Watch the next Mars rover being assembled

Robotics & Mechatronics

January 2011 Robotics & Mechatronics

A newly installed webcam is giving the public an opportunity to watch technicians assemble and test the next NASA Mars rover, which is destined for one of the most technologically challenging interplanetary missions ever undertaken.

The rover, Curiosity, has been rolling over ramps in a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to test its mobility system. Assembly engineers and technicians have been adding new avionics and instruments. Viewers saw the assembly team carefully install the rover's suspension system and its six wheels. Following this the two metre long robotic arm was lifted and attached to the front of the rover.

Test operators monitor how NASA's Mars rover Curiosity handles driving over a ramp during a test inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Ten times the payload

Curiosity uses the same type of six-wheel, rocker-bogie suspension system as previous Mars rovers for handling uneven terrain during drives. However it is engineered to drive longer distances over rougher terrain than previous rovers, with a science payload 10 times the mass of the instruments on NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers currently on Mars. Its wheels are half a metre in diameter, twice the height of the wheels on the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

Tilt-table testing of robotic arm

Testing of the robotic arm included movements of the arm while the rover was on a table tilted to 20° to simulate a sloped surface on Mars. One crucial set of moves that has never been performed on Mars will be to pull pulverised samples from the interior of Martian rocks and place them into laboratory instruments inside the rover.

The titanium arm has two joints at the shoulder, one at the elbow and two at the wrist. Each joint moves with a cold-tolerant actuator custom-built for the mission. The arm has a reach of about 2,3 meters from the front of the rover body.

The toolkit at the end of the arm with a mass of about 33 kilograms will include a percussive drill; a magnifying-lens camera; an element-identifying spectrometer; a rock brush; and mechanisms for scooping, sieving and portioning samples.

Technicians and engineers tilt-test the robotic arm

Launch in late 2011

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project will launch Curiosity in late 2011 for arrival on Mars in August 2012. The mission is designed to operate Curiosity for a full Martian year, which equals about two Earth years.

The new, large rover will investigate whether the landing region has had environments favourable for supporting microbial life and for preserving evidence about whether life existed on the Red Planet.

For more information go to http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ and http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasajpl

Share this article:

Categories

Robotics & Mechatronics

Watch the next Mars rover being assembled

Further reading:

Publications by Technews