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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
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Rover ready to switch gears
NASA's Curiosity rover switches to long-distance driving mode as she heads to Mount Sharp.
Want to join the conversation?
- What is a sol?(5 votes)
- Sol is an abbreviation scientists use for "solar day" on Mars.
A sol on Mars is just a little longer than a day here on Earth.(5 votes)
- Where does Curiosity get fuel or electricity(1 vote)
- Curiosity is powered by a small thermometric generator. This generator contains a small amount of radioactive pellets which generate heat as they decay. This heat can be converted into energy that the rover uses to power itself.(3 votes)
- Did the riverbed go to the middle and disappear into the sand and years later the sand dry up?(2 votes)
- Does anyone know where to find a map of mars on the internet?(1 vote)
- What is the Curiosity rover's top speed? 5 miles in several months seems a little slow.(1 vote)
- The rover's top speed is about a tenth of a mile per hour. The rover must go slowly due to the light time delay and the hard terrain of the Martian surface. Also, due to the time the rover spends doing scientific investigations of various land forms, 5 miles per few moths sounds reasonable.(1 vote)
- what is the top speed that curiosity can travel...(1 vote)
- how does a lazzer know what type of compounds are in the soil of mars(1 vote)
- Laser stands for 'light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation' so it should always be spelled 'laser'.
My guess is that there is a spectroscope aboard the rover that analyzes the emission spectra produced by the laser hitting the compound. Different compounds produce different emission spectra when burned, that is, they have different wavelengths of light being produced.
Clear as mud, right?(1 vote)
Video transcript
(Music) I'm Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory and this is your Curiosity Rover Report. It's been a fantastic 300 sols. Actually, the discoveries began even before landing. On the way to Mars, Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector, or RAD, measured the high-energy radiation from within the capsule that enclosed the rover. These measurements will help NASA protect astronauts when they fly within spacecraft and are exposed to deep space radiation. It turns out that it's equivalent to getting a full-body CT scan every five or six days. By using Curiosity's data, NASA will learn how much shielding is needed to reduce the risk to astronauts. After touching down on Mars, Curiosity drove away from Bradbury Landing toward a region called Glenelg, where three types of terrain come together. We were hoping that one of these terrains, consisting of light-toned and fractured bedrock, might teach us something about an ancient dry riverbed that we spotted from orbit. This river appeared to have started high on the rim of Gale Crater and flowed toward the site where Curiosity landed, spreading sediment in a fan across the crater floor. Even before we got to Glenelg, we began to see slabs of a rock called a conglomerate. By studying the size of the pebbles within the conglomerate, and by noting how rounded they had become, the team was able to conclude that they were carried by water ankle-deep to hip-deep, flowing at about walking speed and extending for at least a few miles. Curiosity actually set her wheels within an ancient stream bed. Getting back to the present, Curiosity just finished drilling her second rock in Yellowknife Bay, in order to confirm the remarkable discovery of an ancient habitable environment, and to see if there is any variation among the rocks within Yellowknife Bay. We're now headed in the direction of our ultimate destination, Mount Sharp, five miles and several months away. Along the journey, the science team will continue to explore for evidence related to the habitability of ancient Mars. This has been your Curiosity rover report. Check back for more updates.