Info from here... http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1295

NB -  A solar day on Mars is 39 minutes longer than Earth's.  It is called a Sol.


Sat, 11 Aug 2012 - Curiosity Preps for a Planned 'Brain Transplant'

A healthy Curiosity spent Sol 4, its fifth day on Mars, preparing for this weekend's planned "brain transplant"--transitioning to a new version of flight software on both of Curiosity's redundant main computers. The new software is better suited for Mars surface operations, such as driving and using Curiosity's robotic arm. The "brain transplant" will take place during a series of steps beginning this evening and continuing through Aug. 13. The new software was uploaded to the rover's memory during the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's flight from Earth. Key capabilities in the new software enable full use of Curiosity's powerful robotic arm and drill, and advanced image processing to check for obstacles while driving. This will ultimately allow Curiosity to make longer drives by giving the rover more autonomy to identify and avoid potential hazards and to drive along a safe path that the rover identifies for itself.


 The flight team elected to defer further science activities until after the flight software transition is completed. Several Mastcam color images were downlinked. The mission's science team is busy analyzing images Curiosity has taken of its surroundings, and is discussing features of interest that they will investigate in a few weeks once initial checkouts of the rover and the landing site are completed.


August 9: Curiosity Reveals its First 'Living Color' Mars Surface Panorama

Curiosity awoke from her "beauty sleep" today to the toe-tapping tune "Good Morning" from the musical "Singing in the Rain," feeling healthy and refreshed and ready for a busy day of continued health checks and imagery. The rover continues to perform very well. Today's Sol 3 morning and afternoon passes by NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft provided a plethora of new data, including more high-resolution black-and-white 360-degree and deck panorama images from her Navigation Camera, or Navcam, which revealed some small pebbles deposited on the deck during landing, which should pose no problems for mission operations. Curiosity also returned 130 low-resolution thumbnail images from the color Mast Camera, or Mastcam, providing scientists and engineers with their first color panorama glimpse of Gale Crater.

Curiosity's day began with a "beep" from its low-gain antenna, telling the flight team that their master sequence of activities for that sol was successfully activated from the ground. The flight team then uploaded files to the rover's remote electronics unit memory in preparation for the upcoming Sol 5 upgrade of Curiosity's software to optimize Curiosity for surface operations. Curiosity's backup computer was then powered on and successfully checked out. The Radiation Assessment Detector instrument is operating as planned and collected additional data on surface radiation. The Mastcam is operating as planned and successfully executed its 360-degree and calibration target observations. In addition, early checkouts of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS), Chemistry & Mineralogy Analyzer (CheMin), Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), and Dynamic Albedo Neutrons (DAN) instruments were all successful. The mission's science team began creating a geological map of about 150 square miles (about 390 square kilometers) within Gale Crater, including the landing area.

Curiosity is "go" for its planned Sol 4 activities.


August 8: Curiosity Continues Checking Herself Out; Takes Self Portrait

After waking up to the rousing refrains of the Beatles' "Good Morning Good Morning," a healthy Curiosity continued checking out her systems and returning amazing imagery. The Sol 2 morning and afternoon UHF communications passes from NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft provided significant new data, including spectacular full-frame images of the Mars Science Laboratory's descent through the Martian atmosphere by Curiosity's Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) instrument. Other imagery included full-frame views from the rover's navigation cameras, or Navcams, looking at the rim of Gale Crater; the first, lower-resolution thumbnail 360-degree view of Curiosity's new surroundings in Gale Crater; deck pan images of the rover herself; and images of the Martian surface next to the rover. Another image set, courtesy of the Context Camera, or CTX, aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, has pinpointed the final resting spots of the six, 55-pound (25-kilogram) entry ballast masses. These tungsten masses impacted the Martian surface at high speed, about 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) from Curiosity's landing location.



The rover's high-gain antenna was successfully pointed toward Earth. Its 3.6-foot-tall (1.1-meter) remote sensing mast was deployed, and range of motion was successfully tested. Surface radiation data were acquired from the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) instrument but have not yet been downlinked. Curiosity's temperatures are running a bit warmer than expected; however, the flight team believes this is because Gale Crater is simply a bit warmer than originally predicted.

Plans for Sol 3 include assessing the performance of the high-gain antenna; uplinking files for the upcoming transition of Curiosity's flight software to the surface-optimized version R10 on Sol 5; Radiation Assessment Detector instrument observations; and Mastcam calibration target and 360-degree color panorama images. In addition, the rover's Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS), Chemistry & Mineralogy Analyzer (CheMin), Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), and Dynamic Albedo Neutrons (DAN) instruments will be checked out.


August 7: Curiosity Gets More Looks at its Surroundings; Health Checks Continue

Curiosity is healthy as it continues to familiarize itself with its new home in Gale Crater and check out its systems. The team's plans for Curiosity checkout today included raising the rover's mast and continued testing of its high-gain antenna, whose pointing toward Earth will be adjusted on Sol 2. Science data were collected from Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector, and activities were performed with the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station instrument. Curiosity transmitted its first color image from the surface of Mars, from the Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI, showing part of the north rim of Gale Crater. Additional calibration images were received from Curiosity's Navcam and Mastcam. All systems are go for deployment of the rover's remote sensing mast on Sol 2, followed by a 360-degree pan by the rover's Navcam. The Mastcam will also be calibrated against a target image on the rover. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter returned a spectacular image of Curiosity's landing site, depicting the rover, parachute, back shell, heat shield and descent stage. Data were received from both NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey.


Aug. 6: Curiosity Safely on Mars! Health Checks Begin

With Curiosity now safely on the surface of the Red Planet after last night's spectacular entry, descent and landing in Gale Crater, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory begins its planned primary one-Martian-year (98-week) mission of discovery and exploration.

On its first Martian day, designated Sol 0, the rover is checking its health and measuring its tilt. All Sol 0 spacecraft activities appear to have been completely nominal. These include firing all of Curiosity's pyrotechnic devices for releasing post-landing deployments. Spring-loaded deployments, such as removal of dust covers from the Hazard-Avoidance cameras (Hazcams) occur immediately when pyros are fired. Curiosity also took images with its front and rear Hazcams both before and after removal of the dust covers, checked out its UHF telecommunications system and rover motor controller assembly, and completed all activities required to proceed with its planned activities on Sol 1. Approximately five megabytes of data were successfully relayed back to Earth from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft during its overpass today.

Curiosity landed facing east-southeast within Gale Crater, with a heading of 112.7 degrees (plus or minus five degrees), and a few degrees of tilt. A Sol 1 overpass by Mars Odyssey will provide additional information on Curiosity's position and additional imagery. A first look at some color images taken just before landing by MSL's Mars Descent Imager also provided additonal information on the rover's precise location.

Activities planned for Sol 1 during the mission's approximately one-month characterization activity phase include deploying Curiosity's high-gain antenna, collecting science data from Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector and Rover Environmental Monitoring Station instruments, and obtaining additional imagery. The mission's characterization activity phase is design to learn how all Curiosity's subsystems and instruments are functioning after landing and within the environment and gravitational field of Mars.

v

Thanks for all that Graham - very informative and pleasing to see their success with it all going to plan.

Latest Picture from mars.

I have updated the first post with the last two days of diary stories. 

Here is a combined pic showing the disturbances to the sandy soil by the thrusters of the descent stage which hovered while it lowered the rover down by a hoist and steel ropes.  It (the sky crane) then boosted itself back up in the air and into the direction it came, away from the Rover, where it landed some 650m away.  See the earlier pic with locations on it.