May 25, 2011

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Curious About Curiosity: The Next Mars Rover

Earlier this month, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California had its annual two-day open house. For a laboratory complex that has the same acreage as Disneyland, it was just as crowded as the House of Mouse on a busy summer day.

By Jason G. Goldman

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Earlier this month, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California had its annual two-day open house. For a laboratory complex that has the same acreage as Disneyland, it was just as crowded as the House of Mouse on a busy summer day. What a refreshing sight it was to see so many people - couples, families, grandparents and grandchildren, groups of teenagers - coming to a scientific laboratory to learn about space and science!

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And how awesome to see hundreds of people in line for... not a roller coaster and not a parade, but a chance to see the next Mars Rover, Curiosity!

And Curiosity was a curious sight indeed. Visitors could only see it from a closed viewing area high above the clean room where the rover, about the size of an SUV, is being built.

Of course, no trip to JPL would be complete without a glimpse of the magnetic tape recorder responsible for storing all the data recorded by Galileo, on its journey to Jupiter in 1989. Would you believe the entire storage capacity of the drive is only 114 MB?!!

Why, yes, I do carry 36 times that amount of data in my pocket every day.

All photos are by the author. Click on each one to enlarge. See more, higher-quality photos at Flickr.

Jason G. Goldman is a science journalist based in Los Angeles. He has written about animal behavior, wildlife biology, conservation, and ecology for Scientific American, Los Angeles magazine, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC, Conservation magazine, and elsewhere. He contributes to Scientific American's "60-Second Science" podcast, and is co-editor of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide (Yale University Press). He enjoys sharing his wildlife knowledge on television and on the radio, and often speaks to the public about wildlife and science communication.

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