11 Amazing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do

http://www.space.com/13689-nasa-amazing-mars-rover-curiosity-science.html

by sasvari • 15 years ago

52 25 15 years ago

ars2• 15 years ago

Yes, this really is an amazing rover! But I wonder why they chose such a complicated landing sequence. So many places where things can go wrong.

I hope this rover actually does land successfully - with its RTG power source it could last for decades!

nknight2• 15 years ago

Because Mars is a pain in the ass to land heavy gear on.

There's too much gravity, too little atmosphere, and we haven't perfected AI. You can't rely entirely on parachutes, the air bags they used on the last few landings won't hold up to something so heavy, and landing with direct use of retrorockets would pretty much require a human pilot to be sure of -- and even if we had a human pilot, the enormous amount of dust it would kick up is problematic.

rbanffy5• 15 years ago

They could have practiced on the moon...

robin_reala• 15 years ago

The retrorockets on Nasa’s Phoenix Mars mission exposed ice upon landing, which was decidely unproblematic :)

khafra• 15 years ago

The obvious solution is to terraform Mars so it has a substantial atmosphere.

Sharlin2• 15 years ago

The landing sequence isn't actually that much more complicated than that of the MERs. It just needs to be much more precise because you must make a soft touchdown instead of dropping the rover from a height. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tma2pt0k6UQ

ANH• 15 years ago

In a recent press conference (think it was this one: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18431005) one of the MSL engineering managers was asked this question. He said it's because of both the weight of MSL and the landing accuracy requirements. They considered a boatload of configurations before deciding on this one.

yaix2• 15 years ago

I had the same thought. This "sky crane" thing doesn't look like a good idea. I hope it'll all go well.

The rover is awesome though. They should build 20 of them and send them to all planets and some of the moons as well.

jawher• 15 years ago

While I share your enthusiasm, I'd like to point out some problems with "Sending rovers to all the planets": 4 of them are gaseous giants, literally no solid ground to land on. Venus is a no go too with its crushing atmospheric pressure, sulfuric acid clouds and 400+ c° temperatures.

adaml_6232• 15 years ago

Anybody else notice that the page title is "10 Amazing Things NASA's .... etc"

jerrya2• 15 years ago

Does anyone notice that the image with the rover and its chem cam is straight out of H. G. Wells?

Compare and contrast:

http://i.space.com/images/i/13468/i02/nasa-curiosity-rover-m...

with

http://i.imgur.com/kYofe.jpg

This leads me to believe that our Martian rover needs some sort of acoustic imaging devices.

adaml_6232• 15 years ago

Maybe they are expecting 'trouble'. Certainly they seem to be downplaying the fact that they are deploying an autonomous robot with a laser that can vapourise stone.

ortusdux• 15 years ago

#12: MMRTG Nuclear Power Source. Deviating from its predecessors, Cursorily will be powered by 10 pounds of plutonium dioxide. Earlier, solar power rovers, had to hibernate during long periods of darkness, and at times these hibernations proved mission ending (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_rover#Stationary_researc...).

Loic• 15 years ago

Is it me or on all the pages of space.com you cannot find a single link to the NASA website? As soon as you try to get more about the project, you are sent to previous stuff on space.com but no links to the original source, that is, the NASA website. Very annoying...

11 Amazing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do

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