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Road trip on tap for NASA's Mars rover in new year
By ALICIA CHANG
AP Science Writer /
January 3, 2013
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Curiosity’s prime mission lasts two years, but NASA expects the plutonium-powered rover to live far longer. A priority for its human handlers is to learn to operate it more efficiently so that it becomes second nature. Before heading to Mount Sharp, engineers plan a software update to Curiosity’s computers to fix remaining bugs.
‘‘We'll need to be pretty careful,’’ project manager Richard Cook said of the upcoming drive. ‘‘We may find terrain that we’re not comfortable driving in and we'll have to spend time driving around stuff.’’
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