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Subscribe to RSSThe NASA rover Curiosity has taken its first test drive on the Red Planet. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
NASA's Curiosity rover made its first drive on Mars today, more than two weeks after its high-stakes landing on the Red Planet. To celebrate the day, as well as what would have been the late science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury's 92nd birthday, NASA said the rover's landing site would be forever known as Bradbury Landing.
The raw images, displayed on the Mars Science Laboratory mission's Web portal, showed the tracks of the rover's wheels curling around and backing up, in accordance with the driving plan that was sent up overnight.
Today's drive amounted to only about 23 feet (7 meters) of maneuvers, but it represented the first step in a $2.5 billion, two-year trek that's expected to go at least 12 miles (20 kilometers) and take in a commanding view from the flanks of a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain within 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer-wide) Gale Crater.
The mission's project manager, Peter Theisinger, said the drive "couldn't be more important."
"We built a rover," he told reporters during today's briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "So unless the rover roves, we couldn't really accomplish anything. It's a big moment."
The drive also marked a transition for the Curiosity team — from the entry, descent and landing phase of the mission, known as EDL, to surface operations and rover mobility. "Wheel tracks on Mars. The EDL team is finally done. :) Congrats to the mobility and surface teams!" Allen Chen, the mission's EDL operations and flight dynamics lead, declared in a Twitter update.
Lead rover driver Matt Heverly said that today's drive started at 7:17 a.m. PT (10:17 a.m. ET) and lasted roughly 16 minutes. "The majority of that time was spent taking images," he said. The rover rolled out 15 feet (4.5 meters), made a 120-degree turn in place, and then backed up 8 feet (2.5 meters) to a new spot for scientific observations.
Lead rover driver Matt Heverly explains the maneuvers that went into Curiosity's first Martian excursion.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
A polar projection image, assembled from pictures taken by the Curiosity rover's navigation cameras, shows the tracks of the rover at Bradbury Landing on Mars as seen from above.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
An image from the navigation-camera system on NASA's Curiosity rover shows the six-wheeled craft's hardware in the foreground, and wheel tracks going around a rock just a few yards (meters) away.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
A mosaic of black-and-white images shows a panoramic view of the Curiosity rover's trail, including wheel tracks leading to an area where the rover turned in a circle, and then backed up to its current position. Four blast marks, or "scours," can be made out near where the rover landed. The flanks of Mount Sharp can be seen in the far background, toward the upper left corner of the frame.
Team members celebrate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory when images are received confirming the rover's first drive.
First trek will follow checkouts
Since the rover's landing on the night of Aug. 5, Curiosity has been going through a series of checkouts and taking pictures of its immediate surroundings. Nearly all of the systems are working as planned — with the sole exception of wind sensors on one of the booms connected to the rover's weather station. Scientists speculate that the circuit boards for those sensors were probably damaged by small rocks that were thrown up onto the rover during landing. Despite the damage, the weather station will be able to gather wind speed data using other sensors.
Curiosity's first destination will be a spot known as Glenelg, about a quarter-mile (400 meters) from the landing site, where three types of geological formations come together. That months-long trek could begin in about a week, deputy project scientist Joy Crisp said today. The rover's first scoop sample could be taken on the route between Bradbury Landing and Glenelg, she said, but the first drilling sample would probably be extracted at Glenelg.
By the end of the year, the nuclear-powered rover is expected to retrace its route and head toward the mountain, known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp. The layers of rock along the mountainside are thought to preserve a geological record going back billions of years.
The primary goal of Curiosity's mission is to look for geological and chemical evidence that could reveal how habitable Mars might have been over eons of geological time. To take on that challenge, the 1-ton, car-sized rover has been equipped with a bevy of scientific instruments — including high-resolution color cameras, two onboard chemical labs, an X-ray spectrometer and a rock-zapping laser.
Theisinger said Curiosity was making "excellent progress" at Bradbury Landing, 16 days into a mission that could last far longer than its scheduled duration of nearly two Earth years. "We've got a long way to go before this mission reaches its full potential," he said. "But the fact that we haven't had any early problems is fantastic."
In memoriam
Michael Meyer, the lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters, announced the naming of the landing site at the start of today's news briefing. He began by airing a clip of Bradbury discussing Mars with Arthur C. Clarke, Carl Sagan and other luminaries, just before NASA's Mariner 9 probe entered the Red Planet's orbit in 1971. During that session, Bradbury read a short poem titled "If Only We Had Taller Been."
Ray Bradbury reads a poem about space exploration on the eve of Mariner 9's arrival at Mars in 1971.
A Mars rover driver pays tribute to author and visionary, Ray Bradbury.
Bradbury, best known for science-fiction tales such as "The Martian Chronicles" and "Fahrenheit 451," passed away in June at the age of 91. "Today would have been Ray Bradbury's 92nd birthday, but he's already reached immortality in his short stories and books," Meyer observed. In his honor, Meyer said the landing site would "forever be known as Bradbury Landing."
In a statement issued by NASA, Meyer said deciding on the name "was not a difficult choice for the science team."
"Many of us, and millions of other readers were inspired in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the possibility of life on Mars," he said.
Today's christening adds to NASA's list of Martian landing sites named after VIPs, including:
- Mutch Memorial Station, the Viking 1 lander site, named after Thomas Mutch, former NASA associate administrator and Viking team member.
- Soffen Memorial Station, the Viking 2 lander site, named after Gerald Soffen, NASA scientist and leader of the Viking mission.
- Sagan Memorial Station, the Mars Pathfinder landing site, named after astrophysicist Carl Sagan.
- Challenger Memorial Station, the Opportunity rover landing site, named in honor of the shuttle Challenger's fallen crew.
- Columbia Memorial Station, the Spirit rover landing site, named in honor of the shuttle Columbia's fallen crew.
More about Mars:
- 3-D adds depth to tracks on Mars
- Watch the rover fall to Mars ... in HD!
- Where's Curiosity going? Arm points the way
- Mars mega-rover wiggles its wheels
- Mars Curiosity rover flexes arm for first time
- Curiosity shoots at rock with its laser
- Britney Spears to Mars rover: What's new?
- Rover reveals more of Martian peak
- Mars rover team faces the masses
- Mars fans make viral video
- Panoramas add spin to Mars
- Mars rover survives its 'brain transplant'
- Mars orbiter gets a long look at Curiosity rover
- Reprogrammed rover getting ready to roll
- Obama tells rover team: Watch out for Martians
- Search for life to shape future Mars missions
- Why the rover has such a dinky camera and computer
- How to build your own Mars rover with Lego blocks
- The Puff on Mars: Photo mystery solved!
- Panorama reveals a colorful Mars
- NBC video: Panorama featured on 'Nightly News'
- Curiosity reveals a Martian Mojave
- Tour the Martian Mojave in 3-D
- Flying saucer spotted over Mars
- First 3-D pictures sent by Curiosity
- Orbital photo spots rover and its trash
- Curiosity sends color snapshot from Mars
- Rover video looks down on Mars during landing
- Mars orbiter spots rover in midair
- NASA's Mohawk Guy marvels at his fame
- Curiosity rover scores touchdown on Mars
This report was last updated at 5 p.m. ET.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Thank you, NASA, for this moving and appropriate tribute to RAY BRADBURY! He was a genius writer whose life's work is a study in curiosity, and one of his biggest successes was THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES. I know he would be humbled and proud to have been honored in this way. I hope his family is celebrating this celestial honor on the first birthday without him. And, as a huge fan of Bradbury, I am celebrating your eternal gift to the man who spent his life wondering about what's out there in the heavens, especially on the red planet. Thank you again, NASA!
This is great and all, but really, Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers have shown us all this before. We have seen the tire tracks, and the "Mohave" landscapes, dust devils, weird rocks, panoramas, etc. So why so much interest in this particular mission? What will we find out that Spirit and Opportunity didn't? Really, to me, if they don't concentrate on looking for evidence of life or previous life, this is a duplicate retread mission. I think they should have landed nearer the north or south poles where there is topography we have not explored yet. The recent Phoenix lander was not mobile and just sat there, seems like a waste. It is frustrating to me that these missions do not have looking for life as the number one goal.
Life comes in all shapes, sizes and designs. It was once deemed impossible for any organism to live in the depths of Earth's oceans, yet they are teeming with life. At first we didn't know where and how to look, but once properly educated, look at the abundance of life deep in our own oceans and especially around thermal vents. It's awe inspiring that anything could live in those depths, pressures and temperatures yet life thrives there. Not life as we expected to find, but life nonetheless.
So it is with Mars. Each successive class of probe, rover or (stationary) lander, adds new technology and new tools to our scientific and educational experience. But unless we know about what we are looking for, and it may take multiple missions in multiple locations to find out, Martian life could be right under our electronic nose and we would be clueless.
I like seeing the best in space exploration, geologists, and a renowned literary have parts in something so great.
Naming the landing site after Ray Bradbury is so cool! I think I'm going to have a nerd-gasm.
Will it be traveling any faster than the other two rovers? I know it doesn't have the same capabilities that the DARPA-funded autonomous vehicles have (maybe someday there will be a rover like that on Mars), but with its additional (and higher?) cameras, perhaps it can travel further without stopping for humans to plan the next move?
Thank you, NASA, for naming the Mars CURIOSITY landing site in honor of science fiction writer RAY BRADBURY! His life's work is truly a study in curiosity, and one of his greatest successes is THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES. I am sure he would be humbled and proud to have this recognition, and I hope his family is celebrating this huge honor on what would have been his 92nd birthday. As a fan of Bradbury for many years, I celebrate this timeless recognition for his lifelong curiosity in thinking and writing about what might be out there, especially on the Red Planet. Thanks again, NASA for honoring RAY BRADBURY!
Super article Alan. Nasa. THEY ROCK!!
I have not yet looked for the dits and dahs, guess I can do that tomorrow....site 451, It's all good, I just hope when the find the dino eggs they name that site Los Huevos.....To best of my knowledge, ain't no one got an rc vehicle off planet right now FOR ANY PRICE....let alone one with a lab every grad student here on earth would give his stipend for. How many of you got a nuetron counter??....thought so....even I don't (sold one a number of years back though, felt like jefferson when he had to sell his library...... SO the next whiner saying we spent too much, please, I ask you, also denote a small paragraph in your post as to what an x ray diffraction meter does.....just for some credibility ya know.....don't give me any crud about healt or education or defense or economics......we already get all that. Go get em oscy....like they other guy said, some fossils or some microbes....gotta be something there to find, whatever it is, I hold serendipity as THE main science driver in mans history....now I'm in suspense....
@Alan Boyle : It's awesome to see an author respond to readers in the comment section for the articles they write. Thanks for taking an active interest in the people following your articles.
It's amazing what has been accomplished over the last 50 - 60 years in space exploration. Hats off to all those involved.
Eienstein said imagination trumps intellect (not sure of the exact words) and it was a perfect choice. A grand master of SF to make you wonder !
All they need now is to have some engineer run it into a ditch, whilst trying to impress a date, when no one is in the control room some late night! (a la Howard Wolowitz) :D
I'm don't think they will find evidence, or at least anything beyond very simple something or other. Radiation will always be a problem for planets with too little iron core. On Earth, we are blessed with our iron and the moon's iron. We wouldn't have learned that without moon landings though.
I do feel we must have Mars to go farther. I worry that this is taking too long. I am comforted by the new research on planets in other solar systems and as that technology is refined, the Mars initiative becomes even more relevant.
Those who think this is a waste seem to think problems can be solved with money. Most problems can easily be solved with much lower birth rates.
We already know the solutions to problems on Earth, we just don't have the courage to pursue them.
R&D required to go to space does have applications to problems here but that is not my argument.
If we as a race, are not living somewhere else than Earth, out species will end. Colonizing other planets is the only way we will survive any serious length of time. I suppose genetic engineering could help but even that still leaves us at great risk. The universe is a very dangerous place. Earth can't shield us forever.
I sound like SiFi but the reality is very, very real.
BRTCARGUY
"40 gozillion dollars so a bunch of tech guys can do donuts with their radio controlled Mars 6 wheeler............."
Guy, get a grip! The US spends over 900 billion dollars a year on welfare, not counting social security, NASA's total yearly budget is 17 billion dollars. If you are going to look for money being spent don't waste your time looking at NASA.
Wow, I had never seen that video clip of Bradbury at Caltech. It gave me chills watching him read that poem and watching the other greats on stage with him take it all in.
Having read many, many books and interviews he's done, I can tell you, he's tickled "pink" right now, staring down from someplace in the heavens.....or maybe, he's rapid firing questions off of some sentinel being right now. His curiosity was always contagious!
Curiosity Rover Moves and Leaves Tracks on Mars - 360 degree panorama: