PRESS RELEASE Date Released: Monday, July 30, 2012 Source: Ames Research Center

NASA Ames Celebrates Curiosity Rover's Landing on Mars

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. - NASA's Ames Research Center will celebrate the upcoming landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars with a variety of activities. Included will be pre- and post-landing live televised broadcasts of NASA news briefings featuring local Mars experts, a huge public event expected to attract thousands of spectators, and the first ever multi-center NASA Social highlighting Ames' role in the mission for social media.

During a critical period lasting about seven minutes, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft carrying Curiosity must decelerate from about 13,200 mph to about 1.7 mph for the rover to land on the surface at approximately 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5. Curiosity will investigate whether an area with a wet history inside Mars' Gale Crater ever has offered an environment favorable for microbial life. The mission is a precursor for future human missions to Mars, which President Obama has set a challenge to reach in the 2030s.

Ames is contributing to this exciting mission in a variety of ways, including:

- CheMin: Ames is the lead for the Chemical and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument that will identify and quantify the minerals in Martian rocks and soils.

- Arc Jet testing: The MSL heat shield was tested at Ames' Arc Jet Complex, which reproduces heating and pressure conditions similar to those experienced by spacecraft during atmospheric re-entry.

- Parachute testing: Wind tunnel engineers conducted a full-scale MSL parachute deployment, small-scale verification tests and supersonic tests to study the interaction between the MSL capsule and parachute during atmospheric entry.

- PICA: Researchers invented the unique thermal protection system consisting of tiles made of Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) that the MSL spacecraft will use to safely reach the surface of the Red Planet.

- MEDLI: The Mars Science Laboratory Entry, Descent and Landing Instrument (MEDLI) contains multiple sophisticated temperature sensors to measure atmospheric conditions and performance of the capsule's heat shield.

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NASA Ames Celebrates Curiosity Rover's Landing on Mars