NASA Curiosity Rover Now One Month From Arriving At Mars

[abillybob]

Am I right in assuming those videos don't really work on a PC?

 

It works ok in Chrome you can drag and drop. I'm going to wait until I get home though and use my Google Cardboard on it

[Joanne]

Looks like this for me...

 

Chrome Version 48.0.2564.103 m, Windows 10 64 bit....

 

I'll have to watch it on my phone!

[SimpleSi]

It works for me in Chromw Win10 when I go to main youtube site

[DJ-1701]

That was it, I had to go to the main YouTube site as @SimpleSi said for this to work.

[6Foot2]

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover at Naukluft Plateau (360 View)

 

[6Foot2]

That wheel is beginning to look very flaky. I wonder how it will cope should it loose one of it's middle wheels?

Link: Breaks observed in Mars rover wheel treads

 

A routine check of the aluminum wheels on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has found two small breaks on the rover's left middle wheel—the latest sign of wear and tear as the rover continues its journey, now approaching the 10-mile (16 kilometer) mark.

 

The mission's first and second breaks in raised treads, called grousers, appeared in a March 19 image check of the wheels, documenting that these breaks occurred after the last check, on Jan. 27...

 

[6Foot2]

Link: Fowl Play! NASA Rover Spots 'Duck' on Mars - CNET

 

The menagerie of animal lookalike rocks on the red planet gets a new player.

 

 

Daffy, is that you?

 

We have yet to find microbes on Mars, much less full-size animals, but we've sure found a lot of rocks that remind us of creatures from home. We can now welcome a darling duck-shaped rock seen by NASA's Curiosity rover to go along with previous finds of a fish, a cat, and a butt.

 

The rover originally snapped the rock in late October with its mast-mounted camera. We get to enjoy a colorized version of the rock thanks to the keen eyes of image processor Andrea Luck. Luck shared the funny formation on Twitter on Tuesday.

 

The rover photographed the rock at a perfect angle so it resembles a duck floating in the water and turning its head to look over its back. NASA has found marsquakes on the red planet, but this may be the first example of a marsquack.

 

The Martian duck fails the classic "if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck" test because it doesn't walk, talk or swim. It just sits there being a rock, toying with our imaginations.

[Brax]

Link: Fowl Play! NASA Rover Spots 'Duck' on Mars - CNET

 

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]67040[/ATTACH]

 

Maybe it's the camera angle but I'm very impressed with how it's holding up the head and beak with what appears to be a weak "neck" at an angle.

[6Foot2]

Link: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover gets a major software upgrade

 

The update brings loads of improvements, the most significant being new driving capabilities.

 

Years in the making, a major software update that has been installed on NASA's Curiosity rover will enable the Mars robot to drive faster and reduce wear and tear on its wheels. Those are just two of about 180 changes implemented during the update, which required the team to put Curiosity's science and imaging operations on hold between April 3 and April 7.

 

"The flight software is essential to our mission, so this is a big deal for our team," said Curiosity Project Manager Kathya Zamora-Garcia of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "This is a major software update, and we had to make sure we did it right."

 

Planning for this update goes back to 2016, when Curiosity last received a software overhaul. Some changes this time around are as small as making corrections to the messages the rover sends back to mission controllers on Earth. Others simplify computer code that has been altered by multiple patches since Curiosity touched down in 2012. The biggest changes will help keep Curiosity rolling more efficiently for years to come.

 

The rover can now do more of what the team calls "thinking while driving"—something NASA's newest Mars rover, Perseverance, can perform in a more advanced way to navigate around rocks and sand traps. When Perseverance drives, it constantly snaps pictures of the terrain ahead, processing them with a dedicated computer so it can autonomously navigate during one continuous drive.

 

Curiosity doesn't have a dedicated computer for this purpose. Instead, it drives in segments, halting to process imagery of the terrain after each segment. That means it needs to start and stop repeatedly over the course of a long drive. The new software will help the venerable rover process images faster, allowing it to spend more time on the move.

 

"This won't let Curiosity drive as quickly as Perseverance, but instead of stopping for a full minute after a drive segment, we're stopping for just a moment or two," said Jonathan Denison of JPL, Curiosity's engineering operations team chief. "Spending less time idling between drive segments also means we use less energy each day. And even though we're almost 11 years old, we're still implementing new ideas to use more of our available energy for science activities."

 

Wheel wear

 

The team also wants to maintain the health of Curiosity's aluminum wheels, which began showing signs of broken treads in 2013. When engineers realized that sharp rocks were chipping away at the treads, they came up with an algorithm to improve traction and reduce wheel wear by adjusting the rover's speed depending on the rocks it's rolling over.

 

The new software goes further by introducing two new mobility commands that reduce the amount of steering Curiosity needs to do while driving in an arc toward a specific waypoint. With less steering required, the team can reach the drive target quicker and decrease the wear that inherently comes with steering.

 

"That ability was actually dreamed up during the Spirit and Opportunity days," Denison said. "It was a 'nice to have' they decided not to implement."

 

Overall, the new software will streamline the task of Curiosity's human drivers, who have to write complex plans containing hundreds of commands. The software update will also enable them to upload software patches more easily than in past. And it will help engineers plan the motions of Curiosity's robotic arm more efficiently and point its "head" atop the mast more accurately.

 

As with any major software update, there's a sense of relief to see it working as designed, Denison said.

 

"The idea of hitting the install button was a little scary," he added. "Despite all our testing, we never know exactly what will happen until the software is up there."

[6Foot2]

 

Mars in 4K - The Ultimate Edition. The best images of Mars in stunning 4k 60fps.

 

"Mars in 4K: The Ultimate Edition" presents an unprecedented visual exploration of Mars, enriched by the groundbreaking missions of NASA's Mars rovers. This video, with its stunning 4K resolution, offers a journey across the Martian landscape, revealing the planet's beauty and scientific wonders...

[Patrick]

Some incredible shots there.