On August 6 2016, curiosity will be celebrating its fourth anniversary on Mars. This date will mark four years since curiosity first landed on Gale Crater. Curiosity is collecting samples and exploring the Mars´ surface with its on board science instruments. While curiosity is conducting revolutionary discoveries and astounding us with incredible images of the Martian environment, people who are fascinated by computer games can enjoy exploring Mars with a new social media game called Mars rover.
Mars mobilegame
This is a game that user download from the App Store and google play.
The game consists of a simulated rover that is driven by the user using the arrows on their mobile devices. Players drive the rover through irregular terrain, which is supposed to be the Martian surface. The object of the game is to find underground water, which the rover detects when passing above the point where water exist. Each time water is found, a player accumulates points.
The radar that the rover in the game uses to detect water is similar to the one that the next Martian rover will be equipped with in 2020, during the ongoing study of Mars. While the game tries to imitate the real rover on Mars, showing a reddish atmosphere and terrain due to Mars´s iron content, along with a six-wheeled vehicle and instruments, it does not imitate with 100 percent accuracy its speed, as curiosity´s speed on Mars´ only reaches two inches every second.
The game is aimed to be educational about mars ‘exploration, contributing with their share of knowledge about technology, engineering mathematics and chemistry.
Curiosity
While the simulated rover on this mobile game is raising interest on Mars ‘exploration, the real rover-curiosity, has taken its next step, moving to a new position on at the slopes of Mount Sharp to a rock called, “Marimba,” where it will acquire some rock powder for onboard laboratory analysis. On a a continuing science study on Mars, the rover will continue ascending Mount sharp progressively taking geological samples of more recently geological formations.
