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spacecraft technicians and engineers

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have installed the wheels and suspension

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system onto nasa's next mars rover a key

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step in assembly and testing of the

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flight system for the mission to launch

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in 2011.

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the rover curiosity centerpiece of

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nasa's mars science laboratory mission

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has six wheels and a rocker bogey

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suspension system like its smaller

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predecessor spirit opportunity and

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sojourner each wheel has its own drive

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motor and the corner wheels also have

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independent steering motors unlike

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earlier mars rovers curiosity will also

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use its mobility system as landing gear

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when the mission's rocket power descent

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stage lowers the rover directly onto the

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martian surface on a tether in august

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we've narrowed down the landing sites to

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four

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and this is basically based primarily on

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science and the fact that they look safe

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one of the things i think is pretty

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exciting about

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the landing sites that we do have and

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even the ones that we've looked at and

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kind of fallen off the list for one

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reason or another

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is that this is the first time where we

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have wonderful spectroscopy at high

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enough resolution that we can match it

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with the terrain

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so we can point to layers and say this

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is where we want the rover to go and

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make its measurements

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and all four of them show evidence of

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having

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been associated with water

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you know if today we had to pick one

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almost randomly it would be a great site

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to go to and the amount of information

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that we get that we have available