RSS Feed
June 12th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda NASA has announced it has adjusted the landing area of the Mars Science Laboratory, also known as Curiosity, currently en route to Mars. The plan would cut half the travel time to Curiosity’s prime science area but does entail some risks.
Curiosity’s target is the Gale Crater
Curiosity’s target landing zone is in Gale Crater, thought to be 3.5 billion to 3.8 billion years old. Gale has a central mound called the Aeolis Mons that is surrounded by fields of rubble and rock. Aeolis Mons has a number of layers, including clay at the bottom, sulfur-bearing minerals on top of that, and oxygen-bearing minerals on top of that. Water seems to have flowed in the distant past, cutting channels in the Aeolis Mons and the crater wall. The area around and on the mound is considered scientifically significant.
Changing landing strategy
According to NASA, the landing strategy was to set Curiosity down in a 12-mile-by-16-mile ellipse next to the mound. But further analysis of the probe’s capabilities has led NASA to give Curiosity a software upgrade. This will allow the probe to land in the smaller area, closer to the Aeolis Mons.
Risk involved
There is some increased risk involved in setting Curiosity closer to the target area, according to NASA. There is the possibility it would land in the boulder strewn field, coming to grief. But NASA believes the risk is acceptable because it would cut in half the time and distance it will take Curiosity to travel to its prime science area at the foot of the Aeolis Mons.
Curiosity to land in early August
Curiosity is still scheduled to land on Aug. 5, at 1:31 a.m. EDT, according to NASA. Two NASA Mars orbiters and another European Space Agency Mars Orbiter will be in position to monitor Curiosity’s radio transmissions as it comes into a landing.
The Mars Science Laboratory
According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Curiosity is a car-sized rover with a suite of instruments designed to analyze samples scooped from the Martian soil and drilled out of Martian rocks. The probe will analyze the samples as well as the geological context of the area it will explore to determine whether Mars was once habitable and also if it is still capable of sustaining life. It is designed for a long life span as it is powered with a radioisotope power system that derives energy from the heat caused by the decay of plutonium-238.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.
Posted in 
Tags: 
