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Watch Curiosity’s First Movements

Wednesday, August 22, 2012 19:42

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(Before It's News)

Click to animate: this gif image shows the movement of the rear right wheel of NASA’s Curiosity as rover drivers turned the wheels in place at the landing site on Mars. Image credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech

She turned her right rear wheel in and turned her right rear wheel out in a sort of Hokey-Pokey-like action in preparation for actually moving inside Gale Crater. Yesterday, the Curiosity rover’s first movements was this “wiggle” of each of the four corner wheels for the first time. Curiosity Mission Manager Michael Watkins said this was a test of the steering actuators on the wheels, and was critical preparation for Curiosity’s first drive on Mars.

Late last night, the rover team sent commands for doing the first drive, and we’ll likely have information on whether that first drive was successful, as JPL has a news conference planned for 17:00 UTC, 1 pm EDT on Wednesday.

Below is a video animation of the rover’s first arm movements, as well:
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Read the rest of Watch Curiosity’s First Movements (489 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: Mars, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity Rover

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