some point will be photographed on Mars by Curiosity's camera-topped mast

"When we made the request to the White House for permission to launch, we took this along with us and said, 'Oh by the way, if you sign this we will stick it on the rover.'"

Clara Ma, who won NASA's naming contest with the suggestion of "Curiosity," signed the rover in 2009

As part of her prize, she was invited to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, where in June 2009 she donned a "bunny suit" to step into a clean room and sign her name on the rover

Silicon chips attached to Curiosity's deck bear the digital signatures of people who submitted their names through NASA's website for going to Mars aboard the rover. Each chip is about the size of a dime

More than 1.24 million names were submitted online

etched into silicon using an electron-beam machine used for fabricating micro-devices at JPL

more than 20,000 visitors to locations of work on the rover at JPL and Kennedy Space Center wrote their names on pages, which were scanned and reproduced at microscopic scale on another chip

As Curiosity drives over the martian terrain, the groves in each wheel will form a string of 'dash' and 'dot' imprints — morse code that will spell out "J-P-L."

Equipped with four solid-fuel strap-on boosters for additional power, the 1.2-million-pound

Four-and-a-half minutes after takeoff, the first stage dropped away

hydrogen-fueled RL10 engine at the base of the Centaur second stage ignited

parking orbit 11-and-a-half minutes after launch.

Telemetry from the rocket was spotty during a 20-minute coast to the Mars departure point

Earth-escape velocity of 22,500 mph

Mars Science Laboratory and its solar-powered interplanetary cruise stage separated from the Centaur

During the eight-and-a-half-month cruise to Mars

test the rover's instruments

adjust the craft's trajectory

tweak the control software

Curiosity will reach the red planet on Aug. 5

Mass 900 kg (2,000 lb)[

Power Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG)

the general public had an opportunity to rank nine finalist names through a public poll on the NASA website

Curiosity was selected, which was submitted by a sixth-grader, Clara Ma, from Kansas in an essay contest

10 ft (3.0 m) in length

radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), as used by the successful Mars landers Viking 1 and Viking 2 in 1976

Radioisotope power systems are generators that produce electricity from the natural decay of plutonium-238, which is a non-fissile isotope of plutonium used in power systems for NASA spacecraft. Heat given off by the natural decay of this isotope is converted into electricity, providing constant power during all seasons and through the day and night, and waste heat can be used via pipes to warm systems, freeing electrical power for the operation of the vehicle and instruments

designed to produce 125 watts of electrical power from about 2000 watts of thermal power at the start of the mission

lifetime of 14 years, electrical power output is down to 100 watts

"Rover Compute Element" (RCE), contain radiation hardened memory to tolerate the extreme radiation environment from space and to safeguard against power-off cycles

256 kB of EEPROM, 256 MB of DRAM, and 2 GB of flash memory

will function much like a high-powered magnifying glass

instrument will take color pictures of features as tiny as 12.5 microns — smaller than the width of a human hair

MAHLI sits on the end of Curiosity's five-jointed, 7-foot (2.1-meter) robotic arm

Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)

small camera located on Curiosity's main body, will record video of the rover's descent to the Martian surface

will click on a mile or two above the ground, as soon as Curiosity jettisons its heat shield. The instrument will then take video at five frames per second until the rover touches down. The footage will help the MSL team plan Curiosity's Red Planet rovings, and it should also provide information about the geological context of the landing site, the 100-mile-wide

Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)

makes up about half of the rover's science payload.

a suite of three separate instruments — a mass spectrometer, a gas chromatograph and a laser spectrometer

will search for carbon-containing compounds, the building blocks of life as we know it

look for other elements associated with life on Earth, such as hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen

The rover's robotic arm will drop samples into SAM via an inlet on the rover's exterior

Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin)

CheMin will identify different types of minerals on Mars and quantify their abundance

will help scientists better understand past environmental conditions on the Red Planet

CheMin has an inlet on Curiosity's exterior to accept samples delivered by the rover's robotic arm

will shine a fine X-ray beam through the sample, identifying minerals' crystalline structures based on how the X-rays diffract

Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam)

This instrument will fire a laser at Martian rocks from up to 30 feet (9 meters) away and analyze the composition of the vaporized bits

help the mission team determine from afar whether or not they want to send the rover over to investigate a particular landform

The laser sits on Curiosity's mast, along with a camera and a small telescope

Three spectrographs sit in the rover's body, connected to the mast components by fiber optics

spectrographs will analyze the light emitted by excited electrons in the vaporized rock samples

Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS)

sits at the end of Curiosity's arm, will measure the abundances of various chemical elements in Martian rocks and dirt

APXS will shoot out X-rays and helium nuclei. This barrage will knock electrons in the sample out of their orbits, causing a release of X-rays. Scientists will be able to identify elements based on the characteristic energies of these emitted X-rays

Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN)

located near the back of Curiosity's main body, will help the rover search for ice and water-logged minerals beneath the Martian surface

The instrument will fire beams of neutrons at the ground, then note the speed at which these particles travel when they bounce back. Hydrogen atoms tend to slow neutrons down, so an abundance of sluggish neutrons would signal underground water or ice

should be able to map out water concentrations as low as 0.1 percent at depths up to 6 feet (2 m).

Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD)

instrument will measure and identify high-energy radiation of all types on the Red Planet, from fast-moving protons to gamma rays

designed specifically to help prepare for future human exploration of Mars

will allow scientists to determine just how much radiation an astronaut would be exposed to on Mars

Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS)

partway up Curiosity's mast, is a Martian weather station

measure atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, air temperature, ground temperature and ultraviolet radiation.

integrated into daily and seasonal reports

MSL Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI)

MEDLI isn't one of Curiosity's 10 instruments

will measure the temperatures and pressures the heat shield experiences as the MSL spacecraft streaks through the Martian sky

will tell engineers how well the heat shield, and their models of the spacecraft's trajectory, performed

data to improve designs for future Mars-bound spacecraft