Curiosity’s landing was carefully designed to protect the rover from damage COOL STEM CAREERS REMOTE SYSTEMS CONTROL ENGINEER 2 1 S T C E N T U R Y S K I L L S L I B R A R Y CHAPTER ONE CONTROLLING THINGS FROM A DISTANCE On August 5 2012 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA landed a robotic
six-wheeled truck on the planet Mars The name of this moving laboratory or rover is Curiosity It had traveled to Mars on a spaceship that looked like a flying saucer When the spaceship neared the surface of the planet it came apart A rocket-powered ship holding Curiosity dropped out This device lowered Curiosity to the ground using cables When the rover was on the ground tiny explosives blew up and cut the cable lines The rocket-powered ship then flew off and crashed nearby It was time for Curiosity to get to work But first the roving laboratory needed someone to tell it what to do That’s when specially trained engineers stepped in to give Curiosity its orders Each morning they provide the rover with its work schedule from planet Earth an average of about 140 million miles 225 million kilometers away The engineers send Curiosity its directions with radio signals It takes about 14 minutes for a signal from Earth to reach the rover and another 14 minutes for one to come back The men and women who operate or access objects from a distance are called remote systems control engi neers It’s a brand-new category of job titles and it includes a lot more than communicating with objects in space Remote means that these engineers work from somewhere away from the object they control Systems describes complicated sets of tools and ways to use the tools Curiosity for example is fitted with cameras for photographing the landscape of Mars
The rover Curiosity is equipped with tools to help it search for possible life on Mars COOL STEM CAREERS REMOTE SYSTEMS CONTROL ENGINEER 2 1 S T C E N T U R Y S K I L L S L I B R A R Y It also has a long robotic arm that can collect samples of rock and soil It is equipped with a laser to heat and analyze rocks A nuclear-powered battery provides the energy needed to perform these tasks Remote systems control engineers work on a wide variety of important projects Remote systems are often designed to
The military uses remotely controlled robots to inspect possible bombs with the controller standing a safe distance away be used in places that are unsafe for people such as inside a nuclear power reactor Some remote systems engineers operate machines that handle toxic or poisonous waste They can also be used to handle dangerous chemicals Some are used in warfare These engineers might control robots that inspect possible bombs Others fly drones or unmanned planes The drones fly over enemy-controlled or other dangerous areas while the drone pilots are miles away
