Main content
Course: NASA > Unit 3
Lesson 4: Curiosity rover: discoveries- Curiosity has landed
- Curiosity descent
- Systems check
- Curiosity's first drive
- Navigation update
- Observations
- Discovery: Streambed
- First CheMin results
- Preparation for holidays
- Calcium-rich deposits found
- Results of first drilling
- Mars' bygone atmosphere
- 'Spring Break' over: commanding resumes
- Rover ready to switch gears
- Trek to Mt. Sharp begins
- Dating younger rocks
- Curiosity completes its first martian year
- A softer trek to mount sharp
- A taste of mount sharp
© 2024 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Curiosity completes its first martian year
On June 24, 2014, NASA's Curiosity rover completes her first Martian year (687 Earth days). Hear team members describe how the mission accomplished its main goal to find a past habitable environment on the Red Planet and the ongoing science studies.
Want to join the conversation?
- Can Curiosity get caught in sand?(6 votes)
- The three rovers are Curiosity, Spirit, and Opportunity(1 vote)
- does curiosity run on solar power?(2 votes)
- Unlike the Spirit and Opportunity rovers which were equipped with solar panels Curiosity uses a RTG (Radioisotope thermoelectric generator) which essentially is a mini nuclear reactor.(3 votes)
- so if people land on mars will they have to be careful not to cut their boots like the rover did with its wheels and if they did would they go flying up like mark watney did in the last scene of the martian.(3 votes)
- If they cut their boots, they would be exposed to the extreme temperatures of Mars and would probably freeze or bake. They should be very careful not to harm their space suits, or they are in a lot of trouble.(1 vote)
- How long is a martian year?(2 votes)
- How fast does the rover drive?(2 votes)
- on flat ground,it's top speed is 0.14km/h(0.09 m/h)(2 votes)
- How do they get the rover back to earth?(2 votes)
- This is cool... but how does the driver drive the rover does he use a remote control?
Because humans can't breath on mars without a spacesuit...........(2 votes)- Nope the people at NASA send over orders to curiosity from earth. We don't have guys and Mars yet.(1 vote)
- How did it stitch that photo (selfie) of itself at1:38in the video and where is its arm in the photo?(1 vote)
- Correct me if im wrong but i think it takes several pics and when you put them together they look like one.(2 votes)
- Where was Curiosity tested and made so that it could work on Mars? How long did it take to make?(1 vote)
- are they going to make curiosity faster or keep him at the same slow speed... maybe from 0.1 to 1-3 mph...(1 vote)
Video transcript
(Music) I'm Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist. I'm Matt Heverly, a rover driver. And this is your Curiosity Rover Report. Curiosity has been on Mars for one Mars year. That's 687 Earth days. Our goal over that time was to find a habitable environment and we did! We found a lake bed on Mars that we drilled into and found the ingredients and conditions that could've supported microbial life, if life ever was on Mars. It hasn't all been smooth sailing for the rover on Mars. After we left Yellowknife Bay where we did our first drilling, we noticed that the wheels were taking much more damage than we had expected. Sharp embedded rocks on the surface of Mars were really giving trouble to our wheels. We think we understand what's causing those holes from a lot of tests we've done here in the Mars yard and a lot of analysis of the terrain from our orbital images. One of the other things we've done here in the Mars yard to understand the wheel wear issue is we built a half of a rover that we're driving over the simulated terrain so we can watch how the wheels really wear. We think we've got new techniques to be able to drive the rover safely and identify some safe paths. Using our new driving techniques we made it to a site called 'the Kimberley,' where Curiosity drilled its third drill hole of the mission. We drilled into a site where water flowed across the surface and deposited a series of sandstones. We drilled into one of those sandstones, acquired rock powder and fed it to our two analytical laboratories located inside the rover body. While the rover was at the Kimberley doing its drilling campaign, it even took some time to take a selfie. It reached out its robotic arm just like me with my camera phone and it used the MAHLI to take a series of pictures that it stitched together to take its self portrait. The rover took a selfie before drilling and after so you could even see where it drilled a hole on Mars. As we drive from the Kimberley to Murray Buttes at the base of Mount Sharp. We tried to identify the best path for the rover. This means driving through sand. We took the Scarecrow rover to the Mojave Desert where we drove over similar sandy terrain to make sure that we know what's going to happen once we get there. The focus of the mission is really now on driving as we approach the base of Mount Sharp. In our first Martian year, we've driven almost eight kilometers of total distance with the rover. We get a little bit closer to the base of that mountain every day. Over the next few months the science team is real excited to get to Mount Sharp where we think the layered rocks there have captured the major climate changes in Mars history. We can't wait to get there and figure it all out. But it's going to take a lot of driving. You ready, Matt? Ready! Let' do it!