Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
---

Title: NASA explains how it keeps the Curiosity rover running, 13 years later

Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2025 12:45:30 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasa-e...

Thirteen years ago, the Curiosity rover landed on Mars, inside Gale crater in
particular. It was originally sent to the red planet for a two-year mission,
but it was extended indefinitely just a few months into its operations. The
rover has several goals, most of which are meant to help scientists determine
whether Mars could ever have supported life in the past. And while it's still
very much operational and doing science, NASA has had to make adjustments and
give it new capabilities to ensure that it can keep running.

In a new post celebrating the 13th anniversary of the rover's landing, NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory has detailed the updates the Curiosity team has had
to implement. To start with, the team manages the rover's daily power budget
with great care to make sure it can do its job and last longer. See,
Curiosity uses a power system called Multi-Mission Radioisotope
Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), which relies on decaying plutonium pellets
to generate energy. As the plutonium decays over time, it takes longer and
longer for the system to recharge the rover's battery.

That's why the team now meticulously factors in every device that draws on
the batteries. They consolidate Curiosity's tasks to shorten the time the
rover is active to also reduce the energy used. The ground team, for
instance, tells Curiosity to talk to an orbiter while driving or moving its
robotic arm instead of doing one task at a time. If the rover finishes its
tasks early, it can go to sleep early and recharge for the next day, which
JPL says maximizes the life of the MMRTG.

Over the past years, NASA has also rolled out updates to change how the
rover's robotic arm drill collects samples and to improve its driving
capabilities. JPL developed an algorithm to reduce wear on the rover's
wheels, as well, so they can last longer.

From the time Curiosity had landed on Mars, it has provided us with multiple
discoveries and new information. It discovered organic molecules in Martian
atmosphere and soil, detected "startlingly high" levels of methane that's a
gas typically produced by life as we know it, and it found evidence of
ancient megafloods on the red planet. And water, as you know, could indicate
the presence of life.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasa-e...
curiosity-rover-running-13-years-later-124530184.html?src=rss

---
VRSS v2.1.180528