Restaurateurs of Redlands
Tweet Follow @
NASA's Curiosity rover celebrates 2 years on Mars
File - An undated file image released by NASA shows a self-portrait of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. (AP Photo/NASA)
Zen Vuong, Pasadena Star-News
This panorama of the landscape surrounding NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on July 31, 2014, offers a view into sandy lower terrain called "Hidden Valley," which is on the planned route ahead. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE >> The Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover has gone through many Martian firsts, but on Tuesday it will celebrate its second anniversary of landing on the Red Planet.Curiosity, which is as tall as a basketball player and weighs about 2,000 pounds, was expected to have a power supply that would last a Martian year or 687 Earth days. That date was reached on June 24. Yet the rover's radioisotope thermoelectric generator still has energy from the heat of plutonium-238's radioactive decay.
"On the one hand, we're all really excited that we've already accomplished the primary objective of the mission by finding that Mars was habitable," said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's deputy project scientist. "We still have a healthy rover, and we're still looking for the best science, which is ahead of us. I don't think any of us could've predicted that two years later, we would be at this point because space is risky business."Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Fliñtridge built Curiosity and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. It is the largest rover ever sent to Mars and landed on Gale Crater on Aug. 5, 2012. Curiosity carries tools such as 17 cameras, a laser to zap rocks and a drill to collect rock samples.
The rover brought in many space exploration firsts. It carries the largest and most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on Mars' surface. Its set of tools is more than 10 times as massive as those of earlier Mars rovers such as NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. It used an entirely new landing system that allowed for more precise landing."We're the first mission to ever drill on another planet," said Jim Erickson, project manager for NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers. "We've actually been able to discover a location that in the past was a habitable environment."
Soon after landing, the rover delivered images that showed it landed in an area where liquid water, as opposed to frozen water, once roared over the surface of the Red Planet. Scientists are not sure how long water flowed. It could've been 1,000 years to millions of years, Vasavada said."While it seems that we're always looking for water on Mars, we've known that there is water on Mars for many decades," Vasavada said. "But most of it is frozen today in polar caps, and life requires liquid water. While there is basically no liquid water on Mars today, water was flowing in rivers and collecting in a lake about 3 billion years ago."
Within the first eight months on Mars, Curiosity found evidence of a past environment well-suited to supporting microbial life. Experts believe Curiosity will last another two to four years at full productivity, Vasavada said. Then the rover may be able to operate at reduced capacity for 10 years, he said.For a while, Curiosity's tires took a beating from the Red Planet, but scientists have found ways to mitigate further damage. The rover is on its way to Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high mountain made of layered rock.
"What's special about it is the rock layers have recorded some of the major environmental changes over time as Mars went from a very wet and possibly warm planet to the very cold and dry planet it is today," Vasavada said. "By studying the rock layers, we hope to read Mars like a history book."
Reach the author at 
or follow Zen on Twitter: @Zenreport.
Full bio and more articles by Zen Vuong
Related JPL celebrates Curiosity rover's first 2 years on Mars
Copyright © Redlands Daily Facts