The Curiosity rover celebrates 10 years of service on Mars, what are its achievements? page all

KOMPAS.com – Exploration rides Curiosity NASA has reached an important milestone. The robot celebrates the 10th anniversary of its landing in Mars on August 5, 2012.

For a decade, Curiosity has advanced our understanding of the Red Planet through its explorations.

Curiosity’s main mission is to find the answer to whether Mars was habitable or not in the past.

Also read: Curiosity’s Exploration Vehicle Portrait of Alien Doors on Mars, What Does It Look Like?

In previous missions, scientists have determined that water once existed on Mars and in fact today, water there exists in the form of ice. But water alone is not enough to support life.

“You need to know things like organic molecules like nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen to determine habitability. And we’ve found that all of that exists on Mars,” said Abigail Fraeman, deputy scientist on the Curiosity project.

As quoted from SpaceSaturday (6/8/2022) to find the signs, Curiosity brought tools to drill the planet’s surface and spectrometers such as Sample Analysis on Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) that can analyze the resulting samples.

And in Curiosity’s first few years exploring Mars, the probe has found a key requirement for life.

“We found that Mars was once habitable and that habitable environment was likely to last for tens of millions of years or even hundreds of millions of years,” Fraeman said.

Curiosity’s research into Martian rock and soil also yields new information about the groundwater cycle on Mars.

But in a decade of exploration, Curiosity has uncovered more than the building blocks of life.

Curiosity has radiation detectors and environmental and atmospheric sensors that have been put to good use on Mars.

As Curiosity approaches geological formations such as cliffs, the rover’s instruments detect that the rocks are blocking radiation from reaching them. And that could be put to use for future astronaut models, for example whether it’s possible to use natural terrain as a shield.

Also read: Curiosity rover discovers strange rock formations on Mars

Curiosity’s study of Martian weather several years ago also managed to photograph beautiful clouds known as noctilucent clouds. The clouds appear at sunset during winter.

Furthermore, while Curiosity’s original mission lasted only two Earth years, during a decade on Mars, the probe turned out to be performing relatively well.

Even so, the rides have also experienced some minor obstacles. For example, it happened to the wheel because it crossed the hole after traveling a distance of about 28 kilometers with an increase in altitude of 600 meters.

Also read: Curiosity Explorer Captures the Beauty of Mars . Panorama

“I think the most amazing thing for me is that all the science instruments are basically working as well as when the first spacecraft landed. We can still do the same quality and breadth of science as 10 years ago and that’s just incredible,” Fraeman said.

The next mission for Curiosity will be to investigate what happens to Mars’ climate when it is still habitable and how long it remains habitable when the water starts to dry out.

Curiosity will also move to a higher place, namely Mount Sharp because it has a different texture and mineralogy.

That led scientists to think the region would represent a very different environment on Mars.

Also read: Curiosity Robot Finds Ancient Oasis on Mars

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