Latest Rover Stories

Children are often mystified by remote control cars and how they can control them with a device while standing several feet away from them. This past week, Chris Tate was mystified by the same power—only he was controlling something 150 million miles away, on another planet. The UT physics doctoral student had the rare opportunity to control one of the science instruments on NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars. Tate is working with Jeffrey Moersch, associate professor in the Department of...

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Some of the recent news from the Mars Curiosity rover can seem incredibly trivial and elementary at first. Once the full realization of the importance and extreme difficulty involved in every part of this process sinks in, these little motions and achievements once thought to be trivial become truly a thing of magic and wonder. To put it differently, every little thing the Curiosity Mars Rover does is magic. As such, NASA watched...

Watch the Video: ChemCam Field of View redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Curiosity's first destination will be a natural intersection of three types of terrain known as Glenelg, located some 1,300 feet (400 meters) east southeast of its landing site, NASA officials have announced. One of the terrain types at Glenelg, which was chosen by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Principal Investigator John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology, is layered...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The scientists and engineers of NASA's Curiosity rover mission have selected the first destination for their one-ton, six-wheeled mobile Mars laboratory. The target area, named Glenelg, is a natural intersection of three kinds of terrain. The choice was described by Curiosity Principal Investigator John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology during a media teleconference on Aug. 17. (Logo:...

TE’s KILOVAC Synonymous with Rugged Reliability in Harsh, Demanding Environments Harrisburg, PA (PRWEB) August 16, 2012 NASA’s Curiosity rover landed in the Gale Crater on Mars on August 5, having flown over 127 million miles since its November 26, 2011 launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. As part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, the Curiosity rover and its Mars Science Laboratory will carry out their mission to look for evidence of past or present...

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Aug. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC), a leading provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today extended its congratulations to NASA and the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) for the historic landing of the Mars Curiosity rover. Several of Microsemi's space products were used in mission critical applications during the launch and flight to Mars, and continue to support the mission on...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Curiosity just keeps the images coming, as NASA unleashed a few more photos this week taken by and of the latest Martian rover. The Mars Science Laboratory entered the Martian atmosphere on August 5, and mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been spending their week checking out Curiosity's ten instruments and updating software for its mission. While we wait for the rover to begin its trek, NASA has been...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Mohawk Man may be a new Internet sensation, but NASA will need a new kind of superhero to keep one hacker at bay from its new Curiosity rover. Flashpoint Partners, a cybersecurity firm, spotted a message on the AnonOps IRC channel trying to recruit hackers to hack into the new Martian rover. The message read: "MarsCuriosity: Anyone in Madrid, Spain or Canberra who can help isolate the huge control signal used for the Mars Odyssey...

[ Watch the Video: President Obama Congratulates Curiosity Team ] April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online "What you've accomplished embodies the American spirit." This praise came from President Barack Obama in a phone call from Air Force One to the operations team at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in which he lauded NASA's "incredibly impressive" mission in landing the Curiosity rover on Mars last week. Obama's call was both congratulatory and lighthearted....

PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- President Barack Obama this morning told the flight control team for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, "You made us all proud." (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Obama telephoned the mission control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., to congratulate JPL Director Charles Elachi and the Mars Science Laboratory team operating the rover, which landed on Mars a week ago....