JPL

NASA Mars Rover Can Choose Laser Targets on Its Own

NASA Mars Rover Can Choose Laser Targets on Its Own

Jul 21, 2016 @ 18:46 |  NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is now selecting rock targets for its laser spectrometer — the first time autonomous target selection is available for an instrument of this kind on any robotic planetary mission. Using software developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, Curiosity is now frequently choosing multiple […]

Curiosity Rover Enters Precautionary Safe Mode

Curiosity Rover Enters Precautionary Safe Mode

Jul 7, 2016 @ 15:54 |  The Curiosity rover put itself into safe mode on July 2, ceasing most activities other than keeping itself healthy and following a prescribed sequence for resuming communications. But till now NASA engineers are not sure about the reason of safe-mode entry. Engineers are working to determine the cause of […]

Curiosity Mars Rover Crosses Rugged Plateau

Curiosity Mars Rover Crosses Rugged Plateau

Apr 28, 2016 @ 16:00 |  NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has nearly finished crossing a stretch of the most rugged and difficult-to-navigate terrain encountered during the mission’s 44 months on Mars. The rover climbed onto the “Naukluft Plateau” of lower Mount Sharp in early March after spending several weeks investigating sand dunes. The plateau’s sandstone […]

Curiosity Rover Celebrates 3rd Anniversary on Mars

Curiosity Rover Celebrates 3rd Anniversary on Mars

6 August 2015 – On August 6, 2012, 05:17:57 UTC, [August 5, 2012, (10:32 p.m. PDT)], NASA achieved one of the biggest milestones in science and technology – Curiosity landed on Mars. Today Curiosity celebrates 3 years on Mars. At the occasion of 3rd anniversary, Ashwin Vasavada, project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory mission presented 3rd Anniversary Curiosity […]

Curiosity Rover Inspects Unusual Bedrock on Mars

Curiosity Rover Inspects Unusual Bedrock on Mars

Approaching the third anniversary of its landing on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has found a target unlike anything it has studied before — bedrock with surprisingly high levels of silica. Silica is a rock-forming compound containing silicon and oxygen, commonly found on Earth as quartz. This area lies just downhill from a geological contact […]

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