Curiosity Rover's Stunt Double Takes a Spin [720p]

[ActiveStorage]

i have a feeling thats as fast as it gets what else can one expect from a 120W of power?

[ekpozo]

F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C

[youme1414]

A project of over a billion dollars can take on a rover to fly over high terrain that is too high for it to climb. It seems like wonder yet doesn't possess this feature to fly - Just a crawling ant at the moment not a fly one. That's my 2 cents contribution.

[nilbud]

@youme1414 Fuel

[banana1337kivi]

why does it move so slowly?

[abradras]

@banana1337kivi my best guess would be "maximum energy efficiency" +safety of course. it cant cruse 100km/h between rocks on Mars.

[djxatlanta]

@abradras - you're absolutely right. Although Curiosity will have a high degree of autonomy, we don't want this multimillion dollar piece of machinery to go barreling off into a canyon... especially when it takes 20 minutes for signals to get from Mars to Earth for Curiosity to tell us she's in trouble... and another 20 minutes for engineers to send signals back to the rover. It's all about going slow and taking short drives for at least the first few months.

[sassoleo]

@banana1337kivi If it turns over, it's end of the mission

[terivasivad]

@banana1337kivi since they are just looking at how it performs, they do everything slowly so they can see the details