MARS ROVER CURIOSITY
One of the current advancement on the solar system
By: Managing and monitoring of National Aeronautics Space
Administration (NASA)
Mission Objectives:
Main:
• To determine if Mars is, or was, suitable for
life. While it is not designed to find life itself, the
rover carries a number of instruments on board
that can bring back information about the
surrounding environment.
• To have a continuous record of weather and
radiation observations and to determine how
suitable the site would be for an eventual
human mission.
It was launched last November 26,2011 from Cape
Canaveral, Florida, U.S.A
It is propelled toward Mars by a Centaur upper stage.
Centaur has been designed to be the upper stage of
space launch vehicles and is used on the Atlas V. Centaur
was the world's first high-energy upper stage,
burning liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX).
 To get to Mars, Curiosity will travel safely tucked
inside a protective shell.
 Curiosity launched on an Atlas V-541,
 the largest rocket for launching to a planet.
 As you can see where other Mars landers and
rovers
have successfully landed on Mars too.
 Curiosity is headed to Gale Crater.
 It was arrived on Planet Mars last August 06,2012
 Curiosity is TWICE THE SIZE
 of Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity
 and FIVE TIMES as heavy.
 Power Source:
 Multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric
generator, which produces electricity from the heat
of plutonium-238's radioactive decay.
 The trip will take over eight months.
The rover will travel about 354 million miles (570
million kilometers).
 The spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere
78 miles above the planet. The rover will take
approximately seven minutes to reach the ground.
 As it descends, the rover uses radar to measure its
speed and altitude, which it uses to land safely.
 When the sky crane “senses” that Curiosity
 has touched down, the cables are cut.
 The sky crane flies a safe distance away from the
rover before crash-landing.
 For the first time, a Mars rover will land with wheels
touching down first, instead of airbags.
 Curiosity will start exploring Mars after raising its
“head” and doing a “self-check” to make sure all
systems are go.
 Driving could take several days to a few weeks after
landing.
Reference:
https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_(rocket_stage)
https://spaceodyssey.dmns.org/media/27724/curiosi
ty_overview
www.mainerobotics.org/uploads/8/3/4/4/8344007/cur
iosity