Thursday, October 21, 2010

NASA Jet Propulsion LAb Webcam: Building Mars Rover Curiosity

Click on the picture to visit Curiosity Cam

Curiosity Cam takes you inside the clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., so you can watch the next Mars rover being built.

Technicians assembling and testing the Mars Science Laboratory, aka Curiosity, are covered head-to-toe in "bunny suits."

These white smocks, booties and facemasks help protect against Earthly contaminants hitching a ride to Mars.

The camera may be turned off periodically for maintenance. The rover may occasionally be out of view as it is moved around the clean room. When Curiosity Cam is off air, you will see a slideshow of Mars and rover images.

Wheels Spinning


Engineers just installed six new wheels on the Curiosity rover, and rotated all six wheels at once on July 9, 2010.

This milestone marked the first in a series of "tune ups" to get the rover ready for a drive in the clean room where it is being assembled at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Curiosity is the centerpiece of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, which is expected to launch in late 2011, and touch down wheels-first in summer 2012.

For more information about the mission, see: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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