What is curiosity looking for

Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. The mission was to last two years but was extended indefinitely. According to NASA, space technology continues to be utilized in various economic sectors for non-space applications. NASA extended the deadline for the Curiosity mission indefinitely. Compare Accounts. The offers that appear in this table are from partnerships from which Investopedia receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where listings appear.

Investopedia does not include all offers available in the marketplace. Related Articles. Entrepreneurs Who Is Elon Musk? Partner Links. Related Terms Green Tech Definition Green tech is a type of technology that is considered environmentally-friendly based on its production process or supply chain.

Biotechnology Definition Biotechnology is the scientific study using living organisms to develop healthcare products and processes. The results showed it could. That will include further studies on the surface of Mars by Curiosity in regions that are more conducive to life.

Sign up to our free Launchpad newsletter for a voyage across the galaxy and beyond, every Friday. There are multiple hypotheses for these features, but one possibility is they formed after salts concentrated in an evaporating water lake.

Some Internet rumors speculated the features were actually signs of burrowing life , but NASA quickly discounted that hypothesis based on their linear angles — a feature that is very similar to crystalline growth.

Vapors from a "wet chemistry" experiment filled with a fluid called MTBSTFA N-methyl-N-tert-butyldimethylsilyl-trifluoroacetamide contaminated a gas-sniffing analysis instrument shortly after Curiosity landed.

Since the scientists knew the collected samples were already reacting with the vapor, they eventually derived a way to seek and preserve the organics after extracting, collecting and analyzing the vapor. Curiosity had a dangerous computer glitch just six months after landing that put the rover within only an hour of losing contact with Earth forever, NASA revealed in Another brief glitch in briefly stopped science work, but the rover quickly resumed its mission.

In the months after landing, NASA noticed damage to the rover's wheels appearing much faster than expected. By , controllers made in the rover's routing to slow down the appearance of dings and holes. It's just the magnitude of what we're seeing that was the surprise.

NASA pioneered a new drilling technique at Mount Sharp in February to begin operations at a lower setting, a requirement for working with the soft rock in some of the region.

Previously, a rock sample shattered after being probed with the drill. Engineers had mechanical trouble with Curiosity's drill starting in ate , when a motor linked with two stabilizing posts on the drill bit ceased working. NASA examined several alternative drilling techniques, and on May 20, the drill obtained its first samples in more than 18 months.

It should be noted that Curiosity isn't working alone on the Red Planet. Accompanying it is a "team" of other spacecraft from several countries, often working collaboratively to achieve science goals.

As of mid, Curiosity is working on the surface along with another NASA rover called Opportunity , which has been roaming the surface since Opportunity was initially designed for a day mission, but remains active after more than 14 years on Mars.

It also found past evidence of water while exploring the plains and two large craters. NASA's Mars Odyssey acts as a communications relay for Curiosity and Opportunity, while also performing science of its own — such as searching for water ice.

More surface missions are on the way shortly. Mars will carry different instruments, however, to better probe for ancient life. It will also cache promising samples for a possible Mars sample return mission in the coming decades.

In the more distant future, NASA has talked about sending a human mission to Mars — perhaps in the s. In late , however, the Trump administration tasked the agency with sending humans back to the moon first. His administration also requested that funds for the International Space Station cease in , in part to make budgetary room for a moon space station initiative called the Deep Space Gateway. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more!

The Perseverance rover is also collecting samples from the Martian surface, which will later be brought to Earth to be analyzed inside a lab. Passant Rabie. Bagnold Dunes, where the organics were found. Related Tags Astronomy Space Science. Mind and Body.