Curiosity explores the way through the sand dunes

If you remember, the main reason for stopping the Mars rover Spirit was the sands in which this rover got stuck (it happened at the Gusev crater). So, the undercarriage of Curiosity was designed taking into account previous mistakes, and this rover seems to be able to roll on sands without any problems. In any case, it was thought so earlier. And now the opportunity to check this statement.

The project team Curiosity decided to test the strength of the rover in overcoming the sand dunes, good, next to him is just the right place. We are talking about a place that was given the name Dingo Gap in NASA, here is a photo from January 28, where you can see one dune perfectly (the photo was taken from a distance of 35 meters).
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The height of the dune is about 1 meter, and behind it, as scientists assume, there can be quite a convenient “road” along which the rover will reach Sharpe Mountain.

Here is a photo taken already in the vicinity of the dune; in fact, the rover drove to the very edge of the dune in order to get a clear image of this object and give scientists the opportunity to figure out what was happening.



So far, it has not been precisely decided whether the rover will go ahead through Dingo Gap, but this option is currently one of the main ones. If it is decided to send the rover through the dunes, then the specialists will first see how the model of the rover "behaves" on Earth in the laboratory, under similar conditions, and then Curiosity itself will be sent in a new way.

It is worth noting that since January 1 of this year, the rover has already overcome 264.7 meters, heading for Sharpe Mountain - one of its main goals. Curiosity has done 4.89 kilometers over its entire time on Mars. This, of course, is less than in the case of Opportunity, but still it is a solid achievement.

Well, let's wait for the development of events, let's see whether NASA will direct its rover directly through the dunes, or an alternative route will be chosen.

Via nasa