Curiosity rover faces its toughest climb yet on Mars

On Aug. 5, NASA’s Curiosity rover will notch its eleventh 12 months on Mars by doing what it does greatest: finding out the Crimson Planet’s floor. The intrepid bot not too long ago investigated a location nicknamed “Jau” that’s pockmarked with dozens of impression craters. Scientists have not often gotten a close-up view of so many Martian craters in a single place. The most important is estimated to be at the least so long as a basketball courtroom, though most are a lot smaller.

Jau is a pit cease on the rover‘s journey into the foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that was lined with lakes, rivers, and streams billions of years in the past. Every layer of the mountain shaped in a unique period of Mars’s historic local weather, and the upper Curiosity goes, the extra scientists study how the panorama modified over time.

The trail up the mountain over the past a number of months required probably the most arduous climb Curiosity has ever made. There have been steeper climbs and riskier terrain, however the mission has by no means confronted the trifecta of challenges posed by this slope: a pointy 23-degree incline, slippery sand, and wheel-size rocks. This trifecta left the rover struggling via a half-dozen drives in Might and June, vexing Curiosity’s drivers again on Earth.

“When you’ve ever tried working up a sand dune on a seaside—and that is basically what we have been doing—you understand it is arduous, however there have been boulders in there as nicely,” stated Amy Hale, a Curiosity rover driver at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

How one can drive a rover

Hale is one in all 15 “rover planners” who write a whole lot of traces of code to command Curiosity’s mobility system and robotic arm every day. (They do not function the rover in actual time; directions are despatched to Mars the evening earlier than, and information comes again to Earth solely after the rover has accomplished the work.) These engineers collaborate with scientists to determine the place to direct the rover, what footage to take, and which targets to review utilizing the devices on its 7-foot (2-meter) robotic arm.

However rover planners are additionally continuously looking out for hazards. They’ve to put in writing instructions to steer round pointy rocks and reduce put on on Curiosity’s battered wheels. Geologists on the staff use their area expertise right here on Earth to assist look out for deep sand and unstable rock formations. There’s even a task on the mission to gauge whether or not a canyon wall may impede radio communications with Earth.

Six-wheeled ascent

Curiosity was by no means at risk whereas climbing to Jau: The staff would not plan something that might injury the rover, and the planners write instructions in order that Curiosity will cease shifting if it encounters any surprises. Sudden stoppages—known as “faults”—can happen when the wheels slip an excessive amount of or a wheel is raised too excessive by a big rock. On the path to Jau, the rover discovered itself in each eventualities on a number of events.

“We have been principally taking part in fault bingo,” stated Dane Schoelen, Curiosity’s strategic route planning lead at JPL. “Every day after we got here in, we might discover out we faulted for one motive or one other.”

As a substitute of constant to wrestle with the unique course, Schoelen and his colleagues put collectively a lateral detour, eyeing a spot roughly 492 ft (150 meters) away the place the incline leveled out. At the least, it appeared to: Planners depend on imagery from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to get a tough sense of the terrain, however photos captured from space cannot present precisely how steep a slope is or whether or not boulders are there.

The detour would add a couple of weeks to the journey to Jau—until the terrain was hiding extra surprises. If that have been the case, the detour might need been for nothing, and the staff’s scientists must hold in search of one other path up Mount Sharp.

Thankfully, the detour paid off, permitting Curiosity to crest the slope.

“It felt nice to lastly recover from the ridge and see that incredible vista,” Schoelen stated. “I get to have a look at photos of Mars all day lengthy, so I actually get a way of the panorama. I typically really feel like I am standing proper there subsequent to Curiosity, wanting again at how far it has climbed.”

For the reason that troublesome ascent, Curiosity’s scientists have wrapped an investigation of the Jau crater cluster. Frequent on Mars, clusters can kind when a meteor breaks up within the planet’s environment or when fragments are tossed by a big, extra distant meteoroid impression. Scientists wish to perceive how the comparatively delicate rocks of the salt-enriched terrain affected the way in which the craters shaped and adjusted over time.

Regardless of all that Mars has thrown at Curiosity, the rover is not slowing down. It’s going to quickly be off once more to discover a brand new space larger up on Mount Sharp.