New Wheels (Animation)

Click on the image for the movie

In this video clip, engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory install a set of six wheels onto the Curiosity rover, which is destined for Mars in late 2011. These will be the first set of wheels to ever touch down on another planet. On previous missions, airbags were used to land the rovers. On this mission, however, the rover will descend by a special tether system that will lower the rover onto the surface with wheels first.

Image details

ID#:
PIA13238

Date added:
2010-07-07

Mission:
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Spacecraft:
Curiosity

Size:
1279 x 718 pixels (width x height)

Rating:

Views:
2,056

Full-Res TIFF:
PIA13238.tif (2.76 MB)

Full-Res JPG:
PIA13238.jpg (0.11 MB)

Image credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech