Curiosity
Mars rover takes first drive
The US space agency's (Nasa) Curiosity rover
has finally begun to roll.
The Mars robot, which landed on the Red Planet
two weeks ago, turned its six wheels briefly on Wednesday to satisfy engineers
that its locomotion system was in full working order.
Curiosity is a sophisticated mobile science laboratory.
It has been built to drive at least 20km
across the Martian landscape to investigate whether the planet ever had the
conditions necessary for life.
Wednesday's drive saw the rover roll forward
4.5m, turn clockwise on the spot for about 120 degrees, and then reverse up
2.5m.
It took about five minutes to complete the
manoeuvre. Another 10 minutes or so was spent taking pictures of the outcome,
recording the vehicle's historic first tracks in the Martian soil.
Looking at those images, which have been stitched
together to make the mosaic featured on this page, it is clear now that
Curiosity's rear-right wheel landed on top of a rock estimated to be some 9cm
tall.
The vehicle will cover a lot of ground on this
mission but the significance of the first roll manoeuvre could not be
overstated, said Curiosity project manager Pete Theisinger.
"It couldn't be more important. We built
a rover and unless the rover roves, we really haven't accomplished
anything," he told reporters.
"And the fact that we completely
exercised it and everything was on track is a big moment."
Nasa has made one other key announcement on
what has been the 16th day of this mission. It has named the spot on which the
robot landed after the science fiction author Ray Bradbury.
The celebrated American writer, who died in
June, was an enthusiastic supporter of the space agency.
"His books have truly inspired us,"
said Michael Meyer, the lead scientist on Nasa's Mars exploration programme.
"The Martian Chronicles have
inspired our curiosity and opened our minds to the possibility of life on Mars.
"In his honour, we declare the place that
Curiosity touched down to be forever known as Bradbury Landing."
Having rolled forward
a few metres, Curiosity rotated on the spot about 120 degrees
The rover is now pointing southwest in the
general direction of Mount Sharp, the big mountain at the centre of Mars'
equatorial Gale Crater.
Scientists expect to find rocks at the base of
the peak that were laid down billions of years ago in the presence of abundant
water.
Curiosity - also known as the Mars Science
Laboratory, MSL - will not journey to Mount Sharp immediately, however. The
mission team first wants to visit a piece of ground some 400m to the east, a
location the researchers have dubbed Glenelg.
Satellite pictures have shown this place to be
an intersection of three distinct types of rock terrain. Scientists think it
will be a good place to start to characterise the geology of Gale Crater.
The rover will probably set off for Glenelg in
about a week, following some science investigations of Bradbury Landing itself
and a number of additional practice drives.
On its way to the intersection, Curiosity will
likely scoop a soil sample to examine in its onboard laboratories.
"When we finally get to Glenelg, we want
to study the outcrop there and take a look at the contacts between the three
different terrain types," said Joy Crisp, a deputy project scientist on
the mission.
"Maybe there is where we'll decide to do
our first drilling into rock. And after Glenelg, we head for Mount Sharp.
That's going to take several months."
0 comments:
Post a Comment