WASHINGTON: Imagine taking 400 scientists on an alien road trip where each one wants to examine every interesting rock along the way. Welcome to the next two years of Nasa's landmark robotic mission on Mars.
Scientists on Earth are eager to explore the Gale Crater, where water is believed to have pooled many years ago and where the US space agency's $2.5 billion Curiosity rover touched down early on Monday. Next up, Curiosity will haul the Mars science lab at least half-way up Mount Sharp, a towering 5-kilometre Martian mountain with sediment layers that may be up to a billion years old.
But it may be a full year before the remote-controlled rover gets to the base of the peak, which is believed to be within a 20 kilometres of the rover's landing site. "We are going to make sure that we are firing on all cylinders before we blaze out across the plains there," John Grotzinger, project scientist on the Mars science laboratory, told reporters shortly after the rover landed.
"Possibly within a year or so we could be at the base of Mount Sharp, because the place we landed on looks pretty darn interesting and we just don't want to rush out of there without having studied it real well." First, a series of checks to the car-sized vehicle must take place, which could take weeks.
Then comes the unavoidable bickering and questions of, "Are we there yet?" that another Nasa scientist likened to taking a cross-country family trip with all of his coworkers. "My version of the surface mission is that it is like going on a family vacation and driving from here to Chicago," said Richard cook, flight systems manager on the project at Nasa's jet proplusion laboratory in California.
"Except that your family has got 400 scientists who want to stop and look at every fossilized-whatever they can find." Part of the check-out process will be testing the various instruments on board the rover, which carries everything from a rock-vaporizing laser and telescope combination to a chemistry kit for analyzing powdered soil and rock.
Edited By Cen Fox Post Team
