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Curiosity Completes Crucial Course Correction – 1 Week from Mars !

Sunday, July 29, 2012 19:32

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(Before It's News)

Image Caption: Course correcting thruster firings on July 29 successfully placed Curiosity on target to touchdown beside Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater on Mars on Aug 6 in search of signs of a habitable environment. Credit: NASA

Now just 1 week out from landing beside a layered Martian mountain in search of life’s ingredients, aiming thrusters aboard the cruise stage of NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab successfully fired to set the rover precisely on course for a touchdown on Mars at about 1:31 a.m. EDT (531 GMT) early on Aug. 6 (10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5).

Two precise and brief thruster bursts lasting about 7 seconds were successfully carried out just hours ago earlier today at 1 a.m. on July 29, EDT (10 p.m. PDT on July 28). The effect was to change the spacecraft’s velocity by about 1/40 MPH or 1 cm/sec as it smashes into Mars at about 13,200 mph (5,900 meters per second). (…)
Read the rest of Curiosity Completes Crucial Course Correction – 1 Week from Mars ! (446 words)

© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Curiosity, Curiosity Rover, EDL, Gale crater, Mars, Mars Rovers, Mount Sharp, MSL, NASA, Search for Life