Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar

System, after Mercury. In English, it carries a name of the Roman god of war, and is
often referred to as the "Red Planet because the reddish iron oxide prevalent on its
surface gives it a reddish appearance that is distinctive among the astronomical
bodies visible to the naked eye. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere,
having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the
valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth.
Several rovers have been dispatched to Mars:

 Mars 2, Prop-M rover, 1971, Mars 2 landing failed taking Prop-M with it.
The Mars 2 and 3 spacecraft from the USSR had identical 4.5 kg Prop-M rovers.
They were to move on skis while connected to the landers with cables.
 Mars 3, Prop-M rover, 1971, lost when Mars 3 lander stopped communicating
about 20 seconds after landing.
 Sojourner rover, Mars Pathfinder, landed successfully on July 4, 1997.
Communications were lost on September 27, 1997.
 Beagle 2, Planetary Under-surface Tool, lost with Beagle 2 on deployment
from Mars Express in 2003. A compressed spring mechanism was designed to
allow movement across the surface at a rate of 1 cm per 5 seconds and to
burrow into the ground and collect a subsurface sample in a cavity in its tip.
 Spirit (MER-A), Mars Exploration Rover, launched on June 10, 2003 at
13:58:47 EDT and landed successfully on January 4, 2004. Nearly 6 years after
the original mission limit, Spirit had covered a total distance of 7.73 km (4.80 mi)
but its wheels became trapped in sand. Around January 26, 2010, NASA
conceded defeat in its efforts to free the rover and stated that it would now
function as a stationary science platform. The last communication received from
the rover was on March 22, 2010, and NASA ceased attempts to re-establish
communication on May 25, 2011.
 Opportunity (MER-B), Mars Exploration Rover, launched on July 7, 2003 at
23:18:15 EDT and landed successfully on January 25,
2004. Opportunity surpassed the previous record for longevity of a surface
mission to Mars as of May 20, 2010 and surpassed the previous record for
distance travelled off-Earth as of July 28, 2014 by covering a total distance of
40.25 km (25.01 mi). Opportunity is still operational and mobile as of September
10, 2017.
 Curiosity, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), by NASA, was launched
November 26, 2011 at 10:02 EST and landed in the Aeolis Palus plain
near Aeolis Mons (informally "Mount Sharp") in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012,
05:31 UTC. Curiosity Rover is still operational as of September 10, 2017.

CURIOSITY

Curiosity is a car-sized rover designed to explore Gale Crater on Mars as part

of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL). Curiosity was launched
from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011, at 15:02 UTC aboard the MSL
spacecraft and landed in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:17 UTC.
The Bradbury Landing site was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the centre of the
rover's touchdown target after a 560 million km (350 million mi) journey.
The objectives of the mission of Curiosity are the following:

Biological

1. Determine the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds

2. Investigate the chemical building blocks of life (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,
oxygen, phosphorus, and sulphur)
3. Identify features that may represent the effects of biological processes (bio-
signatures and biomolecules)

Geological and geochemical

4. Investigate the chemical, isotopic, and mineralogical composition of the

Martian surface and near-surface geological materials
5. Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils

Planetary process

6. Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) Martian atmospheric evolution

processes
7. Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide

Surface radiation

8. Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic and

cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons. As part of its
exploration, it also measured the radiation exposure in the interior of the
spacecraft as it travelled to Mars, and it is continuing radiation measurements
as it explores the surface of Mars. This data would be important for a
future manned mission.

Curiosity has a mass of 899 kg (1,982 lb) including 80 kg (180 lb) of scientific
instruments. The rover is 2.9 m (9.5 ft) long by 2.7 m (8.9 ft) wide by 2.2 m (7.2 ft) in
height. Curiosity is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG).
Radioisotope power systems (RPSs) are generators that produce electricity from the
decay of radioactive isotopes, such as plutonium-238, which is a non-fissile isotope
of plutonium.

The temperatures at the landing site can vary from −127 to 40 °C; therefore, the
thermal system of Curiosity will warm the rover for most of the Martian year. The
thermal system will do so in several ways: passively, through the dissipation to
internal components; by electrical heaters strategically placed on key components;
and by using the rover heat rejection system (HRS). It uses fluid pumped through
60 m (200 ft) of tubing in the rover body so that sensitive components are kept at
optimal temperatures.

Curiosity uses two identical on-board rover computers, called Rover Computer
Element (RCE), that contain radiation-hardened memory to tolerate the extreme
radiation from space and to safeguard against power-off cycles. The computers run
the VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS). Each computer's memory includes
256 kB of EEPROM, 256 MB of DRAM, and 2 GB of flash memory.

In order to communicate with Earth, Curiosity is equipped with several

telecommunication means – an X-band Transmitter/Receiver that can communicate
directly with Earth, and a UHF Electra-Lite software-defined radio for communicating
with Mars orbiters.

Communication with the orbiters is expected to be the main path for data return to
Earth, since the orbiters have both more power and larger antennas than Curiosity,
thus allowing for faster transmission speeds. The rover has two UHF radios, the
signals of which the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter is capable of relaying back to Earth.
An average of 14 minutes, 6 seconds will be required for signals to travel between
Earth and Mars. Curiosity can communicate with Earth directly at speeds up-to
32 kbit/s, but the bulk of the data transfer should be relayed through the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter and Odyssey orbiter. Communication from and
to Curiosity relies on internationally agreed space data communications protocols as
defined by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems.

Curiosity is equipped with six 50 cm (20 in) diameter wheels in a rocker-

bogie suspension. The suspension system also serves as landing gear for the
vehicle, unlike its smaller predecessors. Each wheel has cleats and is independently
actuated and geared, providing for climbing in soft sand and scrambling over rocks.
Each front and rear wheel can be independently steered, allowing the vehicle to turn
in place as well as execute arcing turns. Each wheel has a pattern that helps it
maintain traction but also leaves patterned tracks in the sandy surface of Mars.

Curiosity has 17 cameras: HazCams (8), NavCams (4), MastCams (2), MAHLI (1),
MARDI (1), and ChemCam (1). Each MastCam includes the Medium Angle Camera
(MAC) which has a 34 mm (1.3 in) focal length, a 15° field of view, and can yield
22 cm/pixel (8.7 in/pixel) scale at 1 km (0.62 mi). The other camera in the MastCam
is the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC), which has a 100 mm (3.9 in) focal length, a 5.1°
field of view, and can yield 7.4 cm/pixel (2.9 in/pixel) scale at 1 km (0.62 mi). A pair
of MastCams were developed which include zoom lenses, but these were not
included in the rover because of the time required to test the new hardware and the
looming November 2011 launch date. Each MastCam has eight gigabytes of flash
memory, which is capable of storing over 5,500 raw images, and can apply real time
lossless data compression.

ChemCam is actually two different instruments combined as one: a laser-induced

breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and a Remote Micro Imager (RMI) telescope. The
purpose of the LIBS instrument is to provide elemental compositions of rock and soil,
while the RMI will give ChemCam scientists high-resolution images of the sampling
areas of the rocks and soil that LIBS targets. ChemCam has the ability to record up
to 6,144 different wavelengths of ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light.

MAHLI is a camera on the rover's robotic arm, and acquires microscopic images of
rock and soil. MAHLI can take true-colour images at 1600×1200 pixels with a
resolution as high as 14.5 micro-meters per pixel. MAHLI has an 18.3 to 21.3 mm
(0.72 to 0.84 in) focal length and a 33.8–38.5° field of view. MAHLI has both white
and ultraviolet LED illumination for imaging in darkness or fluorescence imaging.
MAHLI also has mechanical focusing in a range from infinite to millimetre distances.

Curiosity stores the images generated by MastCams, the ChemCam and MAHLI in
three different databases. Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are used by
Cusiosity in order to categorize these images based on their significance and store
them in the respective database. The significance of an image is defined by image
processing algorithms that identify specific features of each image (eg. density,
contrast) and produce a decision about them. For example, if the image processing
algorithms identify the significance of an image to be above 70%, then they store the
image in Database A. If the significance of the image is between 45% to 69%, it is
stored in Database B while for significance below 45%, then the image is stored in
Database C. It is possible that an image is elevated to Database A from Database B
or even from Database C depending on the conditions of the mission of Curiosity on
the surface of Mars or inversely, an image can be downgraded to Database C from
Database A. These elevations and/or downgrades can be done randomly depending
on the change of each mission's conditions.

The most significant pictures are emitted by FPGAs through the UHF Electra-Lite
software-defined radio to the Mars orbiters and then back to earth. All the images
though are used for obstacle track identification on the Mars surface and coordinates
definition for the rover. Specifically, a data clustering algorithm is used to extract the
coordinates identified in each image and place them to a 3D coordinate system.
Every day, the 3D coordinate system is updated and a copy of the updates is stored
on the memory of RCE. These copies are then sent directly to Earth through
Curiosity's X-band transmitter so that NASA knows exactly the route followed by the
rover.