Model of next-generation rover For a test drive ahead of a mission to Mars, Nasa could do a lot worse than the Mojave Desert. The scorched Californian sands stood in for the Red Planet yesterday as US scientists tried out an engineering model of their next-generation Mars rover, Curiosity, near the town of Baker.The real thing was launched on November 26 last year and is due to touch down near the base of a mountain inside Gale Crater, on the Martian equator, in less than three months.
And on the evening of August 5, those at the controls will have to get it just right as Curiosity settles in for a £1.6billion mission scheduled to last two years.
Researchers plan to use it to study layers of rock in the hope of finding evidence of an ancient dry lake - and perhaps even microbial life.
The team at Nasa\'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, has been using the machine\'s pared-down twin, nicknamed Scarecrow, to make sure Curiosity will be able to drive, take pictures and collect samples when it finally arrives.
The rugged Dumont Dunes, near Death Valley, provided the perfect substitute for Mars\'s treacherous landscape and allowed the rover\'s drivers to figure out how best to pass through sand traps.
According to KCET, the area is popular with off-road thrill-seekers who tear up and down its slopes on quad bikes.
Earlier Pete Theisinger, project manager at the Mars Science Laboratory, told how his team face an anxious wait.
\'Every day is one day closer to the most challenging part of this mission,\' he said.
\'Landing an SUV-sized vehicle next to the side of a mountain 85 million miles from home is always stimulating. Our engineering and science teams continue their preparations for that big day and the surface operations to follow.\'
A similar mission by Curiosity\'s older sibling, the Mars Opportunity Rover, shows just how difficult the conditions will be.
This week Opportunity \'woke up\' from a 19-week hibernation after the dark Martian winter stopped the solar-powered machine in its tracks.
It has been working its way across the planet\'s southern hemisphere since January 2004 - despite the fact that the mission was supposed to last just three months.
Opportunity will be dwarfed by the so-called mega-rover Curiosity, which at 10ft long - the size of a Mini - is five times its size.
The new machine, which was named by a sixth-grade schoolgirl who won an essay competition, weighs almost 2,000lbs and will crawl through the crater at a maximum speed of about 300ft per hour.
It was launched on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral late last year.