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curiosity the stunt double presented by

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science at nasa

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with a pair of bug eyes swiveling on a

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stalk nearly eight feet off the ground

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the six-wheeled 1800 pound mars rover

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curiosity doesn't look much like a human

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being yet right now the rover is playing

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the role of stunt double for nasa

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astronauts and making an excellent

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impression

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curiosity is riding to mars in the belly

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of a spacecraft where an astronaut would

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be explains don hassler of the southwest

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research institute in boulder colorado

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this means the rover experiences deep

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space radiation storms in the same way

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that a real astronaut would indeed on

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january 27 2012 curiosity's spacecraft

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was hit by the most intense solar

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radiation storm since 2005. the event

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began when sunspot ar 1402 produced an

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x2 class solar flare on the scale of

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solar flares x-flares are the most

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powerful kind

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the explosion accelerated a fuselage of

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protons and electrons to nearly light

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speed

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these sub-atomic bullets were guided by

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the sun's magnetic field almost directly

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toward curiosity

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when the particles hit the outer walls

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of the spacecraft they shattered other

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atoms and molecules in their path

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producing a secondary spray of radiation

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that curiosity both absorbed and

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measured

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curiosity was in no danger says hassler

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in fact we intended all along for the

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rover to experience these storms enroute

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to mars

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unlike previous mars rovers curiosity is

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equipped with a radiation assessment

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detector

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the instrument nicknamed rad counts

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cosmic rays neutrons protons and other

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particles over a wide range of

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biologically interesting energies

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rad's prime mission is to investigate

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the radiation environment on the surface

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of mars but researchers have turned it

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on early so that it can also probe the

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radiation environment on the way to mars

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curiosity's location inside the

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spacecraft is key to the experiment

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we have a pretty good idea what the

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radiation environment is like outside

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says hassler who is the principal

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investigator for rad

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inside the spacecraft however is still a

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mystery even supercomputers have trouble

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calculating exactly what happens when

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high-energy cosmic rays and solar

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energetic particles hit the walls of a

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spacecraft

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one particle hits another fragments fly

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the fragments themselves crash into

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other molecules

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it's very complicated curiosity is

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giving us a chance to actually measure

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what happens

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even when the sun is quiet curiosity is

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bombarded by a slow drizzle of cosmic

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rays high-energy particles accelerated

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by distant black holes and supernova

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explosions

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in the aftermath of the january 27th

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x-flare rad detected a surge of

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particles several times more numerous

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than the usual cosmic ray counts

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hassler's team is still analyzing the

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data to understand what it is telling

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them about the response of the

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spacecraft to the storm

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more x-flares will help by adding to the

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data set

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hassler expects the sun to cooperate

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because the solar cycle is trending

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upward toward a maximum expected in

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early 2013.

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as of february 2012 we still have six

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months to go before we reach mars that's

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plenty of time for more solar storms

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a stunt doubles work is never done

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for more news about bug-eye robots and