-
01
In preparation for NASA's 2020 Mars mission, NASA scientists put the Mars rover through it's first driving test.
-
02
The Mars rover is a six wheeled, semi-autonomous vehicle with 23 wide field-of-view and high resolution cameras that allow the rover to see all around it (that's more than any rover has had before). It also has extra computer power, allowing it to create maps and process images of Mars, which will be important for the first humans coming to Mars.
-
03
The Mars rover is designed to travel 650 feet every martian day (a few hours longer than an Earth day). While this seems like a ridiculously small distance to travel, to put it into perspective, the longest distance traveled by a rover so far was 702 feet in a day. In other words, the Mars rover will travel faster and farther than any rover has before.
-
04
The test took ten hours to complete and saw that all the rover's systems are working well. The rover mostly went forward and backwards, as well as doing a six wheeled pirouette. The scientists also needed to check that the rover can function under it's own weight. As the gravity on Mars is only about 3/8ths as strong as Earth's gravity, the rover will perform successfully on Mars.
-
05
The rover is planned to cover a lot of ground on it's (martian) year on Mars, with the mission to find evidence of past microbial life on Mars. After landing at Jezero Crater in February 2021, it will rely on it's specially designed aluminium wheels, each one equipped with it's own motor. During the test, the rover drove (slowly) over small ramps which replicate the type of terrian it will face on Mars.
-
06
The Mars rover passing it's driving test is one more step towards potentially finding life on Mars. It's an exciting time to be alive.
Mars 2020 Rover Passes Underwhelming Driving Test (GIFs)
NASA's Mars 2020 rover has passed it's first and only driving test - at snail speed. Interested in more space news? Check out this week's top ten space photos.
This article was originally reported on Universe Today.
Scroll down for the next article
Trending Now
Mom bans her 6-year-old son's friend from coming over for play dates because the friend is still not fully potty trained: 'He told me he needs me to wipe'
01
‘I just don’t want to change the way we live’: Parents refuse to allow son and his girlfriend to move into their vacation home in Ireland, son goes dark on communication
02
'My mom said I'm setting [my daughter] up for failure, I told her it's the 4th grade': Grandma berates dad for taking his 10-year-old daughter out of school for a week to go on a family vacation to Florida
03
Ex-husband demands to AirTag 8-year-old son while he's on Europe trip with mom, won't share his location with her: 'He will be at least 10 hours of travel away'
04
Uncle promises to help pay for niece's college tuition, goes back on his word 8 years later now that he has his own child: 'Michael Scott did the exact same as you'
05