NASA drivers await chance to operate biggest, baddest Mars rover
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 - 21:30
in Astronomy & Space
Only 20 people have qualified for the mentally grueling job of driving the fully loaded Curiosity while living essentially sequestered on Mars time.The San Gabriel Mountains rise over a rough patch of sun-baked volcanic boulders, dusty flagstones and earthen slopes. Amid the terrain, a hulking creature of titanium, aluminum and silicon creeps through the sand, its wheels squealing like nails on a chalkboard.