Posted on 08/22/2012 8:02:26 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Curiosity has stretched its neck, flexed its arm and wiggled its toes – and it’s set to make its first drive on Mars after engineers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory send it instructions tonight. But in its self-examination, the Mars Science Laboratory has found more than a small bruise on its one-ton body.
Curiosity has been testing its cameras, laser and other functions since landing on the Red Planet on Aug. 5. NASA officials announced Monday that the rover had successfully unfolded its arm. The robotic arm holds what mission manager Michael Watkins called a veritable “Swiss army knife” of tools in its figurative fist, including a drill for boring into rocks and a microscopic camera for imaging their structure in extreme detail.
The Martian rover is also set to make its first drive. Engineers at JPL have now tested out the six-wheeled rover’s four steering wheels on each corner of its body. With the wheels rotating as expected, the NASA team members say they will be sending commands tonight that will have the rover move 3 meters forward – about the rover’s length – and then turn 90 degrees and back up. Curiosity will then get its first look at its own landing spot. That exercise should take about 30 minutes, officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Bump
Houston we have a condom?
We have actually put a car on Mars and we are going to drive it around, from Earth...
Amazing. Everything having to do with this mission has my brain locked in a fantasy world. It’s hard for me to believe that we have actually done this.
Obama did not build this, the American people did. American ingenuity. American dreamers, a free America did this.
Looks like NASA is doing muzzi outreach through the LA times.
Damn. Hasn’t even made it’s first drive and already an instrument is broken. Hope this isn’t a bad omen of things to come.
I’m disappointed they didn’t put a microphone on the rover. Would have been great to hear the wind blowing on another planet! Or lightning generated by dust storms. Or sonic booms of meteors entering the atmosphere. The only Mars probe that had a microphone on it was the Mars Polar Lander. But that probe crashed.
Hats off.
>> I’m disappointed they didn’t put a microphone on the rover.
That’s hard to believe. No sonic instrumentation?
You're right, small piezo transducer, one lowly telemetry channel, wouldn't have taken much.
And maybe an electric guitar and drum set.
Maybe next time they’ll put on a retractable cover to protect the instrumentation.
The project started 8 years ago. Obama inherited it.
Needs repeating.
America is different than the other nations. Americans drive RC cars... on Mars.
God Bless America.
Obviously Bush’s fault. Just ask Slow Joe, he’ll tell ya.
I would find it interesting to see other rovers and or crash sites
if ever an opportunity presents itself
I really like seeing us driving around Mars. /Salute Nasa
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