11 Amazing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do

TheNextCorner writes "NASA is getting set to launch its next Mars rover this week. The car-size Curiosity rover is the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, slated to blast off Saturday (Nov. 26) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rover will employ 10 different science instruments to help it answer questions once it touches down on the Red Planet in August 2012."

Can it convert

[Oswald McWeany]

Can it convert imperial measurements to metric measurements?

Drift

[Anonymous Coward]

Can it drift? Otherwise I'm interested.

If there is life, the Dutch will find it...

[TheNextCorner]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neoUi4poCXI [youtube.com]

#1

[Baloroth]

It can go to MARS! Well, assuming all the measurements are in metric [wikipedia.org] (although if they aren't, it'll still go to Mars, just a little faster than expected.)

Ok, now that's out of the way

Curiosity's ChemCam instrument can vaporize rocks from up to 30 feet (9 meters) away with a laser. Three spectrographs will analyze the composition of the vaporized bits.

Anyone else find it disturbing that we are putting lasers on robots now? And putting them in space? It's like we're asking for Skynet to develop. Let's hope we just don't see the headline "Curiosity killed the human" next.

Re:#1

[Oswald McWeany]

Psychotic laser-equipped misanthopic robots don't kill people.

People kill people.

Re:#1

[SJHillman]

We're only putting them on robots because we ran out of sharks. Once we run out of robots, then I suppose we'll start putting them on lawyers.

Re:Martians?

[Zephyn]

First we send a shoebox sized rover. Then we send one the size of a Power Wheels kids car. Now it's a rover the size of a jeep with a nuclear RTG. What's next, a bus sized rover? When does this start to piss off the resident Martians?

When the traffic volume starts having an effect on their morning commute.

$2.5 Billion?!

[ModernGeek]

They could have flown the shuttle like two more times for that!

Re:Can it convert

[LifesABeach]

No, it cost a little bit extra.

Late Breaking News from the Council: CONVERT!

[Tackhead]

Can it convert imperial measurements to metric measurements?

Dispelling rumors of the threat posed by a nuclear-powered, laser-armed robotic invader, K'Breel, Speaker for the Council of Elders, said:

Already one invader flails haplessly in low orbit, while its successor sits on the pad, its launch delayed for yet another four days.

The denizens of the Evil Blue Planet call them by many names - Newtons, Pounds - but what the blueworlders fail to understand that the only force that can do meaningful work is a unified force. Our strength is their weakness: we are one species, we live on one world, we use one system of measurement. We are one force. A red planet, united, to never be divided!

Current intelligence reports suggests that denizens of the Evil Blue Planet have taken note [slashdot.org] of our effective planetary defense, but seem unaware of the extent to which their activities have made us angry. We are not hurt; we are angry. Very, very angry indeed [slashdot.org].

Having been reminded that the gelsacs of many metrication consultants were punctured to bring them this information [slashdot.org], there were no questions from the press corps.

Re:I like how they can't decide between 10 and 11

[SteveFoerster]

Well, it's one more amazing thing, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most rovers, you know, will have ten amazing things. You have ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you have ten amazing things on your rover. Where can you go from there? Where?

Re:Can it convert

[ozbird]

Can it convert imperial measurements to metric measurements?

No, but the crater it will leave in the Martian surface is impressive in any measurement system.