National Aeronautics and Space Administration Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Rover www.nasa.gov Curiosity’s Mission: Was Mars Ever Habitable? acquires rock, soil, and air samples for onboard analysis. Quick Facts Curiosity is about the size of a small car and about as Part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, Launch — Nov. 26, 2011 from Cape Canaveral, tall as a basketball player. Its large size allows the rover Curiosity is the largest and most capable rover ever Florida, on an Atlas V-541 to carry an advanced kit of 10 science instruments. sent to Mars. Curiosity’s mission is to answer the Arrival — Aug. 6, 2012 (UTC) Among Curiosity’s tools are 17 cameras, a laser to question: did Mars ever have the right environmental Prime Mission — One Mars year, or about 687 Earth zap rocks, and a drill to collect rock samples. These all conditions to support small life forms called microbes? days (~98 weeks) help in the hunt for special rocks that formed in water Taking the next steps to understand Mars as a possible and/or have signs of organics. The rover also has Main Objectives place for life, Curiosity builds on an earlier “follow the three communications antennas. • Search for organics and determine if this area of Mars was water” strategy that guided Mars missions in NASA’s ever habitable for microbial life Mars Exploration Program. Besides looking for signs of • Characterize the chemical and mineral composition of Ultra-High-Frequency wet climate conditions and for rocks and minerals that ChemCam Antenna rocks and soil formed in water, Curiosity also seeks signs of carbon- Mastcam MMRTG • Study the role of water and changes in the Martian climate over time based molecules called organics. Organics are the Low-Gain Antenna • Characterize the radiation environment for future human chemical building blocks of life. If Mars had long-term REMS High-Gain missions to Mars water and organics, the chance that Mars had conditions Antenna to support microbial life is greater. Scientists expect that RAD Size DAN life on Mars, if it existed at all, would be microbial. Length —10 feet (2 meters), not including the 7-foot For most of Earth’s history, the only life forms were (2.1-meter) arm microbes. Microbes still make up most of the living MARDI Width — 9 feet (2.8 meters) matter on Earth. Height — 7 feet (2.1 meters) tall Turret Weight — 900 kilograms (2,000 pounds) Curiosity’s Landing Site: Gale Crater Robotic Arm (APXS + MAHLI) Mobility System Thermal and Electrical Power After an eight-month trip of about 354 million miles (CheMin, SAM inside the rover) Radioisotope Power System — a Multi-Mission (570 million kilometers), Curiosity landed safely in the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer-wide) Gale Crater, at the Science Instruments base of giant Mount Sharp. Pioneering precision landing More Information techniques, engineers reduced the area of the landing Remote Sensing mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl ellipse by about four times, with the final ellipse Mastcam — Mast Camera measuring 4 miles wide and 12 miles long (7 kilometers www.nasa.gov/msl ChemCam — Chemistry and Camera by 20 kilometers). The 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) Facebook MARDI — Mars Descent Imager mountain has multiple rock layers. Each layer reveals Facebook.com/MarsCuriosity information about a different time in Mars’ history. Contact Instruments (Arm) Twitter Curiosity will study these layers for clues about ancient APXS — Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer Twitter.com/MarsCuriosity habitable environments and Mars’ ability to preserve MAHLI — Mars Hand Lens Imager evidence of them. NASA selected Gale Crater in part The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of because instruments on Mars orbiters previously found Analytical Laboratory (Rover Body) Technology, manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for NASA’s signs of special clay minerals that form in the presence SAM — Sample Analysis at Mars Science Mission Directorate. of water and are known to preserve organics. CheMin — Chemistry and Mineralogy Environmental Instruments An artist's concept of the The Rover Curiosity rover on Mars. REMS — Rover Environmental Monitoring Station To find out if Mars could have been a habitat for life, RAD — Radiation Assessment Detector Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Curiosity surveys the environment at Gale Crater and DAN — Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons LS-2013-01-007A-JPL — JPL 400-1516A 1/13 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Building, Testing, and Transporting NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity www.nasa.gov Curiosity’s Mission: Was Mars Ever Habitable? Rigorous Rover Testing descent stage that flew Curiosity in the final moments before touchdown on Mars. Part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, At every stage of assembly, engineers tested the Curiosity is the largest and most capable rover ever spacecraft and rover, and their many parts. Not only Pre-launch Testing at Kennedy Space Center sent to Mars. Curiosity’s mission is to answer the does each part have to perform correctly, they all have question: did Mars ever have the right environmental to work together as designed. Some of the key systems Although arrival in Florida was a significant milestone conditions to support small life forms called microbes? tested include the rover’s mobility system and its robotic for the mission, engineers still had considerable arm, both critical to the rover’s mission goals. For mobil- work to do to prepare Curiosity for launch. A team of Engineering Teamwork ity, engineers ran the rover’s six-wheel suspension sys- engineers and technicians spent countless hours in tem through obstacle courses and a series of drop tests the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility clean room Thanks to countless and demanding hours of effort to ensure its safe landing. Engineers also made sure to at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, reassembling the from a workforce of thousands of people, Curiosity fine-tune the motions of Curiosity’s long arm so it can be spacecraft and conducting even more tests. came together from a collection of individual instru- guided exactly where the mission team wishes it to go. ments and rover systems to create an incredibly capable While engineers readied Curiosity and its spacecraft While the arm is strong, it needs to be able to move and sophisticated rover. Teamwork also enabled a radi- components for launch, United Launch Alliance accurately enough to drop an aspirin tablet into a cally new entry, descent, and landing (EDL) system for personnel at Kennedy Space Center also worked to thimble. precision landing, and the assembly of a spacecraft get Curiosity’s launcher, the Atlas V-541 rocket, system that carried Curiosity to Mars. Several Prior to launch, engineers also go through a testing ready for liftoff. universities, government research labs, and private process fondly known as “shake and bake.” Taking Curiosity successfully launched on Nov. 26, 2011, labs built and tested individual instruments for the place in the 25-foot (8-meter) Space Simulator at JPL, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on an Atlas V-541. rover at locations in the United States, Spain, Russia, this process ensures that the spacecraft, rover, and its Canada, France, and Germany. instruments can withstand the intense vibrations and More Information heat of launch, as well as the ultra-cold, high-vacuum The Birth of a Mars Rover and strong radiation exposure it will experience during mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl www.nasa.gov/msl Engineers built Curiosity and its spacecraft in a clean the interplanetary cruise from Earth to Mars. Facebook room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Transporting Curiosity to Florida Facebook.com/MarsCuriosity Pasadena, California. A clean room has vents to send in Twitter clean air and extract particles of dust, skin, hair, chemi- After months of building and testing the Curiosity rover, Twitter.com/MarsCuriosity cal vapors, aerosols, and airborne organisms, protecting the team disassembled the rover and its cruise stage the spacecraft, the rover, and its science instruments. and carefully packed both for a cross-country trip from The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of When in a clean room, engineers dress in “bunny suits” the rover’s birthplace in California to its final Earth-bound Technology, manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for NASA’s (hoods, coveralls, boots, and gloves) to minimize adding destination, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Science Mission Directorate. particles and bacteria to this environment. The eyes are The large spacecraft components required two trips. the only part of the body that is not covered. Engineers An Air Force C-17 transport plane carried the spacecraft 1 2 1 Connecting Curiosity's heat shield built Curiosity in a “Class 10,000” clean room. That and back shell. components on two flights, which began at March Air means that in every cubic foot (about 28 liters) of air, no Reserve Base in Riverside, California. The rover’s 3 4 2 Ramp drive test of Curiosity's more than 10,000 particles at one-half a micron (one rocker bogie suspension system used aeroshell (the protective covering made up of the back half-millionth of a meter) or larger, and no more than to drive over uneven ground. shell and heat shield, built by Lockheed Martin), required 63 particles at five microns or larger, are present. That 3 Mars rover Curiosity flexing its robotic arm. for entry and descent through Mars’ atmosphere, and may sound like a lot of particles, but they are incredibly the cruise stage that carried the rover to Mars arrived 4 The Curiosity rover, turning in place. minute, and the particle counts are much less than for at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center first. On the second outside air.