Road trip on tap for NASA's Mars rover in new year
AP, Washington Examiner, December 29, 2012
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Since captivating the world with its acrobatic landing, the Mars rover Curiosity has fallen into a rhythm: Drive, snap pictures, zap at boulders, scoop up dirt. Repeat.
Topping its to-do list in the new year: Set off toward a Martian mountain — a trek that will take up a good chunk of the year. ...
Curiosity's job is to figure out whether the landing site ever had the right environmental conditions to support microbes. Scientists already know water flowed in the past thanks to the rover's discovery of an old streambed. Besides water, life as we know it also needs energy, the sun.
What's missing are the chemical building blocks of life: complex carbon-based molecules. If they're preserved on Mars, scientists figure the best place to hunt for them is at the base of Mount Sharp where images from space reveal hints of interesting geology. ...
On a sadder note, since no lush tropical rain forests have been located on the planet, Curiosity's high-tech Slash and Burn Tool has gone un-utilized. Similarly, there has been no necessity for the plucky little rover's large Hydraulic Dumping Box of Plastic Debris, since, as of yet, there has been no evidence of any big blue pristine oceans on the surface of Mars in which to dump it.
Seriously, congratulations NASA.
Posts
