Question 2 of 21

The unmanned American spacecraft Mariner 4 was the first to pass by Mars. What year did it accomplish that feat?

... Mariner 4 launched November 28, 1964 and flew by Mars in mid-July 1965.

Question 3 of 21

Which country produced the first unmanned spacecraft to land on the Martian surface?

... Mars 2 and Mars 3 each included an orbiter and a lander. Mars 2's lander crashed on the martian surface; its twin Mars 3 lander made a successful descent but stopped working after just 20 seconds.

Question 4 of 21

The U.S., Russia, European Space Agency, and ________ have sent unmanned missions to Mars.

... Nozomi (Hope) launched from Japan's Uchinoura Space Center in 1998; attempts to force it into martian orbit failed in 2003.

Question 5 of 21

Two American rovers have worked much longer than expected on Mars. What are they called?

... Spirit and Opportunity were each designed to operate for three months on the martian surface after landing in January 2004. Spirit lasted six years and Opportunity was still chugging along in the summer of 2011.

Question 6 of 21

Curiosity is NASA's most sophisticated rover to date. What is its official name?

... The Mars Science Laboratory includes a suite of instruments called Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM).

Question 7 of 21

Curiosity was named by ________.

... Clara Ma of Lenexa, Kansas won a nationwide contest with an essay that begins, "Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind." She got to sign her name on the rover at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Question 8 of 21

Where is the Jet Propulsion Laboratory?

... The JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA in Pasadena.

Question 9 of 21

After years of deliberation, NASA chose Gale Crater as Curiosity's martian landing site. Why?

... "One fascination with Gale is that it's a huge crater sitting in a very low-elevation position on Mars, and we all know that water runs downhill," says John Grotzinger, the mission's project scientist.

Question 10 of 21

Gale Crater is named for ________.

... Walter F. Gale discovered seven comets.

Question 11 of 21

For the Curiosity mission, NASA made its largest ________ for a planetary mission.

... The heat shield for the Curiosity lander has a diameter of nearly 15 feet (4.5 meters).

Question 12 of 21

The landing will include what unusual piece of equipment?

... Because it is about the size of an SUV and literally weighs a ton (900 kg), the usual landing system using airbags was ruled out. Instead, a parachute attached to a shell with Curiosity tucked underneath will drift toward the surface. Once it has slowed sufficiently, Curiosity will be released from the shell, revealing a powered craft NASA calls a sky crane. Acting like a jetpack, the sky crane will gently place Curiosity's wheels on Martian soil, then release the rover and fly away to a crash landing in a remote location.

Question 13 of 21

Curiosity has six wheels and ________ motor(s).

... It has six for driving and four on its front and rear wheels for steering.

Question 14 of 21

How fast will Curiosity go?

... It is designed to cover 660 feet (200 meters) per day, about the length of two football fields laid end to end.

Question 15 of 21

Curiosity's robotic arm has quite a reach. How far will it extend?

... Curiosity's robotic arm extends 7.5 feet (2.3 meters). The arm has two joints at the wrist, one at the elbow and two at the shoulder.

Question 16 of 21

Curiosity has a ChemCam, short for Chemistry & Camera. Yet this tool is -- strictly speaking -- neither of these things. What is it?

... ChemCam's laser/telescope combo can analyze soil and rocks at a distance.

Question 17 of 21

What is the range of ChemCam?

... ChemCam can analyze rocks and soil up to a distance of 23 feet (7 meters).

Question 18 of 21

Two ovens in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) unit will heat rock samples for analysis. How hot can they get?

... The 88-pound (40 kg) SAM includes two ovens for heating samples up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius), as well as spectrographs for determining their composition. Among the other items in the unit are a pump the size of a soda can that spins 1,700 times a minute, and more than 650 yards (600 meters) of wiring.

Question 19 of 21

The U.S. isn't the only country to have equipment aboard Curiosity. Which other countries are among the collaborators on the mission?

... Canada produced the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer to analyze elements in rocks and soils, Russia built the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons to measure sub-surface hydrogen and Spain created the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station to measure atmospheric conditions and ultraviolet radiation.

Question 20 of 21

NASA scheduled Curiosity to lift off from ________ in late 2011.

... Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is adjacent to Kennedy Space Center.

Question 21 of 21

Like Curiosity, this English rocker asks, "Life on Mars?"

... Neil McCormick, rock critic of the English newspaper The Telegraph, picked Bowie's 1971 song as the greatest song of all time in 2009.

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