Mars rover heads to Glenelg
Highland village celebrates link to Red
Planet
Nasa's roving robot Curiosity has landed on Mars and is heading
for a place called Glenelg.
No - not the tiny Scottish village in the Highlands, but an area
within a giant crater on the Red Planet.
The Martian Glenelg was named by Nasa scientists because the
Curiosity rover will visit the area twice, once coming and once
going, and the name is a palindrome - it reads the same backwards
as it does forwards.
It just so happens that Glenelg is also the name of a village in
Inverness-shire, whose 350 residents are hoping to receive extra
visitors now that the name of their community has been put on the
inter-galactic map!
"The search for life on Mars has put our Glenelg on the map - at
least on this planet," said Christopher Main who lives and works in
Glenelg, Inverness-shire.
"There is plenty of life in Glenelg - they may not find it on
Mars but they would here," he added.
The Mars robot, which landed two weeks ago, is searching for
evidence of life on the distant planet. It set off from Earth
eight-and-a-half months ago and will spend the next two years
exploring the Martian landscape.
Curiosity has practised driving on the planet's rocky surface to
check that its six wheels work properly. On Wednesday it rolled
forwards 4.5 metres, turned on the spot120 degrees, and reversed up
2.5 metres.
It has been built to drive at least 20 kilometres across the
surface of Mars to investigate if the planet ever had the
conditions needed for life to exist there.
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Mars rover heads to Glenelg
Martian bacteria watch out - Curiosity is coming to find
you!
Nasa's huge robot, Curiosity, has arrived on Mars to find out
whether the planet is, or ever has been, suitable for life.
The Curiosity rover is a giant science laboratory. It's as
big as a car!
Curiosity is the largest and best-equipped robot to ever explore
another planet. It landed on the surface of Mars on 5 August
after an eight-and-a-half month journey through space.
The rover cost £1.6 billion dollars to build and was launched on
November 26 from the Kennedy Space Centre.
The aim of Curiosity's mission is to find out whether there has
ever been life on Mars. Do aliens really exist? Sadly, Curiosity is
unlikely to find giant green space men. If there has ever been life
on Mars it was probably something microscopic, such as
bacteria.
Curiosity is packed full of high-tech equipment. Most impressive
is a powerful laser which has the energy of a million light bulbs.
The powerful laser zaps a small bit of red Martian rock and
vaporises it. Curiosity will analyse the vaporized rock to see if
it contains the elements carbon, nitrogen or oxygen.
On Earth, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen are necessary for life.
Nothing can live without at least one of these elements. Scientists
think they will probably be necessary for life everywhere in the
Universe. If Curiosity finds any of these elements it will use its
drill, attached to a 2 metre long robotic arm, to collect rock
samples.
Curiosity also has a weather station to measure temperature,
wind and humidity. Nasa is planning to launch an app using these
readings to show you what the weather is like on Mars. You might be
able to get live Martian weather on your phone!
Smaller Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, used air bags to
land on Mars in 2004. Curiosity is far too heavy to use air bags.
Instead, the flying-saucer shaped probe which carried Curiosity
used rockets to hover 20 metres above the Martian surface. Once the
probe was hovering safely, it lowered Curiosity to the surface of
Mars using a "sky crane".
The rover landed in a huge crater near the Martian equator. Now
it is going to spend two years exploring Mars. Any Martian bacteria
should watch out. Curiosity is coming to find you!
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here to try our Mars quiz.
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