Public Can Watch Wheels Go On New Mars Rover

Public can watch wheels go on new Mars rover

Posted: 10/23/2010 07:12:19 AM PDT

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE - A newly installed webcam is giving the public an opportunity to watch technicians assemble and test the next NASA Mars rover, one of the most technologically challenging interplanetary missions ever designed.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, also known as the Curiosity rover, is in a clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge.

The video will be supplemented periodically by live web chats featuring Curiosity team members answering questions about the rover. Currently, work in the clean room begins at 8 a.m. Monday through Friday.

Clean room technicians have been busy adding new avionics and instruments to the rover. Beginning Friday, viewers will see technicians carefully add the rover's suspension system and its six wheels. On Monday, the rover's 7-foot-long robotic arm will be carefully lifted and attached to the front of the rover.

The rover and spacecraft components will ship to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida next spring. The launch will occur between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18, 2011.

Curiosity will arrive on Mars in August 2012.

Curiosity is engineered to drive longer distances over rougher terrain than previous rovers, with a science payload 10 times the mass of instruments on NASA's Spirit and Opportunity.

Continuous live video of rover construction is available at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasajpl



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