How Ingenious Engineering Keeps NASA's Curiosity Rover Operating After 13 Years on Mars
By
Evan Ackerman
Sesame, salt, and substance. A flagship bake.
Summary
The article recounts the Curiosity rover's 13-year journey on Mars, highlighting its remarkable longevity and scientific achievements including traveling nearly 37 kilometers, drilling 42 rock samples, and capturing over 763,000 photos. It details the ingenious engineering fixes and maintenance tricks that have kept the rover operational despite being 200 million kilometers from Earth, far exceeding its original mission expectations.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledThe fact that this robot is still hard at work, getting real science done at the age of 13, is absolutely incredible
It takes some special tricks to maintain a robot 200 million kilometers from home
Thirteen years ago last August, I was camped out in NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory press room... waiting to see whether the Curiosity rover would survive its descent
You might also wanna read
NASA Confirms End of Mars Maven Spacecraft Mission After 10+ Years
NASA confirmed that the Mars Maven spacecraft mission has ended after more than a decade of observations. The announcement came after six mo
apple.news·6d ago
NASA's MAVEN Mars Mission Concludes After 11 Years of Atmospheric Research
NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission has concluded after more than 11 years in orbit at Mars, far exceeding its ori
astrobiology.com·7d ago
NASA Decommissions MAVEN Spacecraft After 11-Year Mars Mission
NASA is decommissioning its MAVEN spacecraft after more than 11 years of orbiting Mars. The mission, which began in 2014, was designed to st
nytimes.com·6d ago
Satirical piece: NASA Curiosity rover humorously said to find beauty in ordinary Martian rocks
A satirical article from The Onion-style reporting about NASA's Curiosity rover supposedly finding "beauty in the mundane" on Mars. The piec
The Onion·22d ago
Tesla Robotaxi surpasses 1.7 million paid miles as autonomous driving ambitions advance
Tesla's Robotaxi autonomous driving technology has surpassed 1.7 million paid miles traveled, marking significant progress toward Elon Musk'
bit.ly·3d ago
NASA ends MAVEN Mars orbiter mission after spacecraft goes silent behind the planet
NASA has declared the end of the MAVEN orbiter's mission after the spacecraft went silent six months ago while passing behind Mars. The $582
cbsn.ws·6d ago