Mars has had a handful of rovers roam its surface over the last 20+ years. The rover missions started with Pathfinder in 1997 and hit big time with the Spirit and Opportunity rovers in 2004. Spirit and Opportunity lasted several years but finally ended this year when NASA declared Opportunity officially dead. The fourth successful rover mission to Mars was the Curiosity rover that landed on Mars in 2012. The Soviet Union launched two rovers, Mars 2 and 3, but neither was successful.
Curiosity Rover Status
With the ending of the Opportunity rover mission in early 2019 due to a massive planet-wide dust storm that blocked the rover from receiving solar energy, I found myself the other day wondering how the Curiosity rover fared in this storm. I realized I didn't know. I hadn't heard anything so I assumed it was still operational, but I decided to do a bit of research to find out for sure.
 |
| Curiosity self-image. - NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems |
Curiosity started roaming the red planet in 2012. After its initial two year plan, the mission was extended indefinitely. So although the Spirit and Opportunity rovers are officially finished, there is still a rover on Mars sending back data. The Curiosity rover will not be alone for long. The next rover mission, Mars 2020 is in the works. Mars 2020 is scheduled to launch the summer of 2020 with an early 2021 landing date. That's less than two years from now!
No comments:
Post a Comment