by ANDY FLEMING
NASA's latest rover to explore the Martian Surface: The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), otherwise known as Curiosity
As featured on 102.4 Radio Hartlepool's Solid Gold Sunday with Andy Fleming
Podcast available here
Full show available here
Currently investigating the Martian surface, Curiosity is
NASA’s latest rover to explore the surface of the Red Planet. It’s part of
their Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of
the planet. Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars ever had an
environment able to support small life forms called microbes. In other words,
its mission is to determine the planet's habitability.
To help in this task, the rover carries the biggest, most
advanced suite of instruments for scientific studies ever sent to the Martian
surface. The record of the planet's climate
and geology is essentially written in its rocks and soil - in their formation,
structure, and chemical composition. Curiosity's on-board laboratory is
currently analysing samples of these rocks and soils, and also the local
geologic setting in order to detect the chemical building blocks of life on
Mars. These include complex organic
chemicals that contain carbon, perhaps even amino acids. From such studies Curiosity is assessing what
the Martian environment was like in the past.
The rover is able to roll over obstacles up to 75 centimetres
in height and on average can travel about 30 meters per hour, based on power
levels and steepness of the terrain. Curiosity uses a radioisotope power system
that generates electricity from the heat of plutonium's radioactive decay. This
power source gives the mission a lifespan of nearly two years, much more than
the previous highly successful Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity that relied
on solar panel, always vulnerable to Martian dust storms.
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