An Atlas V rocket carrying Landsat 8 seen just after launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. (NASA)

NASA’s latest Earth-observing satellite rocketed into space today continuing a program which began more than 40 years ago.

An Atlas V rocket carrying the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California.

NASA officials called today’s launch “picture perfect.”   The spacecraft is now on its own after a successful separation from the Centaur upper stage.

The LDCM is the eighth in a series of global observational spacecraft called Landsat, a collaborative effort between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

According to NASA, it will play a critical role in monitoring, understanding and managing the resources, such as food and water, needed to sustain human life.

After three months of testing in orbit, the satellite will become known as Landsat 8, and all operational control of the spacecraft will transfer to USGS.

All Landsat data and imaging will continue to be collected by USGS primary ground stations in South Dakota and Australia.

Orbiting Earth every 99 minutes, Landsat 8 will be able to image Earth every 16 days as it circles the globe in a near polar orbit. Two new sophisticated instruments, Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS), will allow Landsat 8 to provide image and data information that wasn’t possible with previous Landsat satellites.

Landsat 7 took these images showing the significant shrinkage of central Asia’s Aral Sea from 1977 to 2010 due to water diversion for agricultural use. (USGS)

The OLI will cover wide areas of the Earth’s surface, sending back data and high definition images to help observers distinguish between various surfaces; such as urban, agricultural and forested areas.

The TIRS will use new technology which applies quantum physics to measure land surface temperature in two thermal bands, helping observers differentiate the temperature of the Earth’s surface from that of the atmosphere.

The Landsat mission to study and monitor our planet’s land masses began with the launch of Landsat 1  in 1972.

Since then, Landsat 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 have all been put into service.  Landsat satellites 1 through 4 were taken out of service from the late 1970s through the early 1990s.

Landsat 5 , launched in 1984, was recently taken out of service and Landsat 6 never made it into orbit after a fuel line exploded seven minutes after liftoff.  Along with the just-launched Landsat 8, Landsat 7, which was sent into orbit in 1999, is the only remaining Landsat observing satellite still in service.

Landsat satellites snapped these Washington state images of  Mount St. Helens, which was surrounded by forests in 1974. Three months after the 1980 volcanic eruption, devastation caused by the blast is evident. By 2011, much of the damaged region had started to regrow. (USGS)

The imaging and data provided by the Landsat spacecraft  have helped scientists  better understand our planet’s climate, carbon cycle, ecosystems, water cycle, biogeochemistry and changes to Earth’s surface, as well as our understanding of visible effects  human have made to land surfaces.

NASA and USGS say the information provided by Landsat over the last 40 years has helped improve human and biodiversity health, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery, and agriculture, which in turn has helped develop the world economy.

NASA video overview of the LDCM Mission

First color image of the Martian landscape returned from curiosity 08-06-12 (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems)

On its first full solar day on Mars, the Curiosity rover is under going a month-long series of health checks before getting down to its mission of exploring the chemistry of Mars.

Curiosity isn’t expected to drill its first drill hole in a Mars rock for about another month or two, according to Rob Manning, the Mars mission’s chief engineer.

However, we’re already getting some interesting images of the red planet.

Almost two hours after Monday’s  touchdown, the rover started snapping pictures of its new home in  Mars’ Gale Crater.

But even before that, some of Curiosity’s trip through the thin Martian atmosphere and subsequent landing were caught on camera by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling the planet for over six years.

Curiosity and its parachute were spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as Curiosity descended to the surface on 0500 UTC 08-06-12. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, caught Curiosity while it was still connected to its almost 16-meter parachute as it descended to its landing site.

A camera aboard  Curiosity itself took a sequence of self-portraits of its trip through the Martian atmosphere as well.

According NASA, the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) snapped over 1,500 images which are being stored within Curiosity’s onboard memory banks.  When those images are put together at the highest resolution, they should produce a video showing the rover’s descent from the time its heat shield was released, all the way until it touched down on Mars.

This stop-motion video shows 297 frames from the Mars Descent Imager aboard NASA’s Curiosity rover as it descended to the surface of Mars. (Video: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Until  we get that detailed video of Curiosity’s descent and touchdown, we’ll have to be satisfied with  297 color, low-resolution images the rover recently beamed back to Earth.

This image taken by Curiosity shows Mars’ Mount Sharp. The rover’s shadow can also be seen. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

“The image sequence received so far indicates Curiosity had, as expected, a very exciting ride to the surface,” says Mike Malin from Malin Space Systems in San Diego, the imaging scientist for the Mars mission. “But as dramatic as they are, there is real other-world importance to obtaining them. These images will help the mission scientists interpret the rover’s surroundings, the rover drivers in planning for future drives across the surface, as well as assist engineers in their design of forthcoming landing systems for Mars or other worlds.”

Other activities planned for the Curiosity today include setting up its high-gain antenna, collecting science data from the system’s Radiation Assessment Detector and Rover Environmental Monitoring Station instruments, as well as picking up  additional imagery of its surroundings.

This is all part of the mission’s characterization activity phase, which tests how Curiosity’s subsystems and instruments are functioning after landing and within the environment and gravitational field of Mars.

Artist concept of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars’ past or present ability to sustain microbial life. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Excitement is building at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.  A little over eight months after its November  2011 launch, NASA’s newest and most advanced Mars rover  is set to land on the red planet on Monday, Aug. 6.

The Curiosity rover carries the most sophisticated payload of scientific equipment  ever used on Mars’ surface. It’s  10 times the size of earlier Mars rovers, the size as a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) rather than the golf cart size of previous rovers. Scientists hope Curiosity will help unlock the mystery of whether life could exist on the red planet.

So far, the Mars mission is on track but its biggest challenges will come when the spacecraft carrying Curiosity executes its entry, descent and landing on Mars.  The procedure is so complex mission team members refer to it as “seven minutes of terror.”

Rob Manning, the Mars mission’s chief engineer, says  setting  Curiosity safely on Mars  is the culmination of about a decade’s worth of “thinking, designing and building, involving thousands of people” from around the world.

Artist’s concept of Mars Science Laboratory entry, descent and landing (the 7 minutes of terror’). (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The Mars Science Laboratory mission is the first of its kind, according to Manning. Although there have been a number of missions to Mars,  Curiosity will be the first rover to robotically explore; drilling into rock and  performing geochemistry,  to gain a better understanding of the chemistry of Mars.

The work performed by Curiosity is expected to allow scientists to learn more about the early history of Mars and whether planet may have, at one time, been  habitable for life. Other exploratory missions have shown Mars was a very wet planet.

Although a smaller  Mars rover named Opportunity is still working, sending back valuable observational data after more than eight years on the red planet, Manning says Curiosity alone will allow scientists to gather and analyze data on the microscopic, chemical composition of Mars through the vehicle’s advanced on board geochemistry laboratory.

The Mars  mission scientists also hope to learn about Mars’ environmental conditions on a microscopic scale,  since Curiosity’s drilling function allows it to gather samples from a much earlier time in the planet’s history.

Artist’s conception of Curiosity using the rover’s ChemCam instrument to identify the chemical composition of a rock sample on the surface of Mars. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Data gathered from  other rovers  suggests Mars has water underground. Scientists believe that water was on the surface long enough to chemically alter rock and that the planet has a rich water-based history.  Mission scientists now want to determine whether Martian water was around long enough for conditions to sustain life and for life itself to have evolved.

“If we can find signs that Mars was a habitable place and, even more excitingly, if we can find residue of life on Mars in the form of complex organic compounds, we might be able to say something about how life is not ubiquitous on this planet,” says Manning. “In every crack and every crevice of this planet you will find life, maybe Mars itself is the same way, and maybe life got started there too.”

Once safely on the ground, Curiosity won’t move from its landing spot for about five days, to allow the engineers on Earth to make sure the surface directly beneath the rover’s wheels doesn’t present an immediate hazard.

Manning doesn’t expect Curiosity to drill its first hole in a Mars rock until a month or two after landing.

According to NASA, the Mars Science Laboratory’s primary mission will last one Martian year, or about 687 Earth days, surviving at least one Martian winter in the process.

Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, actor William Shatner, narrates this video about NASA’s Curiosity rover, from its entry and descent through the Martian atmosphere to its landing and exploration of the Red Planet. (Video: NASA Television)

Rob Manning joins us this weekend on the radio edition of ‘Science World’. He talks about the Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory mission and what scientists hope to learn from its work. Check out the right column for scheduled air-times or listen to the interview with Ms. Wallace below.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.