


Nasa mars landing software#
Perhaps the most significant difference between the two rovers in software is that Perseverance is much more autonomous than Curiosity.
Nasa mars landing code#
Gone, sadly, are the rectangular wheel cutouts that spell “JPL" in Morse code as Curiosity drives along. Perseverance's aluminum wheels are 1mm thicker, with a tread pattern that's more resistant to wear caused by sharp rocks without sacrificing performance on sand. One of the problems that Curiosity has been having on Mars is wheel wear, and so Perseverance was designed with beefier wheels. And for the first time, Perseverance will be taking along a couple of microphones so that we can hear what Mars sounds like.Ī comparison between the wheels of Curiosity and Perseverance. Perseverance also has five more cameras than Curiosity (for a total of 23), and while its primary imaging camera is still only 2 megapixels, Perseverance's version has a 28-100mm optical zoom. There are a bunch of other new science instruments as well, which we'll get to in just a minute. Much of that extra chonk comes from a substantially heavier turret on the end of its robotic arm, which includes a coring drill. Perseverance is only a few centimeters larger than Curiosity, but is over 100kg heavier.
Nasa mars landing generator#
While the overall design of both rovers is very similar, including the radioisotope thermoelectric generator as a butt-mounted power source, Perseverance builds on the experience that JPL has with Curiosity, resulting in a larger, more durable, and more capable robot.Ĭuriosity (left) and Perseverance (right) may look very similar, but there have been some significant design changes. How is Perseverance different from Curiosity? Here's a quick overview video of the Perseverance mission from JPL. Over the next two days, we'll be taking an in-depth look at both that helicopter and how Perseverance will be leveraging autonomy to explore farther and faster that ever before, but for now, we'll quickly go through all the basics about the Perseverance mission to bring you up to speed on everything that will happen later this week. This mission to Mars is arguably the most ambitious one ever launched, combining technically complex science objectives with borderline craziness that includes the launching of a small helicopter. It's designed to spend years roving the red planet, looking for (among other things) any evidence of microbial life that may have thrived on Mars in the past.

Like its predecessor Curiosity, which has been exploring Mars since 2012, Perseverance is a semi-autonomous mobile science platform the size of a small car. Just before 4PM ET on February 18 (this Thursday), NASA's Perseverance rover will attempt to land on Mars.
