The robot Curiosity has had to backpedal on his journey through the Gale Crater Mars, entering a sandy area where his wheels spin more than expected. This is the so-called Hidden Valley, an area the size of a football field, that stands in the path of responsible vehicle planetary exploration had chosen to reached the main destination of the mission: the foothills of Mount Sharp, of three miles and a half in height. Now you are looking for an alternate route that avoids dangerous sandbank. “We need to better understand the interaction between the wheels [car] and Martian sand ripples, and Valle Escondido is not a good place to experiment,” says Jim Eickson, researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and head project, a NASA statement
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The wheel tracks left by the robot `Curiosity’ on sandy and slippery floor Valle Escondido Mars. / NASA / JPL-Caltech
After reversing not venture into the dangerous slippery ground, last week, the robot has been directed toward the northwest to get a good view of the entire area that will help assess the next steps.
Curiosity , which came the Martian soil two years ago (August 6, 2012), has already traveled about five miles to Mount Sharp, Space.com reports, and has other 3.2 ahead until you reach the base of the mountain. There, scientists want to investigate the geological layers that may be evidence of environmental changes that occurred on Mars in the past. The plan is the vehicle to reach that place later this year.
While JPL experts decide to follow the path, the robot is preparing for a new drilling, sampling and analysis a rock.
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