IOW #33 - Mars Curiosity Rover

**Andrew Sonea** · August 6th, 2012, 11:25 PM

Illustration of the Week #33: Mars Curiosity Rover

This is a two week topic.

Topic
This weeks topic is Mars Curiosity Rover. So the Curiosity rover landed successfully on the surface of Mars less than 24 hours ago! This is a very exciting moment in science, as the rover is much more advanced than any previous ones placed on Mars. Your task is to illustrate the rover--but it must be in a scene of sort sort. This can be as simple as placing it in a Martian landscape, or can be anything else such as it being deployed, a team of scientists testing it in a lab on Earth or whatever comes to mind.

This challenge will require some research on the design of the rover, as you are required to paint it in it's existing design. As always, Wikipedia is a great starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_rover

You may also have to research Mars, and how the landscape will be different. For example sunsets on Mars are BLUE (if you want to know why, go do some research, that's a real stress point of this challenge):
http://dcmuseumgoer.files.wordpress....ael-benson.jpg

Have fun and don't be intimidated if this is very different from what you usually paint, the whole point is to break comfort zones and learn

Deadline
The deadline is Sunday 19th of August, 23:59 GMT

**Shahan** · August 7th, 2012, 12:01 AM

Frickin awesome! Thank you Andrew!

anyone know where to find the live feed or if there is one? *the good one

I found this: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ustream.html

and this:

...great this has 302 views and... idk... BieberSnooki Perry Minaj Pepsi has like a million...

EDIT: wow when I first posted it, I swear it had like 300 views... that was like a day, not even... ... awesome =D

**Velocity Kendall** · August 7th, 2012, 05:46 PM

oo
i hope i have some spare time, this sounds fun!

heres some stas and pics

1.5 inches per second: Curiosity's top speed on flat, hard ground

3: The number of rovers that have been to Mars. Curiosity will be the fourth.

About 7 minutes: The estimated length of time it will take the rover to make its entry, descent and landing on Mars once it arrives at the Red Planet

17: The number of cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover

24 hours, 39 minutes, 35.244 seconds: The length of one day on Mars

51 feet: The diameter of the parachute that will assist in Curiosity's landing

60: The number of possible landing sites scientists considered before deciding on Gale Crater

687 days: The planned mission lifespan for the Curiosity rover once it lands on Mars

1,982 pounds:Curiosity's weight - close to the weight of a MINI Cooper

More than 100 million miles:The average distance between the sun and Mars

"Curiosity's full name is the Mars Science Laboratory - and it's called that for a reason. It is essentially a robotic geologist with all the tools a human counterpart could ever want to take to our nearest planetary neighbour.
The big question about Mars is whether life ever existed there and if so, what it looked like. However, unlike some previous missions, Curiosity's primary goal is not to look for life on Mars. Its rover predecessors - Spirit and Opportunity - were the first to confirm that water was once present on the red planet.

Like any good scientist Curiosity is building methodically on their previous work. It is designed to answer the question: were conditions on Mars ever suitable for life? And to help it do so it is equipped with five key instruments.

MastCam: A pair of super-high resolution cameras that can take stereo still or video images will give scientists - and the rest of us - the best images of Mars we've ever seen before. Raised above the rover on a telescopic arm it will act as the robot's eyes and be used to select targets to study.

Sample Analysis at Mars: A catch-all name for several instruments on a robotic arm designed to probe every detail of the Martian surface. A number tools called spectrometers will analyse the elements that make up the Martian surface by bombarding them with tiny blasts of radioactive particles or light. A drill on the arm will be able to grind rocks into powder to expose traces of past life that may be hidden within.

Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI): Like a geologist's magnifying glass MAHLI is slung below the rover on the robotic arm and can take microscopic images of rocks and soil on Mars to compare their structure to rocks back on Earth.

Chemistry and Camera complex (ChemCam): Without doubt, this is the most James Bond of all the rover's tools. ChemCam fires a laser at objects up to seven metres away. The attached camera then monitors the vapourised rocks to analyse their chemistry.

Radiation Assessment Detector: One of the few instruments with its eye on the future, rather than the geological past, this will anaylse how much radiation bombards the surface of Mars. Before manned missions ever go to Mars, scientists need a clear picture of just how much radiation astronauts will be exposed to on the surface of the planet.

The stated aim of the rover is to look for whether life-friendly conditions ever existed on Mars. But many of its instruments could also detect tantalising signs of life itself - if it was ever there. For example, rocks composed of long-dead carbon-based animals like chalk and limestone on Earth."

**Velocity Kendall** · August 9th, 2012, 12:14 AM

I like how 0% of its design is aesthetic, its all business.
stuff like that always looks cool.

**Velocity Kendall** · August 9th, 2012, 07:29 PM

This image looks faked up to me; look at those distant mountains, they dont look real at all.
it looks like a CG mountain has been placed at partial opacity over the real much flatter distant horizon.

**Chris Sanders** · August 11th, 2012, 07:01 PM

Woah VK this topic seems almost tailor made to you buddy. Thanks for the head start on the facts dude! Hey Andrew how crazy can we get with this one? I've pussied out of a few of these IOW and i illustration is something i really wanna break in to, so now seems like as good-a-time as any to dive in. I know it needs to involve an accurate representation of the rover and it's on mars. Do we have to keep with the whole intellectual science magazine decorum, based on semi realistic expectations of the mission; or can we go goofy sci-fi style on it's ass?

**Andrew Sonea** · August 12th, 2012, 05:10 PM

Originally Posted by Chris Sanders

Woah VK this topic seems almost tailor made to you buddy. Thanks for the head start on the facts dude! Hey Andrew how crazy can we get with this one? I've pussied out of a few of these IOW and i illustration is something i really wanna break in to, so now seems like as good-a-time as any to dive in. I know it needs to involve an accurate representation of the rover and it's on mars. Do we have to keep with the whole intellectual science magazine decorum, based on semi realistic expectations of the mission; or can we go goofy sci-fi style on it's ass?

I guess I wasn't too specific in my initial posts, but my examples were all your standard science magazine type thing. I would prefer it if you kept this one away from anything too sci-fi. I won't disqualify you if you put some in, but try to keep it mostly bound within science...there are already too many sci-fi and fantasy paintings on CA, so it wouldn't hurt to try some different stuff and paint a scientific illustration.

**NakedZergling** · August 15th, 2012, 04:09 AM

**NakedZergling** · August 17th, 2012, 12:03 PM

here's an update. cleaning up the lines.

**AlexTLe** · August 17th, 2012, 09:41 PM

@NakedZergling WOW. You could have a great career at Graphic Design. Good job.

**Andrew Sonea** · August 17th, 2012, 11:33 PM

NakedZergling: A very nice start! Are you going to be including the rover in the piece? It is a requirement that the rover be visible, and it would be a shame to disqualify you for not including it.