Curiosity

student created summary: Chandler H.

History Of Curiosity

Curiosity is a robot that is almost the size as a car that was built to explore the gale crater. Curiosity was built by NASA, in NASA's Mars Science Laboratory. It took over 5 years to build and over 14 people working on it. Curiosity was launched on November 6, 2011 from Cape Canaveral at 10:02 am. It landed in the in the Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. The rovers goals are to study the climate and the geology of Mars to see if it is suitable for life.

Curiosity is a very large rover, it has a mass of 1982 pounds, and dimensions of 9.5 by 8.9 by 7.2 feet, putting it at almost the size of a car. It is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, which creates energy by the decay of radioactive isotopes, providing power through all of the seasons.

Curiosity has many scientific instruments to help gather data. It has 17 cameras, each used for a different function of Curiosity. The MastCam is used for taking true-color images at 1600×1200 pixels and up to 10 frames per second.ChemCams are used to get information about an object without touching it. NavCams are used for navigation, as the name implies. The REMS,is used to measure Mars environment. HazCams are used to see anything hazardous to the robot, make sure it is safe and in a save position.MAHLI is a camera on the robots arm used to take microscopic pictures of rock. APXS is a device that maps the spectra of x-rays. CheMin is used to identify the amount of materials on mars. SAM analyzes rocks and gases in the atmosphere. DRT is the tool used to remove dust and small rocks from an object. RAD is used to measure the amount of radiation in an area. DAN is used to detect hydrogen on the planet. MARDI was used to take pictures of the planet before it landed to help Curiosity get a safe landing on Mars.

Curiosity got its name from a contest that elementary school students. A twelve year old student from Kansas won the contest, and she wrote:

¨Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind. It makes me get out of bed in the morning and wonder what surprises life will throw at me that day. Curiosity is such a powerful force. Without it, we wouldn't be who we are today. Curiosity is the passion that drives us through our everyday lives. We have become explorers and scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder.¨