The Mars Rover Curiosity

It is an understatement to say that the Mars Exploration Rover mission is successful, as the findings that were uncovered during this mission was iconic as it helped identify many unknown questions of the planet, Mars. This mission that was carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, otherwise known as NASA, which had employed two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to travel miles around the terrain of Mars to collect the data and findings, which would then transfer it back to Earth. This paper will discuss many challenges that the Mars Exploration Rover mission had encountered, whilst also highlighting through the findings and data, the many breakthroughs and achievements that had been made during the lifecycle of the project. Therefore, through analysing and evaluating the advancements and shortcomings of this mission, we can continually make improvements on the methods of space exploration and have a greater understanding of the past

A question that has been asked for many reasons in the space world: Is there life on other planets? A mission called Curiosity launched in 2011. Curiosity has been on Mars since August.Curiosity’s goal was to find signs of water and see if Mars was suitable for life. The surprising fact on Mars is there is presence of water. One key element was Mars once had habitable conditions and there looks to be ice on the planet. Curiosity has been using a camera to take photos of Mars. It is much like the panoramic camera we have on Earth. Both cameras have the same material incorporated in them and are used for the same purpose.

Then came the disaster that would change not only change space, but also US history. The Challenger exploded mid-flight on their way to their historic mission. What went wrong? What actually happened to cause a veteran space shuttle such as Challenger to dysfunction on its tenth run? A videotape showed black smoke coming from the bottom field joint of the right solid rocket booster (SRB). The black smoke suggested that grease, joint insulation, and rubber O-rings were being burned. The smoke continued to come from the bottom field joint facing the exterior tank in cycles of three puffs of smoke per second. The black smoke was an indication that the bottom field joint was not sealing correctly. Into flight the a flame was seen coming from the right SRB. The flame was coming from the underside of the bottom joint. As the flame increased in size, it had begun to push against the external tank due to the rushing air around the orbiter. Soon later there was a sudden chain of events that destroyed Challenger and the seven crew members on

In November of 1986 when the space shuttle Challenger launched for its voyage it broke apart in the atmosphere after 73 seconds; because the O-rings could not hold at the cold temperatures. This was an issue brought up by scientists and later

On an unusually cool Florida morning in January 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 50,000 feet above ground just moments after liftoff killing seven crew members onboard (Palmer, Dunford, and Akin, 2009). A presidential commission, dubbed “the Rogers Commission” (hereafter, the Commission) after former Secretary of State William Rogers, was appointed to investigate the cause of the disaster. Although mechanical failure of an O-ring seal in one of the rocket boosters was identified as the physical cause, the investigation revealed something much more disheartening; organizational deficiencies at NASA had allowed potential safety hazards to be disregarded. The disastrous consequences of NASA’s organizational failure prompted calls

days, due to technical problems and the poor weather. By the day of the launch, January 28th, the managers made the decision to go ahead with the launch, even though all of the engineers warned against it as the rubber O­rings could fail due to the low temperatures. The space shuttle exploded 73 seconds after lift, claiming the lives of all the seven astronauts inside ("​The Space Race”)​. Though this was a disaster, it prompted important investigations into NASA and the safety of shuttles that would later bring man to the moon. Top NASA executives

The Challenger exploded on its tenth flight during mission STS-51L, killing all seven crew members. The explosion occurred 73 seconds after the shuttle took liftoff, and the reason behind the explosion were the faulty O-rings. There were predictions that if the O-rings were to malfunction due to the cold temperatures, the rockets could explode before the shuttle took off from the Launchpad (Miller 79).

Executive Summary Many factors must be examined to find the underlying reason for the horrible disaster of the space shuttle Challenger. We will cover both the technical causes to the disaster and the communication breakdown with NASA. We will also look at the outside pressure that NASA was receiving from the media, congress and the military. Recommendations for NASA and anyone in the communication field will be given. These recommendations will help to avoid any further problems with communication in any organization. The O-rings failed to properly seal the gap in the joint seal. Failure of the Orings was the ultimate mechanical cause to the explosion of the Challenger.

[7] NASA [Internet]. [NASA] National Aeronautics and Space Administration [cited 2015 January 23]. Available from http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/science/goal4-results.html

1. Following the explosion of the 25th space shuttle flight, which was caused by an O-ring failure in one or more of the booster rockets, data from the previous 24 flights were studied. The Temperature (F) at the time of launch and whether or not there was evidence of O-ring failures for each of the previous 24 shuttle flights was determined for each flight. A logistic regression relating the Failure of O-rings to the Temperature was obtained with the following result:

There was a failure during the launch of the space shuttle challenger with one of the 0-rings on the solid-propellant boosters. It had become brittle by the cold weather and failed. This catastrophe led to an explosion shortly after liftoff. Engineers who had designed the 0-rings had apprehensions about launching under these extreme cold conditions. The engineers recommended that the launch be postponed, but they were overridden by their management. The management team did not believe that there were enough statistics to support a postponement of the launch. The shuttle was launched, causing the infamous accident.

When the Space Shuttle and rockets were made the fuel source is liquid hydrogen. When keeping liquid hydrogen it has to be kept at a very low temperature. So to prevent frost from around the fuel tank a great amount of light foam was put around the tank to keep the liquid cool. This foam is light like any foam would find but very brittle and that is why it broke off of the main booster. As a result of the foam falling off of the main booster it had a severely damaged a piece of the heat shield on the outside of the Shuttle housing the

Communication between Morton Thiokol (the company that designed the Solid Rocket Boosters) engineers and NASA management was also very poor. After the incident, Roger Boisjoly, a Morton Thiokol engineer, stated that the meetings prior to the Challenger launch were filled with "intense customer intimidation" (Boisjoly 1). Obviously, this was not a conducive environment to creating an atmosphere where everyone was comfortable expressing their opinions and making thoughtful decisions. The truth of the is that Morton Thiokol did not have any information on how its Solid Rocket Boosters and O-rings would perform at temperatures less than 51 ºF. The night before the launch, the temperature outside fell to 18 ºF, and in the morning of the launch the temperature was at 36 ºF. At that moment, some engineers believed that the boosters would still be able to function safely under these conditions, however many were very worried that the temperature would cause a failure. The inability of the Morton Thiokol engineers to convey their concerns to the NASA management and convince them to postpone the shuttle's launch is a factor that led to the tragic

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), also known as the Curiosity rover, is a NASA mission with the goal of discovering details about past and present-day Mars. The primary purpose of the mission is to determine if Mars once had a suitable environment for microbial life. The area of Mars chosen to be studied is an ancient impact crater called the Gale Crater. It has many unique geologic features that piqued the interest of astronomers and geologists and could be indicative of past water flows and possibly habitable environments. Since landing on the crater in 2012, the rover has been very successful and has given a lot of information about the past and present of the plant.

One of the greatest tragedies in history occurred on January 8, 1986. Shortly after it was launched, the space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing seven astronauts, including Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire schoolteacher chosen to be the first teacher in space (“Challenger Disaster, n.d.). The explosion was caused by a failure of the O-rings of the solid rocket boosters. The O-rings were unable to seat properly, causing the leaking of hot combustion gases, which burnt through the external fuel tank. The malfunction was not any one person’s or organization’s fault; it was caused by many factors including the decision to launch despite the cold weather, the poor communication between management levels of the National Aeronautics and