NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is about to perform a potentially dangerous task; climb up a one-meter high dune. It will also study the behavior of the sand dune blocking its way.
The dune is currently blocking the rover's way into smoother grounds which will pave the path for the rover's next mission to discover and explore more of the Red Planet's terrain. The NASA team operating Curiosity is taking very careful steps in maneuvering the robotic rover through the dune, as they have lost the 2009 rover called Spirit on a similar sand trap. They will first command Curiosity to climb up a small part of the dune and observe its behavior.
According to the engineers, Curiosity's design will enable it to successfully climb up the dune, but the real problem lies on the hidden rocks that may damage Curiosity's wheels and other exterior parts. The 50-cm diameter wheels of the rover have been working really hard as it recently crossed the planet's Gale Crater. Close-up pictures of the wheels showed that they have sustained several dimples, rips, and punctures, BBC reports.
Once the rover gets past the dune, it will be able to make its ways to the Dingo Gap and ultimately find smoother grounds to continue its exploration of the planet.
Getting past the dune and the Dingo Gap will allow Curiosity to reach a location called KMS-9, an area where scientists are aspiring to dig into exposed bedrock to find evidence of carbon chemistry. Traces of carbon chemistry will be one of the strong evidences that the Gale Crater once supported microbial life.
Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012 and since then, the rover has travelled almost 5 km, as reflected by its odometer. Another rover working in Mars is Opportunity. Opportunity has been in the planet for 10 years now and in 2005, it got stuck on a sand dune which the engineers called the "Purgatory Dune". Opportunity managed to find its way out of the rubble and continue exploring the planet.
