Curiosity preps for first Martian road trip NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has wiggled its four corner wheels for the first time to get ready for its first drive across the surface of the Red Planet. Curiosity's rear right wheel The $2.5bn six-wheeled Martian nuclear truck has been sat still on its landing site for the last two weeks, but is now gearing up to trundle out …
quote: "One possibility is that pebbles lofted during the landing hit the delicate circuit boards on one of the two REMS booms," said Curiosity deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada.
When I saw one of the first pics showing the top of Curiosity, my first thought was "There's a load of unprotected wires on the top there".....and other reports of the sensor fault claim it might be down to "cut wires"....
Given the method of landing meant a lot of surface material was going to be thrown up the the Sky Crane, you'd have thought that someone would have ensured that these wires were protected. I also wonder if these exposed wires have good enough "outdoor" properties to protect them against heat/cold etc.
>>Yeah, you should send your own probe to Mars, show them how it's done.
Well, if I won consecutive Euromillions and National Lottery draws and had the income of Soros, Beckham, and Rooney I would.
Just because I can't send my own up, doesn't for one minute prevent me from having an opinion about the designers of Curiosity who appear to have misjudged the problems that their choice of landing the craft would have.....
I'll wait until the final report on what probably caused the sensor fault...
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