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NASA
Course: NASA > Unit 3
Lesson 3: Curiosity rover: mission briefing- Why go to Mars?
- Seeking signs of habitability
- Where to look?
- Destination: Gale crater
- Navigation
- Rover vision
- ChemCam
- Surface and atmospheric studies
- Curiosity's arm
- Curiosity's hand
- Chemistry and mineralogy
- SAM Instruments
- Preparing for landing
- Entry, descent & landing
- MSL Brief
- Curiosity landing simulation
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Navigation
Landing ellipse
In the image below, the white circles define the landing zone (known as a landing ellipse) inside Gale Crater. The rover's navigation system will need to be able to handle the type of terrain found here:
How will we know if Curiosity has landed safely on the surface of Mars? First let's review how we are going to talk to Curiosity in order to transmit data back and fourth.
Communication
This 2 minute video covers the communication basics:
Once we land, how will Curiosity get around?
Remote navigation
60-second video of vehicle operation from millions of miles away:
Mars yard tests
Engineers test Curiosity's hill-climbing capabilities using her Earthbound twin:
Desert test drive
NASA engineers take the Curiosity test rover to California's Mojave desert to learn how to drive on Martian sand dunes.
Want to join the conversation?
Now, everyone knows that there is sign of water on mars but no one know if there is water on mars, and I heard there is a planet that is made of ice(4 votes)
I know this question was posted a few months ago, but just an update: NASA released a statement at the end of September, 2015 that the MRO satellite has detected what they believe confirmatory evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars (essentially dark streaks through the soil that come and go with the seasons).
There are several icy bodies within our solar system; the best candidates for study and future habitation would be Jupiter's moons, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, which all show evidence of containing water ice on their surface. Each of those moons is also believed to have sub-surface oceans, which may be comprised of salty water.(15 votes)
- Have any Humans landed on mars ?(4 votes)
No, but there are future missions that involve humans landing and settling on mars(3 votes)
- How does Curiosity handle with the temperature?(4 votes)
Mars would be deadly to you without a spacesuit. but Curiosity can handle the temperature because inside the rover there is oxygen(1 vote)
In the third video on this document, why did the engineers wear those cables over their shoulders and follow Curiousity's "Stunt Double"?(1 vote)
I would assume that the cables are for power and data to be able to simulate everything without having to use the thermometric generator. They are carrying the lines to ensure that the drag behind it isn't affecting the rovers operation considering it won't have that on the real lander.(2 votes)
have space rovers ever drilled holes in mars if so how deep?(1 vote)- Yes they have. They do it to check if their is any atoms in t eh rock to see if life ever existed
and they only drilled a couple inches(1 vote)
- why can't the rovers go fast?(1 vote)
It would be too dangerous. It takes at least 7 minutes for the radio signal from Earth to reach Mars, and another 7 minutes for the signals to travel back. If a rover operator saw a rock in the way of the rover while it was going fast, by the time the signal to drive around the rock reached the rover, it would have already crashed into the rock.(1 vote)
What are the wheels of a mars rover like Curiosity made of?(1 vote)- I don't know, but I suppose, that by the looks of it, it would probably be similar to that of a tank's.(1 vote)
- Why can't we make it fast but with improvements in suspensions?(1 vote)
- Making a rover fast would mean that we might oversee boulders, get stuck in soft dune sand or might miss areas of particular interest in Mars exploration, therefore it is much safer making a slow, robust rover.(1 vote)
Why did they land in Martian Dunes?(1 vote)
They landed in the Gale Crater which is a scientific point of interest and it so happens to be because its a crater. They are trying to find IF life was supported not if life could exist there now. Underneath dunes are rocks and the rock layers are what we are interested in. They have been preserved for lots of years, untouched and we want to know if there is "Organics". These are the evidence that Microbial life did exist on Mars.(1 vote)
what is in mars center(1 vote)
Scientists aren't sure, but they do theorize that the center may be liquid. This is unlike our own, which is a solid, metal interior surrounded by a layer of molten metal. It is, of course, important to note that both cores contain similar elements.(1 vote)
