Robotics

ROBOTICS

Question

?

?

Curiosity Snaps

How do they (scientists) communicate and maneveur Curiosity on Mars?

How it Works

- Slowing its decent with a parachute, then used retro rockets around the front rim. In the last seconds the upper rim acted as a sky crane lowering the rover slowly.-The rover was desgined so when on mars it can steer itself. With a series of S-curve maneuver similar to what NASA astronauts use. - The rover Curiosity is about 10 feet (about 3 meters), it has a 6 wheel drive, a rocker-bogie suspension system, and cameras. Curiosity carries equipment that helps the gather and take samples of rocks and soil. Which is then stored in onboard test tubes. Curiosity can also roll over obstacles of 65 centimeters- The data rate back to earth can vary from 500 to 32,000 bits per second. An orbiter passes over the rover and communicates with the rover for about 8 minutes. In that time the orbiter can get about 100 to 250 megabits of data. If the rover sent back 100 to 250 megabits of data it would take about 20 hours. The orbiters can send more data back to earth more efficiently because they can see earth for about 16 hours of a day, but also because they have more power and have bigger antennas than the rover. - DSN is an international series of antennas that provide communication between the orbiter and scientists. The different DSN's are located about 120 degrees apart around the world, Goldstone; California, Madrid Spain, and Canberra Australia.

Citations

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/MSL NASA: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/Fact Sheet: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/mars-science-laboratory.pdfAccess Science: http://www.accessscience.com/content/robot-rover-curiosity-lands-on-mars/BR0322133

Figure 3 - Curiosity Rover Instruments

Figure 1 - Curiosity Tool

FIgure 2 - Curiosity Full Body

Video 1 - Curiosity Mission Animationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwinFP8_qIM