Posted 07.26.2010 at 3:04 pm
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Curiosity Gets in Gear
It may not look like much, but NASA’s next candidate to touch down on Mars has taken its first steps toward its larger ambition of exploring the Martian landscape in 2012.
Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory had a big week last week, mounting the Remote Sensing Mast and an array of navigation and sensing cameras on their latest Mars rover. Then on Friday Curiosity took its first drive, traveling about three feet back and forth on its brand new 20-inch aluminum wheels.
To the applause of cleanroom-clad NASA engineers, Curiosity crawled along the floor of a lab at JPL while being controlled remotely by wire, rather than by the software that will direct the rover’s movement on Mars. But as a milestone it’s fairly significant. Just a few weeks ago, Curiosity looked like spare parts; today it is the size of a small SUV – far larger than the Spirit and Opportunity rovers already on Mars – and looks the part of a next-gen space exploration vehicle.
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Technology, Clay Dillow, curiosity rover, jet propulsion laboratory, nasa, robotics, robots, Space, VideoIf the schedule holds up, Curiosity should launch next year and arrive on Mars in August 2012. From there, it will explore the landscape for a suitable landing site for future missions while collecting and analyzing rock samples that should shed more light on the planet’s geological history.
See Curiosity go in the video below.
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Holy crap that thing is huge.
Thrilling video...
Yeh? Well my space rover goes 1.1 miles per hour!
What are chams?
now that they got wheels on it will they do a drop test? how i under stand they are going to use a drag chute and land on the wheels. seeing the wheels are made aluminum wont they bend out shape on landing?
Wouldnt inertia be much less than on Earth? Wouldnt velocity be less due to the weaker pull of Martian gravity? or would the near lack of atmosphere mean no terminal velocity thus wicked speed at impact? Surely all that is worked out way ahead of time, as long as NASA can fit it in with their Improving Muslim Relations mandate and all.
We are All DOOMED
I do think "flying" this thing to a landing is a crazy idea, but I for sure will watch them attempt to pull it off in 2 years.
soooooo slloooow, but cool!