NASA Curiosity Mars Rover Installing Smarts for Driving

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
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PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster / D.C. Agle 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov / agle@jpl.nasa.gov /

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

News release: 2012-238 Aug. 10, 2012

NASA Curiosity Mars Rover Installing Smarts for Driving

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-238&cid=release_2012-238

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity will spend its first weekend on Mars
transitioning to software better suited for tasks ahead, such as driving and using its strong robotic
arm.

The rover's "brain transplant," which will occur during a series of steps Aug. 10 through Aug. 13, will
install a new version of software on both of the rover's redundant main computers. This software for
Mars surface operations was uploaded to the rover's memory during the Mars Science Laboratory
spacecraft's flight from Earth.

"We designed the mission from the start to be able to upgrade the software as needed for different
phases of the mission," said Ben Cichy of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.,
chief software engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory mission. "The flight software version
Curiosity currently is using was really focused on landing the vehicle. It includes many capabilities
we just don't need any more. It gives us basic capabilities for operating the rover on the surface, but
we have planned all along to switch over after landing to a version of flight software that is really
optimized for surface operations."

A key capability in the new version is image processing to check for obstacles. This allows for longer
drives by giving the rover more autonomy to identify and avoid potential hazards and drive along a
safe path the rover identifies for itself. Other new capabilities facilitate use of the tools at the end of
the rover's robotic arm.

While Curiosity is completing the software transition, the mission's science team is continuing to
analyze images the rover has taken of its surroundings inside Gale Crater. Researchers are discussing
which features in the scene to investigate after a few weeks of initial checkouts and observations to
assess equipment on the rover and characteristics of the landing site.

The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft delivered Curiosity to its target area on Mars at 10:31:45
p.m. PDT on Aug. 5 (1:31:45 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6), which includes the 13.8 minutes needed for
confirmation of the touchdown to be radioed to Earth at the speed of light.

Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on
NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some of the tools, such as a laser-firing instrument for
checking rocks' elemental composition from a distance, are the first of their kind on Mars. Curiosity
will use a drill and scoop, which are located at the end of its robotic arm, to gather soil and powdered
samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into the rover's analytical
laboratory instruments.

To handle this science toolkit, Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as Spirit or
Opportunity. The Gale Crater landing site at 4.59 degrees south, 137.44 degrees east, places the rover
within driving distance of layers of the crater's interior mountain. Observations from orbit have
identified clay and sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history.

Mars Science Laboratory is a project of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The mission is
managed by JPL. Curiosity was designed, developed and assembled at JPL, a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl
http://www.nasa.gov/mars and http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity
and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

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