Dare Mighty Things: It’s Been 2,000 Days Since Humankind Successfully Landed a 2,000lb Rover on Mars! @NASA @NASAJPL @MarsCuriosity
A rover roving around the surface of the planet Mars seems nothing new to us now. Sojourner deployed in 1997 – but it had a mass of only 25lbs. Twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity both arrived in 2004 via bouncy ball deployment – a novel concept at the time for machines that had a mass just above 400lbs. But how to deposit a 1,982lb rover with lots of sensitive equipment required more outside-the-box thinking than even the bouncy ball technique would resolve. The “skycrane maneuver” used to deploy rover Curiosity on the Martian surface is still a bewildering feat of multiple stages of engineering and communication. If you haven’t seen it before here’s the JPL video that shows how this is done:
Curiosity has returned many images of the surface of the planet and made many interesting discoveries along the way:
Mars may be named for the god of war, but these weird things aren't cannonballs. They're pebbles.
The round 5mm concretion I found (L) contains calcium sulfate, sodium + magnesium, making it different from the hematite-rich "blueberries" (R) @MarsRovers Opportunity found. Cool! pic.twitter.com/BDWwrOv02l
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) December 5, 2017
I see your true colors, and that's why I love you, Mars.💜 The purple hue indicates hematite below the dust. https://t.co/ZGIk70Vs8B pic.twitter.com/Ofy4JYlzAX
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) November 1, 2017
Layers of meaning! Rocks show deep & shallow waters of an ancient #Mars lake could've supported different microbes https://t.co/b9JL12xkqU pic.twitter.com/EVrribD3BO
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) June 1, 2017
I have frickin' laser, but I'm not ill-tempered. Zapping this meteorite revealed its nickel-iron composition https://t.co/jOLRmy9qzr pic.twitter.com/j4th8NnOCN
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) November 2, 2016
Best. Road trip. Ever. Feast your eyes on the Martian landscape. https://t.co/7FCAmM1EgY #JourneytoMars pic.twitter.com/UaQvyoSOSU
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) September 9, 2016
Always look both ways before crossing the crater. Recent Mastcam images show the northern rim of Gale Crater, Mars. pic.twitter.com/fRhGj0k7LF
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) November 6, 2015
Simply amazing. Thank you science.
And yes, ‘bots are capable of selfies too:
I'm back! Did you miss me? This selfie is part of a fresh batch of images, direct from #Mars. Check out all my raw images at https://t.co/IfEoAnOsP3 pic.twitter.com/iZFX9Gi4q6
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) January 24, 2018
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