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Mars rover Curiosity makes first test drive
AP / Terra.Com ^
| 8/22/12
| Alicia Chang
Posted on 08/22/2012 10:49:07 AM PDT by jb729
The NASA rover Curiosity has taken its first test drive on Mars.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Allen Chen on Wednesday tweeted an image of marks left in the soil and declared, "Wheel tracks on Mars."
Details of the brief drive are expected to be released at a late-morning news conference.
The rover was expected to move forward 10 feet, turn right and back-track close to where it started.
Curiosity touched down near the Martian equator earlier this month on a $2.5 billion mission. Scientists plan to drive it to the base of a mountain where it will drill into rocks and scoop up soil to determine whether the Martian environment was hospitable to microbial life.
TOPICS: Extended News; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: curiosity; mars; nasa
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To: jb729
move forward 10 feet, turn right and back-track close to where it started
21
posted on
08/22/2012 11:17:48 AM PDT
by
MrB
(The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working fors)
To: jb729
Is it programmed to correctly respond to any four-way stop signs it encounters?
22
posted on
08/22/2012 11:21:17 AM PDT
by
Homer_J_Simpson
("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
To: MHGinTN
It’s stories like yours that make me wonder how NASA has any success at all.
Even a 3rd grade farm kid wouldn’t have sent a rover to Mars without some type of odometer, and a 1st grader would have figured out how to measure distance if there weren’t one.
I actually think their successes are accidents.
23
posted on
08/22/2012 11:33:03 AM PDT
by
Balding_Eagle
(Liberals, at their core, are aggressive & dangerous to everyone around them,)
To: diogenes ghost
Better hope it doesn’t meet a cat because we all know what Curiosity does to them.
24
posted on
08/22/2012 12:07:44 PM PDT
by
Hillarys Gate Cult
(Liberals make unrealistic demands on reality and reality doesn't oblige them.)
To: MHGinTN
25
posted on
08/22/2012 12:24:40 PM PDT
by
theDentist
(FYBO/FUBO; qwerty ergo typo : i type, therefore i misspelll)
To: diogenes ghost
26
posted on
08/22/2012 12:42:14 PM PDT
by
bert
((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Present failure and impending death yield irrational action))
To: Balding_Eagle; bert; theDentist
Actually, they did have an odometer onboard. IIRC, each wheel had an odometer. Problems with their measuring system arose when wheels would slip. The odometers would register as if a distance without slip had occurred, thus throwing the calculations into a jumble, falsely asserting a turn had occurred. The visual checking was thought up to correct the distance actually traveled, but it was an ‘after the landing’ Ah HAH sort of thing. Now they have algorythms which do the visual assembling of marks checking actual distance traveled.
27
posted on
08/22/2012 12:55:31 PM PDT
by
MHGinTN
(Being deceived can be cured.)
To: bert
Morris? Morris code?
Morse code.
28
posted on
08/22/2012 1:00:02 PM PDT
by
tet68
( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
To: jb729
Did the salesman have to go along on the test drive? I hate that. Why do you think I’m test driving a Mustang? To see how it parks? I hope they do a burnout on Mars.
29
posted on
08/22/2012 2:35:23 PM PDT
by
blueunicorn6
("A crack shot and a good dancer")
To: MrB
move forward 10 feet, turn right and back-track close to where it startedAnd this is what it saw...
30
posted on
08/22/2012 3:46:39 PM PDT
by
UCANSEE2
(RED NECK KUNG FU by Corn Fuschas)
To: UCANSEE2
31
posted on
08/22/2012 3:49:17 PM PDT
by
dfwgator
To: MrB
I had one of those...they were quite cool...
32
posted on
08/22/2012 4:05:14 PM PDT
by
Fedupwithit
("Live Free or Die: Death is not the worst of evils" - Gen. John Stark)
To: MrB
I had one of those...they were quite cool...
33
posted on
08/22/2012 4:06:41 PM PDT
by
Fedupwithit
("Live Free or Die: Death is not the worst of evils" - Gen. John Stark)
To: UCANSEE2
Did no one else have a “Big Trak” as a child?
34
posted on
08/23/2012 5:14:33 AM PDT
by
MrB
(The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working fors)
To: Fedupwithit
The “10 feet forward, turn right, then return to its start” was very reminiscient of programming the Big Trak...
35
posted on
08/23/2012 5:15:41 AM PDT
by
MrB
(The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working fors)
To: dfwgator
eeew - shame on you. I vomited a little in my mouth when I saw that face.
36
posted on
08/23/2012 5:47:52 AM PDT
by
from occupied ga
(Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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