Tag

Rover

All articles tagged with #rover

space1 day ago•10 min saved

Opportunity’s Solar-Powered Odyssey Surpasses Its Limits

Opportunity exceeded its 90-sol, 600-metre primary mission by driving about 45.16 kilometres over 14.5 years on Mars; a 2018 global dust storm cut sunlight, preventing wake-up after a prolonged discharge and ending with its last transmission on sol 5111. The famous line about a low battery was a human interpretation of telemetry, not the rover’s own words. NASA declared the mission complete in February 2019, and Opportunity’s endurance and geology work shaped later Mars missions and rover design.

via Space Daily|

#mars #nasa #opportunity

technology1 month ago•3 min saved

NASA's ERNEST Rover Proves Agile Autonomy for Future Moon Missions

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is field-testing ERNEST, a compact autonomous rover designed to move faster across rugged terrain for future Moon and Mars missions. In a desert trial, ERNEST reached up to 0.6 mph and covered about 16 miles over roughly 37 hours, using mesh-wheeled propulsion, four steerable wheels, and two powered front joints to switch among gaits like squirming, wheel-walking, and obstacle-climbing. Trained with reinforcement learning, the rover can navigate autonomously and even drive sideways, aiming to reach previously inaccessible regions on upcoming missions.

via Gizmodo|

#autonomy #ernest #jpl

technology2 months ago•4 min saved

Bio-Inspired 'Swimming' Wheels Could Redefine Mars Sand Driving

Researchers at Universität Würzburg developed bio-inspired wheels that mimic a sandfish lizard to swim through soft Martian sand, reducing sinking and enabling safer, more efficient rover traversal; field tests refined wheel width and mass, and future work includes real-time terrain-adaptive control for autonomous navigation under the VaMEx program.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#bio-inspired #mars #robotics

space2 months ago•38 min saved

Perseverance Prepares to Conquer a Martian Marathon

NASA's Perseverance rover is gearing up to cover a marathon-distance journey on Mars—roughly 26 miles across the Jezero Crater—testing endurance, autonomy, and long-range science capabilities as mission teams monitor progress across multiple sols.

via Yahoo|

#jezerocrater #mars #nasa

space2 months ago•35 min saved

Perseverance snaps a selfie from Mars’ dusty dunes

NASA’s Perseverance rover has sent back a new selfie from the Martian surface, capturing its wheels and robotic arm against the planet’s dusty, desert-like terrain at Jezero Crater as part of ongoing exploration and sample-caching missions.

via Yahoo|

#mars #nasa #perseverance

science2 months ago•5 min saved

Curiosity Timelapse Reveals How Martian Sand Moves and Wheels Endure

NASA released a two‑minute timelapse from the Curiosity rover spanning six years at Gale Crater to study how sand grains shift on the rover’s deck as it climbs Mount Sharp; the footage helps scientists separate wheel‑driven sand from wind‑blown dust, part of broader findings about Mars’ past habitability and ongoing challenges like wheel wear, with Curiosity having traveled about 23 miles since landing in 2012, and NASA continuing engineering tweaks to keep the rover moving.

via Mashable|

#curiosity #mars #nasa

technology3 months ago•4 min saved

ESA Eyes Laser-Driven Moon Rover to Probe Ice in Permanently Shadowed Craters

A European concept named PHILIP would power a 250 kg lunar rover with a 500-watt infrared laser from a sunlit lander up to 15 km away, enabling operation in the Moon’s permanently shadowed, ice-rich regions by converting the laser into electricity with modified solar panels; the system also enables two-way data via a modulated retro-reflector, with field tests in Tenerife and plans for prototyping under ESA funding.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#laser-power #lunar-exploration #permanently-shadowed-regions

space4 months ago•4 min saved

Mars Rover Photos Ignite Debate Over Earth-like Life on the Red Planet

A study of Curiosity rover images by Ohio University professor William Romoser claims to have identified insect- and reptile-like creatures on Mars, suggesting Mars may host Earth-like life and proposing terms like astroentomology and astroherpetology; the findings are controversial and not broadly accepted by the scientific community.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#astrobiology #lifeforms #mars

space5 months ago•3 min saved

Curiosity Encounters Six-Foot Boxwork Ridges, Hinting at Ancient Martian Water and Potential Life

NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover is studying six-foot-high “boxwork” ridges on Mount Sharp, likely formed by ancient lakes and groundwater. The minerals, including clay, suggest wet conditions long ago and the possibility of preserved signs of past microbial life. The team has mapped routes through the ridges, plans to leave the area next month, and will continue exploring the sulfate-rich layers to understand Mars’ climate history.

via Futurism|

#astrobiology #curiosity #geology

space5 months ago•2 min saved

Curiosity Probes Mars Night with Robotic LEDs to Reveal Hidden Rock Layers

NASA’s Curiosity rover lights up Martian darkness with LEDs on its robotic arm to illuminate a rock drill hole—Nevado Sajama—so scientists can study rock layers and boxwork formations that are otherwise shadowed. The true-color image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager shows how nighttime imaging helps geology work, building on 2018 drill improvements and noting a smooth hole drilled on sol 4740.

via Futurism|

#curiosity #drilling #mars

space11 months ago•3 min saved

NASA awards Firefly Aerospace nearly $177M for lunar south pole mission

NASA awarded Firefly Aerospace a $177 million contract for a 2029 lunar mission to deploy multiple rovers and scientific instruments to explore the moon's south pole, aiming to study resources and environmental hazards to support future lunar and Mars exploration.

via Space|

#firefly-aerospace #lunar-mission #moon-south-pole

science-and-technology1 year ago•4 min saved

NASA's Moon Dust Miscalculation: A Physics Error That Lasted Years

UW-Madison engineers discovered a flaw in how rover terrain is tested on Earth, revealing that Earth's gravity affects sand support differently than on the moon, which impacts rover mobility predictions. Their physics-based simulations, using open-source software Chrono, improve understanding of extraterrestrial surface traversal, benefiting space missions and Earth applications alike.

via ScienceDaily|

#moon #nasa #rover

science1 year ago•2 min saved

NASA's Perseverance Sets Record for Longest Mars Drive

NASA's Perseverance rover set a new record for the longest drive on Mars, covering 411 meters thanks to advanced self-driving technology, aiding in its mission to collect ancient Martian rocks and potentially find signs of past life. It is also nearing the total distance traveled by the Opportunity rover, highlighting its rapid progress in Martian exploration.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#exploration #mars #nasa

science1 year ago•2 min saved

NASA Rover Sets Record for Longest Drive on Another Planet

NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars set a new record by driving over 411 meters in a single trip, aided by its self-driving software, enabling longer and more efficient scientific exploration, particularly in search of ancient water and potential biosignatures in the Jezero crater region.

via ScienceAlert|

#mars #nasa #perseverance

science1 year ago•3 min saved

NASA Rover Uncovers Clues to Mars' Past Habitability and Life Potential

NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered carbon-rich rocks on Mars that suggest the planet once had liquid water and could have been temporarily habitable, raising the possibility that life may have existed there, though likely only briefly. A future Mars sample return mission in 2033 aims to provide more definitive evidence of past life.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#carbon-rich-rocks #life-potential #mars