AOSS-built Instrument Onboard NASA's Mars Rover 'Curiosity'

Posted: April 9, 2012

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UPDATE 1:31 a.m. Aug. 6 EDT: NASA's Curiosity rover has landed on Mars! View photos and read Michigan Engineering's feature story about U-M's landing party (hosted by AOSS and SPRL).  Visit the Mars Science Laboratory site at NASA.

One of NASA's current missions, the Mars Science Laboratory, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 11/26/11, and is scheduled to arrive at Mars in August 2012. NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity, includes an AOSS-built instrument onboard and mission scientists include AOSS professors Sushil Atreya and Nilton Renno.

Atreya, co-investigator on the MSL's cornerstone lab, the Sample Analysis at Mars, will be utilizing Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments, built by UM's Space Mission Research Lab (SPRL). Renno is a co-investigator on the Rover Environmental Monitoring System, which is the mission's weather station, and will be taking measurements for later analysis.

More Information

• Cheers for Mars Science Lab landing
• How Professor Renno's class helped NASA prepare for Mars landing
• The Curiosity Mission and Professor Atreya
• Learn more about U-M's Role in the Mars Science Laboratory
• Read more about Curiosity, the Stunt Double, at NASA Science
• Learn more about the mission at the Mars Science Laboratory homepage
• Learn more about the mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) mission site