Sky

The Curiosity Rover

ABOVE Earth BELOW
H
Did you know?
Curiosity got its name from a sixth grade student
On Saturday, November 26, 2011, in Kansas named Clara Ma. She wrote an essay
while you were enjoying leftovers from in a NASA (National Aeronautics and Space
Thanksgiving, a rocket was launching Administration) contest and described how she
from Cape Canaveral in Florida. This was looks at the world with curiosity. The folks at

H
no ordinary rocket. It carried a small NASA liked her essay so much that they named
robotic vehicle, called Curiosity, toward the rover Curiosity. Maybe you can help NASA
the planet Mars. For nine months, the
spacecraft carrying Curiosity traveled name a mission in the future. Or maybe, you will be
more than 350 million miles. It arrived the first human to set foot on Mars!
in early August of 2012 and began its
decent to the Red Planet. FUN THINGS TO DO
Landing a rover on Mars is not like Design your own mission to Mars. Use recycled materials (such as
landing an airplane. There are no runways on Mars, but there are corrugated cardboard and paper) and attach them to a piece of foam
places with craters, mountains and valleys. It was critical that core or sturdy poster board to create a Mars landscape. Place a few
the scientists back on Earth had chosen a smooth and interesting small rocks on your surface to simulate
place for the rover to land. They chose a big smooth place called Gale rocks on Mars.
Crater.
So, how did the rover make it to the surface? Engineers and
Place a toy car on the surface and
scientists came up with an amazing plan. As the spacecraft entered imagine you are at Mission Control back
the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 miles per hour, a heat shield on Earth. What directions would your
protected it during the entry so it wasn’t damaged. car need to travel from one rock to the

H
Once the spacecraft had slowed to about 900 miles per hour and was about 7 miles other? Make a list of commands for the
from the surface, a giant parachute opened up and the heat shield dropped off. This car and read them to a friend. Can your
parachute was huge: 51 feet in diameter – that’s about half the size of a football field! friend follow your directions and get
And here’s the most amazing part. The parachute helped slow the spacecraft for about
the car to its final destination? Give it
a try, and good luck!

H
a minute and a half, and then it and the top shell of the spacecraft detached. The rover was
still attached to a metal crane that had been inside the spacecraft.
Rockets fired from the metal crane and cables carefully lowered the rover to the surface. FIND IT IN THE NEWS
Once the rover touched the ground, the cables broke and the rockets steered the metal Look through this week’s Hartford Courant to find:
crane away from the rover to crash land at a safe distance. Some scientists describe the • An article about new computer technology
Curiosity landing as “seven minutes of terror” because everything had to work perfectly, and • Where Mars is in the sky
it did!
Curiosity is not the first rover on Mars. The previous three surface missions on Mars Visit the New Children’s Museum in West Hartford!
(Pathfinder (1997), Spirit (2004) and Opportunity (2004)) required the rovers to be • Journey beyond Connecticut in the Traveler’s Science Dome
folded into their spacecraft containers like origami. Once on the surface, these rovers had • Check out the Mars Timeline Exhibit to learn more about Curiosity!
to carefully unfold. The Curiosity rover arrived on the surface with the most sophisticated
equipment ever sent, ready to explore the surface!
Next Page -
Are you wondering what this amazing rover is doing right now? Curiosity is not just a
rover driving around. It is a science laboratory. As it travels on Mars it can transmit images January 30th
back to Earth and conduct experiments with rocks and soil. Curiosity is searching for  
evidence that water once flowed on the surface of Mars. This information will help scientists For students who are blind, learning disabled or print challenged, visit CRIS Radio at
better understand the history of our neighbor in space. http://www.crisradio.org and click Kids On-Demand for a free audio version of Communicate Your Character

Sky Above Earth Below is a three part science literacy series presented by NIE in collaboration with
The Children’s Museum. For more information about NIE, visit www.courantnie.com or 860.241.3847