Shortly earlier than the rover’s eleventh anniversary on the Crimson Planet, its crew helped information it up a steep, slippery slope to look at meteor craters.
On Aug. 5, NASA’s Curiosity rover will notch its eleventh 12 months on Mars by doing what it does finest: finding out the Crimson Planet’s floor. The intrepid bot lately investigated a location nicknamed “Jau” that’s pockmarked with dozens of impression craters. Scientists have hardly ever gotten a close-up view of so many Martian craters in a single place. The most important is estimated to be a minimum of so long as a basketball courtroom, though most are a lot smaller.
Jau is a pit cease on the rover’s journey into the foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that was coated with lakes, rivers, and streams billions of years in the past. Every layer of the mountain shaped in a distinct period of Mars’ historic local weather, and the upper Curiosity goes, the extra scientists find out about how the panorama modified over time.
On Aug. 5, NASA’s Curiosity rover will notch its eleventh 12 months on Mars by doing what it does finest: finding out the Crimson Planet’s floor. The intrepid bot lately investigated a location nicknamed “Jau” that’s pockmarked with dozens of impression craters. Scientists have hardly ever gotten a close-up view of so many Martian craters in a single place. The most important is estimated to be a minimum of so long as a basketball courtroom, though most are a lot smaller.
The trail up the mountain during the last a number of months required probably the most arduous climb Curiosity has ever made. There have been steeper climbs and riskier terrain, however the mission has by no means confronted the trifecta of challenges posed by this slope: a pointy 23-degree incline, slippery sand, and wheel-size rocks. This trifecta left the rover struggling by means of a half-dozen drives in Could and June, vexing Curiosity’s drivers again on Earth.
“Should you’ve ever tried working up a sand dune on a seashore – and that’s primarily what we have been doing – you understand it’s onerous, however there have been boulders in there as properly,” stated Amy Hale, a Curiosity rover driver at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
How you can Drive a Rover
Hale is one in all 15 “rover planners” who write lots of of traces of code to command Curiosity’s mobility system and robotic arm every day. (They don’t function the rover in actual time; directions are despatched to Mars the night time earlier than, and information comes again to Earth solely after the rover has accomplished the work.) These engineers collaborate with scientists to determine the place to direct the rover, what photos to take, and which targets to review utilizing the devices on its 7-foot (2-meter) robotic arm.
However rover planners are additionally continually looking out for hazards. They’ve to put in writing instructions to steer round pointy rocks and reduce put on on Curiosity’s battered wheels. Geologists on the crew use their area expertise right here on Earth to assist look out for deep sand and unstable rock formations. There’s even a task on the mission to gauge whether or not a canyon wall might hinder radio communications with Earth.
Six-Wheeled Ascent
Curiosity was by no means in peril whereas climbing to Jau: The crew doesn’t plan something that would harm the rover, and the planners write instructions in order that Curiosity will cease transferring if it encounters any surprises. Sudden stoppages – known as “faults” – can happen when the wheels slip an excessive amount of or a wheel is raised too excessive by a big rock. On the path to Jau, the rover discovered itself in each situations on a number of events.
“We have been mainly taking part in fault bingo,” stated Dane Schoelen, Curiosity’s strategic route planning lead at JPL. “Every day after we got here in, we’d discover out we faulted for one purpose or one other.”
As a substitute of continuous to battle with the unique course, Schoelen and his colleagues put collectively a lateral detour, eyeing a spot roughly 492 toes (150 meters) away the place the incline leveled out. A minimum of, it appeared to: Planners depend on imagery from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to get a tough sense of the terrain, however photos captured from house can’t present precisely how steep a slope is or whether or not boulders are there.
The detour would add just a few weeks to the journey to Jau – until the terrain was hiding extra surprises. If that have been the case, the detour might need been for nothing, and the crew’s scientists must maintain in search of one other path up Mount Sharp.
Thankfully, the detour paid off, permitting Curiosity to crest the slope.
“It felt nice to lastly recover from the ridge and see that incredible vista,” Schoelen stated. “I get to take a look at photos of Mars all day lengthy, so I actually get a way of the panorama. I usually really feel like I’m standing proper there subsequent to Curiosity, wanting again at how far it has climbed.”
For the reason that tough ascent, Curiosity’s scientists have wrapped an investigation of the Jau crater cluster. Frequent on Mars, clusters can kind when a meteor breaks up within the planet’s ambiance or when fragments are tossed by a big, extra distant meteoroid impression. Scientists wish to perceive how the comparatively comfortable rocks of the salt-enriched terrain affected the best way the craters shaped and altered over time.
Regardless of all that Mars has thrown at Curiosity, the rover isn’t slowing down. It’ll quickly be off once more to discover a brand new space increased up on Mount Sharp.
Extra Concerning the Mission
Curiosity was constructed by JPL, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For extra about Curiosity, go to:
https://mars.nasa.gov/msl
Information Media Contacts
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
