. Mars Exploration News .




.
MARSDAILY
Mars rover Curiosity working 'flawlessly': NASA
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Sept 12, 2012


NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars more than a month ago, appears to be working "flawlessly" as it prepares to continue its two-year exploration of the Red Planet, the US space agency said Wednesday.

For the past week, the rover, which touched down on August 6, has undergone a series of instrument tests, as well as a rebooting of its steering computers, and everything so far appears fine, according to officials with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"Through every phase of the check-out, Curiosity has performed almost flawlessly," said Jennifer Tropser, mission manager for Curiosity at the laboratory, adding that a final few tests would be done early Thursday.

"The success so far of these activities has been outstanding," she told reporters in a telephone briefing.

Curiosity is on a mission to investigate whether it is possible to live on Mars and to learn whether conditions there might have been able to support life in the past.

The rover last week temporarily halted its journey across the surface of Mars as it tested the tools on its robotic arm.

It was forced for about a week to stay put in order to give technicians a chance to put its seven-foot (2.1-meter) robotic arm through a range of motions established during Earth testing.

The goal was to figure out how the arm is functioning after the long space voyage and in the different gravity and temperatures on Mars.

The arm and the soil sampling system are the last pieces of the massive rover to be put through testing, officials said.

The $2.5 billion craft has covered some some 109 meters (357 feet) within the Gale crater since it began trundling eastward en route to its first major destination -- an intersection called Glenelg.

That site, located at a meeting point of three different types of terrain, is where NASA experts hope to find a first rock target for drilling and analysis.

Space officials have said it will be a few more weeks before the rover is in place and ready to scoop up a sample of Martian soil.

After Glenelg, Curiosity will continue on to its ultimate destination, the slopes of nearby Mount Sharp.

Related Links
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more




.
.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries






.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



MARSDAILY
NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Begins Arm-Work Phase
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 07, 2012
After driving more than a football field's length since landing, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is spending several days preparing for full use of the tools on its arm. Curiosity extended its robotic arm Wednesday in the first of six to10 consecutive days of planned activities to test the 7-foot (2.1-meter) arm and the tools it manipulates. "We will be putting the arm through a range of motio ... read more


MARSDAILY
Memorial service honors 'man on the moon' Armstrong

Chandrayaan II may be delayed, says ISRO Chief

First man on moon to be buried at sea: Armstrong family

Russian deputy PM proposes Moon station

MARSDAILY
China's manned spacecraft in final preparations for mid-June launch

Tiangong Orbit Change Signals Likely Date for Shenzhou 10

China Focus: Timeline for China's space research revealed

China eyes next lunar landing as US scales back

MARSDAILY
Luca Parmitano flying high

Astronauts Take Second Spacewalk

ISS crew complete space station repair

Crew Wraps Up Preparations for Wednesday's Spacewalk

MARSDAILY
The Kuiper Belt at 20: Paradigm Changes in Our Knowledge of the Solar System

e2v To Supply Large CMOS Imaging Sensors For Imaging Kuiper Belt Objects

Fly New Horizons through the Kuiper Belt

Hubble Discovers a Fifth Moon Orbiting Pluto

MARSDAILY
Does Triton Have a Subsurface Ocean?

Saturn and its Largest Moon Reflect Their True Colors

Giant Ice Avalanches On Iapetus Provide Clue To Extreme Slippage Elsewhere In The Solar System

River networks on Titan point to a puzzling geologic history

MARSDAILY
More satellite launches planned for upgrading maritime monitoring

Astrium installs new terminal in Mexico to receive SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 imagery

Suomi NPP Captures Smoke Plume Images from Russian and African Fires

Remote Sensing Satellite Sends First Earth Imagery

MARSDAILY
Mankind's messenger at the final frontier

35 years on, Voyager 'dancing on edge' of outer space

Space-age food served up with seeds of success

Africa eyes joint space agency

MARSDAILY
Planets Can Form in the Galactic Center

Birth of a planet

A Hot Potential Habitable Exoplanet around Gliese 163

NASA's Kepler Discovers Multiple Planets Orbiting a Pair of Stars


Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement