October 5th, 2012
01:54 PM ET
Mars rover gets to play in the sand
The Mars rover Curiosity will get to try out its scoop this weekend, according to current NASA plans.
"The request that the engineers made to the scientists was: Find us a good sandbox, a good sand pit, to play in here, on our way to Glenelg," said Mike Watkins, Curiosity mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, at a press conference Thursday. "This site, Rocknest, is exactly that."
The vehicle is currently parked 400 meters as the crow flies from Bradbury Landing, where it landed on August 6. It will likely stay there for another two weeks, with scooping to begin on Saturday.
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People in Orbit
Cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov
Expedition 36 Commander
Expedition 36 Commander
Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin
Expedition 36 Flight Engineer
Expedition 36 Flight Engineer
Cosmonaut Chris Cassidy
Expedition 36 Flight Engineer
Expedition 36 Flight Engineer
Contributors
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Elizabeth Landau
Writer/Producer -
Sophia Dengo
Senior Designer
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What?
The orchid is not a Calanthe species. It is rather a Coelogyne that has a large bract where
the individual flowers are attached to the inflorescences (flower stalks.) Calanthes are a
New World genus found in South America, while Coelogyne are an old world genus.