{"id":48663,"date":"2025-08-06T04:33:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T04:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/48663\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T04:33:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T04:33:05","slug":"old-mars-rovers-can-learn-new-tricks-nasas-curiosity-marks-13-year-milestone-with-new-science-capabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/48663\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Mars rovers can learn new tricks! NASA\u2019s Curiosity marks 13-year milestone with new science capabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can you teach an old Mars rover<\/a> new tricks? NASA says the answer is a resounding \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following its landing on Mars 13 years ago, Curiosity has been given new capabilities, allowing it to do science on the Red Planet while expending less energy from its batteries. Essentially, it can now multitask.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were more like cautious parents earlier in the mission,\u201d Reidar Larsen, of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s as if our teenage rover is maturing, and we\u2019re trusting it to take on more responsibility. As a kid, you might do one thing at a time, but as you become an adult, you learn to multitask.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larsen led a group of engineers who developed the new capabilities for their six-wheeled teen.<\/p>\n

The agency said improvements to Curiosity will allow the rover to make the most of its energy source, which is a type of nuclear battery known as a radioisotope thermoelectric generator also used by the Perseverance rover.<\/p>\n

Managing the rover\u2019s daily power budget as the plutonium in the battery decays, Curiosity can now safely talk to a local orbiter while driving, moving its robotic arm, or snapping images.<\/p>\n

Curiosity can now decide to take a nap if it gets its work done early, ensuring there is less recharging necessary before the next day.<\/p>\n

\"Tracks<\/p>\n

Tracks are seen trailing NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover on Mars last month. The rover, which has been on the Red Planet since 2011, has recently learned to multitask (NASA\/JPL-Caltech)<\/p>\n

\u201cEven actions that trim just 10 or 20 minutes from a single activity add up over the long haul, maximizing the life of the MMRTG for more science and exploration down the road,\u201d the lab said in a release.<\/p>\n

These developments build on years of work developing other capabilities, including enhanced driving ability, the ability for Curiosity\u2019s head to capture panoramas without a color filter wheel on one of its \u201cMastcam\u201d cameras, a new way for Curisotiy\u2019s arm drill to collect rock and regolith samples, and an algorithm to help reduce wear and tear on the rover\u2019s wheels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Curiosity<\/p>\n

Curiosity viewed this rock shaped like a piece of coral last month. It\u2019s mission is to determine whether the Red Planet ever was habitable to microbial life (NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS)<\/p>\n

The rover has recently been exploring formations of hardened ridges that were believed to have been created by underground water billions of years ago, finding rocks that were formed by the minerals deposited by ancient water flows and wind.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big mystery is why the ridges were hardened into these big patterns and why only here,\u201d Curiosity\u2019s project scientist Ashwin Vasavada said earlier this year<\/a>. \u201cAs we drive on, we\u2019ll be studying the ridges and mineral cements to make sure our idea of how they formed is on target.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Can you teach an old Mars rover new tricks? NASA says the answer is a resounding \u201cyes.\u201d Following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,33394,33390,1845,33392,307,33393,33395,33391,66],"class_list":["post-48663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-capabilities","tag-curiosity","tag-mars","tag-mars-rover","tag-nasa","tag-perseverance-rover","tag-red-planet","tag-reidar-larsen","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}