Space
this period, the probe helped to find evidence of past life on the red planet and pave the way for a future manned mission
Curiosity Self portrait done while she performed her first rock drilling activities (NASA)
complete robot Curiosity, on Tuesday, a year of exploration on Mars. The vehicle, which weighs about a ton, collected and sent to Earth important information about the planet, helping to pave the way for a manned trip to Mars, which is NASA plans for 2030 . According to the U.S. space agency, the spacecraft reached its main goal: provide evidence that the planet ever had conditions to sustain life.
“The successes of Curiosity – the dramatic landing a year ago and the scientific discoveries since then – make us move for new explorations, including sending humans to an asteroid and Mars,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “The tire marks will pave the way for brands of boots in the future,” he added.
Curiosity in numbers
In a year in
supercífície Mars …
- • Over 190 Gigabytes of data were sent to Earth – the equivalent of storage space of more than 40 DVDs
- • The probe found more than 36,700 images complete and 35,000 miniature
- were fired over 75,000 laser jets , in 2,000 different targets
- 1.6 km covered
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A year ago, after eight months of interplanetary travel, the big challenge was to make the robot won the complicated sequence of landing on the surface of the planet, named by NASA engineers with nothing optimistic name “ seven minutes of terror “.
Fortunately, everything went as planned. A giant parachute was activated when the capsule was about 11,000 feet tall to stop the descent – months later, the parachute was observed being moved by Martian wind . The approximately 20 meters above the ground, a crane lowered the Curiosity, which opened six “legs” with wheels and began exploring Mars.
“Gale Crater, here I am,” was the first message sent by the robot, to 248 million kilometers away, on a mission with a budget of $ 2.5 billion (equivalent to 5.8 billion reais) . The complex nature of the landing showed that it is possible to successfully carry larger loads up the planet – something that is seen as one of the greatest technological challenges of a manned mission.
Life on Mars – In 12 months, the robot discovered an ancient bed of the watercourse and collected soil samples and atmosphere enough for scientists to conclude that there may have been life on Mars for billions years. The probe measured the levels of natural radiation during the trip to Mars and on its surface, which will help in planning for future human missions to the planet.
After traveling 1.6 km, the next destination is Mount Sharp Curiosity, a mountain about three miles and a half in height, formed by layers of sediments where NASA hopes to find more clues about the composition of Red Planet.
Researchers are optimistic, and claim that there are possibilities that the probe find definite signs of the former existence of life on Mars next year. Nevertheless, Michael Meyer, chief scientist of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA, says a confirmation about life on the red planet would require another mission.
NASA plans to send a second vehicle robot to Mars in 2020, “Curiosity 2″. Meanwhile, the Euro-Russian ExoMars robot, a vehicle that will also seek evidence of Martian life, is scheduled for 2018.
Congratulations – To commemorate the one year anniversary of the robot, the scientists at NASA did “ sing” Happy Birthday on the surface Mars. The researchers programmed the vibrations used to make the soil samples collected by the robot “fall” inside so they sounded like the notes of the song – the conclusion, however, would not make much sense to a resident of the Red Planet once a Martian year lasts 686.98 days on Earth.
(With agency France-Presse and EFE)
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