This artist's concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech <\/p>\n
PASADENA, Calif., June 26 (UPI) -- NASA says a maneuver Tuesday adjusted the flight path of its Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft for delivering the rover Curiosity to a landing target on Mars. <\/p>\n
The car-size, 1-ton rover is set to arrive at Mars Aug. 6 to begin a two-year mission to investigate whether Mars ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life. <\/p>\n
The latest trajectory correction maneuver -- the third and smallest since the spacecraft's Nov. 26, 2011, launch -- used four thruster firings totaling 40 seconds in duration, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., reported. <\/p>\n
The maneuver served both to correct errors in the flight path and to carry out a decision to shift the landing target about 4 miles closer to the martian mountain next to Curiosity's intended landing site. <\/p>\n
Shifting the landing target closer to the mountain may shave months off the time needed for driving from the touchdown location to selected destinations at exposures of water-related minerals on the slope of the mountain, scientists said. <\/p>\n
\"This puts us closer to our entry target, so if any further maneuvers are needed, I expect them to be small,\" JPL's Tomas Martin-Mur, the mission's navigation team chief, said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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NASA tweaks flight path of Mars mission<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This artist's concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech PASADENA, Calif., June 26 (UPI) -- NASA says a maneuver Tuesday adjusted the flight path of its Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft for delivering the rover Curiosity to a landing target on Mars. The car-size, 1-ton rover is set to arrive at Mars Aug Continue reading