Curiosity: the latest on NASA's newest Mars rover
Curiosity is the name of NASA's latest Mars rover, a car-sized nuclear powered robot whose lasers and sensors will hopefully help determine if the planet could ever have supported life. Launched on November 26th, 2011, the vehicle successfully touched down on August 6th, beginning its mission to send back the newest and most complete information scientists have ever gathered about Mars's climate and geology, and laying the groundwork for a future manned mission to the red planet.
Life, death, and Mars: The New Yorker's definitive account of the Curiosity rover
The Curiosity rover, NASA's most ambitious Mars mission to-date, has received plenty of attention since it blasted off from Cape Canaveral in November 2011, but The New Yorker's Burkhard Bilger has put together what may be the definitive account of the mission. Bilger tells not only the story behind Curiosity and those who worked on it, but the history of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The story puts the daring mission in the context of man's fascination with Mars and the long line of...
Curiosity rover snaps panorama of massive Mars mountain
NASA this week released new high-resolution panoramic images of Mars' Mount Sharp, captured by its Mars Rover Curiosity. Named after late geologist Robert Sharp, the massive Martian mountain is a gently sloping formation that sits at the center of the Gale Crater, where Curiosity recently uncovered evidence that the Red Planet may have supported microbial life forms. According to NASA, Mount Sharp rises three miles above the surface of the crater, making it higher than any point within the 48...
Is there life on Mars? Why the question still eludes us after years of discovery
"Is there life on Mars?" David Bowie crooned in the 1971 glam rock hit of the same name. Four years later, NASA launched the twin Viking missions to the Red Planet in part to help answer that very question. They became the first spacecraft to land on another planet in human history. Almost forty years and 17 attempted missions to Mars later, we still don't know for sure if the planet has or ever had life. Even with this week's exciting news that the Curiosity rover discovered the most...
Curiosity discovers ancient Mars could have supported life
NASA just announced that its Curiosity rover has discovered evidence that Mars had the conditions necessary to support life in ancient times, specifically microorganisms. The evidence comes comes from a drilling sample retrieved by the rover from a rock on the Red Planet. The powder was found to contain traces of "sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon," all key chemical ingredients of microbial life. NASA scientists just finished a live streaming press conference to...
Curiosity rover successfully switches over to backup computer after memory issues
Over the weekend a memory problem with the Mars Curiosity rover forced NASA engineers to switch it into "safe mode" so a backup system could take over. According to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, that process has proved successful and Curiosity will be back to normal operation by next week. The move to the secondary "B-side" computer began on Thursday, February 28th, with the rover exiting safe mode — with the secondary computer in control — on Saturday. It regained the ability to...
Curiosity enters 'safe mode' after memory is corrupted, possibly by cosmic rays
A memory issue on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has led engineers to switch the rover's operations onto its backup computer. NASA says Curiosity is currently in a "safe mode" while its backup computer is updated to take control of the rover — once it's running again, the rover will be able to use the backup system for it's primary operations. The issue shouldn't result in any long-term disruptions for Curiosity.
The memory issue was caught on Wednesday when engineers noticed that Curiosity...
Curiosity rover spots strange hunk of metal on Mars
See that mysterious silver object in the picture above? That photograph was taken on the surface of Mars, and yet it sure doesn't look like a red rock. On January 30th, NASA's Curiosity rover snapped shots of the Martian landscape with each of its two MastCam cameras with this mystery object in the shot. NASA doesn't seem to have commented on the horn-like item yet, but theories currently include a meteorite that landed on the planet, or a piece of ore exposed by erosion of some sort.
E...
Curiosity Rover planning to drill into Martian rock for the first time, search for evidence of water
NASA has announced that the Mars Curiosity Rover is planning to drill into Martian rock for the first time in an attempt to prove there was once water on the planet. Veins on the rock appear to be made up of hydrated calcium sulfate, or gypsum — a mineral that requires the presence of water to form. Once the rover reaches the rock in question, it will drill, ingest, and analyze samples of the rock to determine the makeup of the minerals in question as well as the more general chemical...
Mars rover's 'special' New Year's message is anything but
NASA promised a special New Year’s Eve message from the Curiosity rover, and true to its word, one played out to the crowd during the celebrations at Times Square in New York City. Anybody hoping for revelations about Mars — or even just some new footage — will be in for a disappointment, with NASA instead opting to treat New York City to groan-worthy WordArt text. At least there’s an apology for the aspect ratio, as the clip played on the large vertically orientated monitors in Times...
NASA's Curiosity Rover will broadcast a 'special message' in Times Square on New Year's Eve
NASA's Curiosity Rover is already known for its significant social presence across networks like Twitter and Foursquare, but the Mars rover is scheduled to reach a whole new audience tonight. Curiosity will make a guest appearance at tonight's New Year's celebrations in New York City's Time Square, where millions watch the ball drop each year. According to the rover's official Twitter account, NASA will broadcast a "special message from Mars" on the massive screens to celebrate the end of...
NASA and Foursquare offering Curiosity badge for checking in at science centers
It's no secret that NASA has seen great success with social media and the Curiosity rover. Now, it's trying to turn some of that interest into real science education. In a partnership with Foursquare, it's offering a Curiosity rover badge to users who follow NASA and check into a NASA visitor center, science museum, or planetarium. They'll also be greeted with the following message:
Get out your rock-vaporizing laser! You've explored your scientific curiosities just like NASA's Curiosity...
NASA announces new rover mission launch in 2020, says new plans take a 'significant step' towards human visitation
NASA has just announced new plans for additional Mars missions, building on its ongoing Curiosity rover expedition. The US space agency will send a new "robotic science rover" to the Red Planet in 2020, which it says will cap a decade of new missions. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said of the plans that "with this next mission, we're ensuring America remains the world leader in the exploration of the Red Planet, while taking another significant step toward sending humans there in the...
NASA dashes hopes for Curiosity discovery, says there is no 'definitive evidence' of life on Mars
Today NASA announced that the swirling speculation around the Mars rover Curiosity's recent soil tests is incorrect: the agency will not have any major new findings to reveal at its upcoming press conference. Several days ago NASA began toning down the hype surrounding the tests, which had been touted as a discovery that would be "one for the history books." Though the December 3rd press conference will still focus on Curiosity's first successful soil analysis, NASA says that "the instruments...
NASA tempers expectations ahead of Curiosity announcement, says news 'won't be earthshaking'
Once teased as "one for the record books," NASA is now actively toning down hype surrounding its pending announcement regarding findings from the Mars Curiosity Rover. It was only a week ago that principal Curiosity investigator John Grotzinger told NPR, "this data is gonna be one for the history books." Thanks to the rover's SAM instrumentation — which analyzes the composition of dirt, rocks, air, and other items on the Red Planet — experts had come across something significant, he said....
NASA verifying 'exciting' data from Mars Curiosity rover
The Mars Curiosity Rover has already sent plenty of new information about the Red Planet, but NASA apparently has some new exciting data it's in the process of verifying. As NPR reports, NASA is currently looking hard at data received from Curiosity's SAM instrument, a reader that can analyse samples of rocks, dirt, air, and other materials to determine its composition. Of course, despite the fact that principal investigator for the Rover project John Grotzinger calls the data "one for the...
Mars Rover Curiosity uses Foursquare to check in from another planet
NASA's Curiosity has accomplished a series of unprecedented feats, including broadcasting will.i.am on the surface of Mars, and now it's the rightful owner of the first check-in from another planet with the help of Foursquare. While this is the second time a check-in has occurred from beyond Earth's atmosphere, never before has it been done by a non-human. Curiosity jokes that it is "One check-in closer to being Mayor of Mars," but Foursquare assures us that the rover will continue to keep...
NASA's Curiosity rover finds evidence of ancient stream on Mars
Since landing on Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover has brought us plenty of stunning views of the Martian surface, but now the machine has stumbled across something possibly even more exciting — an ancient stream bed. Researchers were able to determine that the rocks in the bed were carried by water based on their size and shape, and NASA estimates that the stream was anywhere from hip- to ankle-deep, moving at a pace of around three feet per second. While evidence of water on the red planet...
Science
Curiosity uses laser instruments to test rock named in honor of engineer
Today, Mars rover Curiosity began its analysis of a rock called "Jake Matijevic." The rock was named in honor of the surface operations system chief engineer for every Mars rover mission so far, who passed away in late August, just two weeks after Curiosity successfully landed on Mars. Curiosity will examine "rock target Jake" using its arm-mounted Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer and its mast-mounted, laser-firing ChemCam, which has already seen one test thus far. Mars Science Laboratory...
Knots in space: how NASA's Curiosity rover uses ancient technology
The Curiosity MARS rover may represent some of humanity's most recent technological achievements, but it couldn't be possible without some of the earliest. That's the takeaway from an in-depth post over at the International Guild of Knot Tyers Forum, which details the various knots NASA engineers employed to keep Curiosity together. The author claims that knots are still used for cable lacing both because of their efficacy and the "conservative nature of aerospace design," which sees no need...
Curiosity snaps a self-portrait from the surface of Mars
Ever since NASA's Curiosity rover touched down on Mars, we've been witness to a constant stream of stunning red planet imagery. Yet despite panoramas and other shots that have become instant classics, we've yet to get a great look at Curiosity itself. That all changed earlier today when the rover beamed a snapshot of its mast (or "head") back to earth. It's a powerful photo that stirs visions of robots which previously existed only in fantasy; just try looking at this and not thinking of...
NASA's Curiosity rover looks back at where it has been
NASA's Curiosity rover has taken yet another astonishing photograph of the Martian landscape, this time capturing its own small effect on the planet's surface. In a composite image released yesterday, the rover itself is visible in the foreground, with a long line of tire tracks stretching off into the background, the result of a 70-foot drive taken during Curiosity's 21st day on Mars. According to a description provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the rover, the picture...
Explore Curiosity's Mars landing site with NASA's 360-degree panoramic image
There's been no shortage of astounding images coming from NASA's Curiosity rover, but the latest is notable nonetheless — it's another interactive, panoramic view of the martian landscape. Unlike the previous panorama, this one was actually created by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, providing a 360-degree view of Curiosity's landing site. It's a mosaic of 140 different images and you can use your mouse to move around and zoom in on specific points of the martian terrain — including...
will.i.am to premiere new song from the surface of Mars
Tomorrow musician will.i.am will be premiering his latest song in a unique way — by broadcasting it from the surface of Mars through the Curiosity rover. The Black Eyed Peas frontman will be debuting the aptly titled "Reach for the Stars" during an educational NASA event in which the agency will be sharing some of the rover's early findings with students. NASA says that the song is about "the singer's passion for science, technology, and space exploration," which sounds like just about the...
Curiosity's wind sensor was damaged during Mars landing
Curiosity's Mars landing was a thrilling event, but it wasn't without its problems — NASA has discovered that one of the rover's wind sensors was damaged during the descent. While the exact cause is unclear, the team believes that stones and other debris from the martian surface may have been tossed up during the landing, damaging the rover's wiring. The damage leaves Curiosity with just one working wind sensor. "It degrades our ability to detect wind speed and direction when the wind is...
Curiosity wiggles its wheels on Mars, creates interplanetary GIF magic
For a $2.5 billion science project, NASA's Curiosity rover (and its team) have put quite a bit of effort into keeping relevant on the web, and the social team may have outdone itself today. NASA has posted an animated GIF of the rover wiggling its wheels on Mars, the latest in a long line of tests before Curiosity can embark on its first mission. We've yet to receive any true video footage from the Martian surface — the bandwidth simply isn't there — but who needs video when you can make...
Quick read
Watch Curiosity's Mars landing again, this time in high-resolution
We've already seen NASA's Curiosity rover make its dramatic descent to the surface of Mars, but the thumbnail frames of the original stop-motion video did leave something to be desired. Thankfully, the team at Spaceflight 101 has decided to recreate the video using higher resolution images, giving us an even clearer look at what the landing looked like, which you can watch below. This is just the latest example of people creating incredible things using NASA images — last week photographer...
Nuclear-powered Mars rover fires first laser
NASA's Curiosity rover, which touched down on the surface of Mars two weeks ago, has made the first use of its Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, firing a laser at a rock and analyzing the results. According to a statement from NASA, the test — billed as "target practice" for future missions — involved hitting the rock with 30 brief laser pulses, each delivering more than a million watts of power. The barrage transformed the target area into a stream of molten plasma, as shown in...
Curiosity update: rover given its first mission, prepares to test its lasers and move its wheels
The Mars Science Laboratory — better known as the Curiosity rover — has been sitting in its landing zone in Mars' Gale Crater for over 12 days since its successful landing, and it is now getting ready to make its first baby steps on the Martian surface. Over the next few days, the rover will move its wheels for the first time: it'll turn them side-to-side before driving forward 10 feet and then moving seven feet in reverse. The test is in preparation for Curiosity's first mission: a 1,300...
A view of Mars: the incredible 360-degree panorama from Curiosity
Curiosity has been reliably beaming back photos from the Martian surface ever since it completed its dramatic landing a week ago, and now we have the best view yet of where the rover sits. Photographer Andrew Bodrov has stitched together images from NASA to create a Google Street View-esque version of the Red Planet. You can't virtually drive along the surface, of course, but there's no need to: you'll be completely awed by the vision the interactive picture provides. The solitude, beauty,...
President Obama calls the Curiosity team, promises to 'protect... critical investments in science and technology'
One week after the Curiosity Mars Rover successfully touched down on the red planet, President Obama placed a phone call to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to congratulate the team and pledge further support for their initiatives. The whole call was captured on NASA video and saw Obama pledge to give "a personal commitment to protect these critical investments in science and technology." It's a bold promise, and the type of thing that NASA supporters will want to hear, but it'll take more...
The secret of the Mars rover's Twitter success: 'keeping it real'
Even before the successful landing of NASA's Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars last week, the machine's official Twitter account was by far the most entertaining way to keep track of its progress — unknown to many of Curiosity's 971,000 followers, the rover has been tweeting since November 2008, when it was still being built. Forbes has spoken to the three NASA employees charged with maintaining the feed, who claim that the secret of its success is "keeping it real." While not quite as...
Curiosity rover's gorgeous pictures from the surface of Mars
NASA's Curiosity rover has begun sending back its first high-resolution photographs of Mars, and they're pretty stunning. The craft successfully landed on the Red Planet earlier this month, after dramatically descending into Mars' Gale Crater. Curiosity's early photos were grainy and dim, but they've since been replaced with notably sharper, full-color shots, capturing a Martian landscape that's both surreal, yet somehow familiar. The set is undoubtedly headlined by a massive, high-resolution...
Curiosity undergoes software update to better explore the surface of Mars
While you spend your weekend watching meteors streak through the sky, the Curiosity rover is undergoing what NASA describes as a "brain transplant." Now that the rover has safely completed the flight and landing portion of its mission, it's getting a software update to help it with the next phase — exploring the surface of Mars. The update takes four days to complete — it began on the 10th and should be complete by the 13th — and will improve the rover's ability to both drive and use...
Curiosity's camera project leader explains 2-megapixel choice
Chances are good that if you bought a cellphone within the last five years, its camera shoots higher resolution images than those on NASA's Curiosity rover. But in case you forgot, megapixel counts only tell part of the story, and there’s a lot more behind the choice of sensors in Curiosity’s Mastcams than you might guess.
National Geographic airing Mars rover documentary tonight at 10PM ET
You watched the landing, saw the stunning descent in full-color, and maybe even played the game, but if you haven't had enough of the Curiosity rover's Mars landing, National Geographic will be airing a new documentary tonight. Called "Martian Mega Rover," the documentary covers the events leading up the historic landing — including the actual construction of the rover — for a story that spans eight years. And though it's going to air just a few days after Curiosity finally reached the...
Ustream Mars Curiosity broadcast numbers beat primetime CNN, company says
The live stream of NASA's Curiosity rover landing garnered more interest than primetime Sunday television, Ustream says. A spokesperson told Mashable that 3.2 million people in total had checked the stream at some point during the landing, with a peak of 500,000 people watching at the same time. That's higher than the estimated viewing numbers for CNN during Sunday primetime, which came in at 426,000, or MSNBC, which had an audience of 365,000 viewers over age two. Ustream's peak audience was...
Curiosity: 17 cameras, plutonium, and an 11-year-old computer
Curiosity has successfully landed on the surface of Mars, and this car-sized rover is absolutely packed with equipment to research the red planet and send that information back to Earth. Curiosity's main computer is the RAD750, a single-board computer made by BAE systems that's been used in spacecraft like Deep Impact and the Kepler telescope. This particular computer is popular because it can withstand extreme temperatures and high levels of radiation, but there's a backup in the rare...
NASA releases color video of Curiosity's dramatic descent
After having successfully landed on the Mars yesterday, NASA's Curiosity rover has now begun transmitting images taken during its dramatic descent. The craft's onboard Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) captured a total of 1,054 images during Curiosity's landing, 297 of which were beamed back to Earth on Monday. These early color photos are of low resolution, though when sharpened and combined with the remaining images, they should provide a more fluid depiction of Curiosity's entry and descent into...
NASA's new rover arrives on Mars, crash lands in YouTube's DMCA hell
This morning at around 1:31AM EST, Curiosity, NASA's latest robotic Martian rover, touched down safely on the surface of the Red Planet's Gale Crater. But video of the historic event, posted to NASA's own YouTube channel, wasn't so lucky. Motherboard reports that about an hour after appearing on NASA's livestream, a video uploaded from Curiosity's control room during the landing was replaced by a DMCA copyright notice, purportedly the handiwork of the site's notorious automated takedown...
Earth stands still to watch Mars landing
Tonight in Times Square, no less than a thousand people stood with the relatively monotonous din of the New York City streets around them, peering at a video monitor high above. As the sticky August night drew to a close and early morning arrived, the crowd swelled, and anticipation built: everyone was here to witness the fate of the Curiosity Mars rover.
It was a somewhat eerie scene, with everyone staring up at the monitor and listening intently to the radio feed over their smartphones....
Curiosity rover successfully lands on Mars, sends back first images
After a journey spanning 36 weeks and 352 million miles, NASA's Curiosity rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars at approximately 1.32AM ET. The exciting journey culminated in what NASA called "seven minutes of terror" that the craft had to endure en route to the planet's surface, including temperatures of 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit and speeds approaching 13,000 mph. Administratior of NASA Charles Bolden, Jr had the following to say:
"It's a huge day for the nation. Everybody in...
Live: NASA's ambitious Curiosity rover attempts to land on Mars
After more than eight months in space, the Curiosity rover's big challenge is here: to witness the historical Mars rover landing as it happens, video streams can be viewed on Ustream, NASA TV, Wired Science, and the Xbox 360. NASA says the Curiosity rover is expected to touch down on the surface of Mars on August 6 at 1:31 AM EDT, though as The New York Times reports, confirmation of a successful landing could take "several hours or even days."
If you want to share the experience with...
Science
Mars rover Curiosity's history in pictures, and how to watch the landing live
In preparation for this weekend's highly anticipated Mars rover landing, The Atlantic has compiled a beautiful visual history of the Curiosity project. The stunning hi-res images show and explain the purpose of Curiosity's various scientific and imaging instruments, and give a detailed account of the preparations leading up to liftoff on November 26th, 2011. The article also gives a brief explanation of the complicated sky crane maneuver, a risky process that will hopefully guide the rover...
Science
The Mars missions that failed
The Mars rover Curiosity is set to land this weekend, and in honor of the event, Wired is taking a look back at the missions that didn't make it. Many will be watching online, on television, or in Times Square as the $2.5 billion Curiosity attempts to survive "seven minutes of terror" to safely land on Mars. More than half of all Mars missions have failed, and the current success rate for landing probes on the planet's surface sits at about 30 percent. This mission presents a particular...
Culture
Mars rover landing to be screened in Times Square
The expected landing of NASA's Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars next Monday will be shown live on twin LED displays in New York's Times Square, according to an announcement from the space agency. The Toshiba Vision screen setup, which played a prominent role in last year's New Year's Eve countdown, will broadcast footage from 11:30 pm ET on August 5th to 4 am the following day, with the landing expected to happen at 1:31 am.
The source of the pictures will be NASA TV, a satellite...
NASA details Curiosity's Mars landing in 'Seven Minutes of Terror' video
After years of development and billions of dollars in investment, the fate of NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity will ultimately hinge upon just a few minutes — seven, to be exact. That's the amount of time it will take for Curiosity to make the voyage from Mars' atmosphere to the planet's surface, and according to NASA, it's bound to be fraught with tension.
Today, the agency published a short video clip that explains this landing process in dramatic detail, putting a particular emphasis on the...
NASA Curiosity rover about to redirect for Mars landing
The Curiosity rover, which launched in November, is about to make a maneuver vital to its successful landing. Later today, the spacecraft carrying the rover will perform a series of engine burns intended to redirect it towards the landing point at Gale Crater. It's necessary because the rocket's initial trajectory was actually set to miss Mars in order to prevent the upper stage from potentially contaminating the planet with microbes from Earth — unlike Curiosity, the rocket wasn't cleaned...
NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity launches today
The latest Mars Rover, Curiosity, is set to begin its launch window at 10:02 am ET today. The $2.5 billion laboratory has a 70% chance to blast off today in an Atlas 5 rocket, where it will begin its eight month journey to Mars to spend another two years researching whether or not Mars was ever suitable for life. It's headed to Gale crater, which has deep layers of sediment for researchers to mine. Curiosity is much larger than any previous Mars Rover an five times heavier. It's packed with...
Inside NASA's Curiosity rover
This Saturday, November 26th, NASA will strap its $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) to an Atlas 5 rocket and blast it into space. Eight months later scientists plan to deposit a car-sized robot packed full of cutting-edge technology onto the surface of the planet with a hovering, rocket-powered sky crane. The rover’s name is Curiosity, and at SPACE.com, reporter Mike Wall recounts the time he got to spend with the machine at NASA’s Pasadena Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) back in...
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover set to explore the red planet
In case you haven't been keeping up to date with the latest in NASA-land, we wanted to fill you in. The space agency's Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory, the biggest and best rover to date, is all set to ride an Atlas V rocket to Mars in a little over two weeks' time. This rover (weighing in at 1,980 pounds) is about the size of a small car — far larger than any vehicle previously sent to Mars. Its size will allow it to roll over objects up to 29 inches high, and it will travel at a speed...
