Question Details

Will "Curiosity" successfully land on the Mars surface?

Will "Curiosity" successfully land on the Mars surface?

Asked by: Super Userkruijs in Science » Space
Settled on 08/06/2012 07:31 Settled by Super UserJosef Biesenberger
Winning option:Yes http://tribune.com.pk/story/418231/mars-rover-curiosity-lands-on-surface-of-red-planet/

Predictions

Yes
Yes
No
No

Background

Curiosity, which is slated to launch Saturday morning on an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, is the biggest planetary rover ever built. The six-wheel-drive robot is three meters long—longer than a Smart ForTwo mini car—and its headlike mast rises 2.1 meters above the ground. With a suite of 10 science instruments, Curiosity weighs in at nearly 900 kilograms, more than NASA's last three Mars rovers combined.

To put its size in perspective, consider that Curiosity is scheduled to touch down in August 2012, just over 15 years after NASA's first Mars rover began exploring the Red Planet. That rover, Sojourner, stood about 30 centimeters high. Curiosity is designed to roll over obstacles twice that tall.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=msl-curiosity-rover

Find similar: mars, rover, curiosity

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   Super Userkruijs

A glitch in the Mars Odyssey orbiter may add additional drama to the "seven minutes of terror" expected as the Mars Science Laboratory rover, aka Curiosity, lands on the red planet next month, NASA scientists announced Monday.

Those seven minutes are the time it should take the vehicle to descend from the top of the Martian atmosphere to the surface, braking all the way.

"We go from 13,000 miles [21,000 kilometers] per hour to zero is seven minutes," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said at a press conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120717-mars-science-laboratory-nasa-space-xbox-curiosity-kinect-terror/

   Super Userkruijs

NASA's new Mars rover has already begun performing research in space, less than three weeks after launching on its eight-month cruise to the Red Planet.

http://www.space.com/13955-nasa-mars-rover-curiosity-space-radiation.html

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