www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
World / US and Canada

Curiosity rover ready for test drive

By Romain Raynaldy in Los Angeles (Agencies) Updated: 2012-08-23 08:05

If test is successful, two-year mission to explore the Red Planet will begin

A little more than two weeks after its arrival on Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover is scheduled on Wednesday to make its first test drive before setting off on its Red Planet mission, the US space agency said.

The $2.5 billion rover, which landed on Mars on Aug 6, has performed a battery of tests and appears ready to embark on its two-year mission to explore the Red Planet in the hunt for signs of life, NASA said on Tuesday.

On Monday, NASA "did the wheel-steering test", said the Mars Science Laboratory mission manager, Mike Watkins, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Curiosity rover ready for test drive

This NASA image released on Monday shows a panorama of the Mars Curiosity and Mount Sharp visible from the rover made from images captured by several Navcams on board. The Martian mountain rises 5.5 kilometers above the floor of Gale Crater. Geological deposits near the base of Mount Sharp are the destination of the Curiosity rover's mission. NASA via Agence France-Presse

The size of a small car, the one-ton rover is equipped with six wheels, four of which can pivot. A series of photos posted to the NASA website show the wheels are fully functioning and ready to roll.

"We'll go for our first test drive tomorrow," Watkins told reporters on a teleconference.

"We'll drive about 3 meters forward, and then turn, and then drive back a little less than that ... We don't back up right to the same location that we are in right now."

If the test, set to last "about half an hour, a little less", is a success, Curiosity will leave its landing spot in three or four days, Watkins said.

"We have a couple more activities to complete before we start driving," he said.

Curiosity - the largest rover ever sent to Mars - hopes to conquer Mount Sharp as part of its two-year mission to explore the planet and analyze sediment layers that are up to a billion years old.

It will first head in the direction of Glenelg, a spot in Gale Crater less than 500 meters away from its current position. The site contains three different kinds of terrain that NASA scientists aim to explore.

The rover is expected to adopt a moderate pace of "10, 20, 30 meters a day for a while" but will eventually reach a pace of "over 100 meters a day", Watkins said.Curiosity rover ready for test drive

NASA on Tuesday also announced its first real setback of the Curiosity mission - one of two sensors to measure wind speed was damaged, probably during landing, and cannot be repaired.

One of the scientists responsible for the rover's weather station, Ashwin Vasavada, said the damage is "a little disappointing", but not "dire", as the other sensor is "completely operational".

"The only thing is that there will be a small ambiguity if the wind were coming directly from behind" the sensor, Vasavada added.

Scientists do not expect Curiosity to find aliens or living creatures but they hope to use it to analyze soil and rocks for signs that building blocks of life are present and may have supported life in the past.

The project also aims to study the Martian environment to prepare for a possible human mission there in the coming years. US President Barack Obama has vowed to send humans to the planet by 2030.

Agence France-Presse

Trudeau visits Sina Weibo
May gets little gasp as EU extends deadline for sufficient progress in Brexit talks
Ethiopian FM urges strengthened Ethiopia-China ties
Yemen's ex-president Saleh, relatives killed by Houthis
Most Popular
Hot Topics

...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 免费成人毛片 | 日本全黄 | 美女张开腿给人网站 | 97精品国产福利一区二区三区 | 精品视频免费在线 | 欧美日本高清视频在线观看 | 日本一在线中文字幕天堂 | 成人网18免费网站在线 | 免费看一级视频 | 精品国产一区二区三区不卡 | 国产高清一级片 | 她也啪在线视频 | 又黄又刺激下面流水的视频 | 日韩三级在线免费观看 | 国产一级强片在线观看 | 精品一区二区三区免费视频 | 色偷偷在线刺激免费视频 | 欧美视频一区二区在线观看 | 国产深夜福利在线观看网站 | 中文字幕最新中文字幕中文字幕 | 亚洲一区二区三区国产精品 | 真实国产乱子伦高清 | 99视频精品全国在线观看 | 97精品国产福利一区二区三区 | 看性过程三级视频在线观看 | 久久国产精品成人免费 | 黄在线网站 | 成人高清视频免费观看 | 久草在线新视频 | 99精品欧美一区二区三区 | 草草久久97超级碰碰碰免费 | 国产精品久久久久一区二区三区 | 欧美一级二级三级视频 | 毛片视频网址 | 爽死你个放荡粗暴小淫货双女视频 | 手机成人看片 | 国产成人免费午夜性视频 | 午夜亚洲精品 | 亚洲一区二区三区香蕉 | 国产一区二区三区美女在线观看 | 精品视频亚洲 |