Mars exploration robots will land harassment

NASA's new Mars exploration robot is heading to Mars and is scheduled to land on the surface of the red planet early next month. But NASA is also not sure if this device can land safely.

>>>Continue to bring Curiosity robot to Mars

The reason is that the satellite that NASA relies on to monitor the situation of the robot in real time has been deviated to one side due to system malfunction.

Experts have recovered the satellite, but now it is rotating in a different trajectory than originally planned, so it is not possible for scientists to observe and replay the image of a robot landing on Mars.

NASA will not be able to closely monitor the Mars probe landing process.

Two spacecraft flying around the other Mars will monitor the robot's journey, but both cannot provide real-time data, said NASA's Mars probe program director, Doug McCuistion.

'We are evaluating the situation. That malfunction has no effect on landing. The problem is simply that the data is delivered in time or not, " Mccuistion said.

The Mars Science Laboratory, commonly known as Curiosity, is scheduled to land on Gale Crater - a 155km wide basin on Mars - at midnight on August 6 (Vietnamese time).

Mars today is a cold, dry and acidic planet. But these conditions are not eternal.

Previous exploration robots have found credible evidence of the existence of water, which has many geographical features such as canals, clay and minerals - which are formed when rocks interact with water. .

Gale Crater is one of the lowest points on Mars.

"It's like a small bowl, which will collect any water on it," said John Grotzinger, a scientist at the California Institute of Technology and a participant in the project. Get down to a low place, and if you don't know anything in advance, that's where you want to go to find proof of water. '

However, Curiosity not only finds water. To support life as it is on earth, the environment needs water, energy, like the sun or chemical energy, and carbon.

The mission of Curiosity is to assess whether Gale Crater has the necessary components at a reasonable time and a reasonable location to support life.

Reference: Reuters