The Mars Rover Curiosity started using for the first time its software for the autonomous navigation, or autonav. It allows the rover to decide on its own where to go while maintaining its security. In this case, when it uses it it will decide which detours it will take to get to Mount Sharp, the final destination of its mission.
When using its autonav mode, the Mars Rover Curiosity analyzes the images it takes over the course of its journey to calculate its safest route. In this way, it can travel safely over the sections of its route that can’t be checked in advance from mission control.
The first test with the autonav mode was made on Tuesday, August 27 and the Mars Rover Curiosity has successfully used its software establishing on itw own a part of the path ahead in the previous days. Since it was the first time it was used, it was activated in an area where mission control had detected no dangers to Curiosity.
[ad name=”AmazonDocumentary”]
The path traveled by the Mars Rover Curiosity in autonav mode wasn’t much, about 10 meters (about 33 feet). However, due to the very low speed at which it travels, it took several hours to go through them. To be clear, on a day the rover travels less than 50 meters (less than 150 feet) so at mission contro they had the time to evaluate all its movements.
The Mars Rover Curiosity’s software for autonomous navigationis an adapted version of the one already used for Opportunity, the good old rover that has been exploring Mars for years. Curiosity is much larger and complex, so it must have been complex to modify the software. This is the reason why the first test lasted a few hours and was conducted in an area free of pitfalls.
During this month, the Mars Rover Curiosity has also kept on taking photographs not only of Mars but also of its sky. In particular, on August 17 it used its Mast Camera (MastCam) to take a series of photographs of a solar eclipse in which Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons, has moved completely in front of the Sun.
In this case, it was an annular eclipse, which occurs when the apparent size of the moon is smaller than that of the Sun, which then appears as a ring, in this case around the black shape of Phobos. Another great show we can appreciate thanks to the Mars Rover Curiosity.
