Fans of Star Wars’ R2-D2 and Pixar’s Wall-E are probably enjoying the newest Twitter updates from the Mars rover, Curiosity.

 

In fact, the rover had already sent its first color photo on August 7.

 

Good golly miss MAHLI! New color pic from Mars Hand Lens Imager shows tan sands, no @instagram req #MSL twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/…

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 7, 2012

 

In a Reuters report, the image was described as showing the north wall and rim of Gale Crater. Curiosity touched down near the foot of a mountain three miles tall and 96 miles in diameter inside this crater on Aug. 6. NASA scientists are looking to know whether this region “ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life.”

 

“Scene of the Crime” image of my landing site + scattered #MSL hardware. Sharing science? Guilty as charged. 1.usa.gov/QHtwZz

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 7, 2012

 

Meanwhile, the rover is not really the one tweeting its updates but a group of three women from NASA, led by social media manager Veronica McGregor.

 

Robotic eye MAHLI

 

MAHLI, mentioned in the tweet, is the "Mars Hand Lens Imager," mounted at the end of the rover’s arm. Its main purpose is to get close-up images of rocks, and other materials found on the Red Planet’s surface. It is also being used to help characterize the geology of the site, and to document the materials for its chemical and mineral composition as examined by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the formal name of the mission. The mission control is located in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Pasadena, California, USA.

 

MAHLI consists of two parts: the camera head, mounted on the robotic arm; and a Digital Electronics Box (DEA), which contains the electronics for the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) and two Mast Cameras.

MAHLI also uses a filter pattern array called Bayer Pattern Filter (mosaic that is 50 percent green, 25 percent red, and 25 percent blue) to take photos in natural color, similar to the quality of commercial digital cameras.

 

According to the Reuters report, once in full operation MAHLI can also be used to capture fine details, even several times finer the width of a human hair at a resolution of 13.9 microns per pixel.

 

Previous Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, also carried a camera or Microscopic Imager (MI), according to NASA. The MI images permitted geologists to see the details of Martian surface materials at a scale not available on previous Mars missions. This type of camera was able to confirm the presence of sand-sized grains on the Martian surface in 2004.

 

 “Today, the wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze the trail for human footprints on Mars,” NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.

 

Trial period

 

Mission controllers at JPL plan to put the rover and all its instruments through several weeks of trial and check operations before gradually beginning actual science exploration.

 

Scientists at JPL wanted to be sure that the SUV-sized, almost one ton (900 kg) rover together with its ten science instruments reached Mars without damage.

 

The instruments Curiosity carries comprises its ‘portable’ geology laboratory, together with its rock-vaporizing laser, and a number of cameras.

 

The rover, once in full operation, will use a drill-and-scoop system to gather soil and other samples from the Martian surface, and analyze it using the lab instruments inside the rover, NASA said. — TJD, GMA News