[♪ INTRO]
I think I’m getting it, Squeaks!
Oh, hey there!
Squeaks was teaching me how to use his new toy.
It’s been a lot of fun… and a bit of a challenge!
I have to steer the car using this remote control.
Hey, Squeaks.
Did you know that there are scientists who pilot remote control vehicles
a little like this one, as part of their jobs?
[Squeaks squeaks]
It gets even better, because some of these vehicles are far away in space,
like the rovers exploring Mars!
People can’t go to Mars yet.
But there are lots of questions we want to answer so that we can go there one day.
To answer those questions, we send rovers to Mars instead of people.
The rovers are a little bit like this remote control car,
but much bigger and built to do science!
Over the years, there have been six successful rovers.
There are five from the United States:
Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance.
And there’s been one rover from China, named Zhurong.
The rovers do things like take samples of Mars dirt and rock,
make recordings of sounds, and take lots of pictures and video.
They send tons of cool information back to Earth for scientists to study.
[Squeaks squeaks]
Great question!
Squeaks wants to know what kinds of questions the rovers are helping us answer.
We have lots of questions about Mars!
Right now, it’s very cold and dry there.
But many scientists believe a very long time ago, Mars was more like Earth.
It might have been much warmer, and had liquid water on its surface.
Today, it only has water frozen into ice.
Maybe it even had living things!
[Squeaks squeaks]
Well, probably not people like you and me.
But Mars could have had very teeny living things,
like the bacteria we have on Earth, that are too small for us to see without a microscope.
So people called engineers design the rovers
to help us find answers to these questions!
For example, the rovers Spirit and Opportunity
helped us learn about what the water on Mars was like a long time ago.
And the rover Perseverance is looking for evidence of tiny living things
that might once have lived there!
But to find the answers to those questions,
engineers first had to solve many problems to get those rovers to Mars safely.
[Squeaks squeaks]
Good question, Squeaks!
For one thing, the rover has to land safely on Mars’ surface.
And, when the rover is in space getting ready to land on Mars,
it's moving really fast.
So, when the time is just right, a parachute opens to help slow it down.
But it’s not quite enough — the rover needs to land gently on the surface,
or some of the tools on board would definitely break.
Can you think of anything that might help keep the rover safe?
What are some things that you do to keep safe as you’re moving?
[Squeaks squeaks]
Ooh, I love it!
Squeaks says he wears things like a helmet and pads
when he goes out rollerblading.
If he falls, they help protect his body by acting like a cushion
to keep him from getting hurt.
The rovers don’t wear helmets.
But some of them, like Spirit and Opportunity, have used big fabric airbags to land.
But these work a little like helmets.
They protect the rover, and soften its landing so nothing on the rover breaks.
So, the rovers bounced down in a big balloon!
That’s a great solution to the problem of how to land safely on Mars.
But it doesn’t work every time.
The Curiosity rover was too heavy for an airbag to help it land safely.
[Squeaks squeaks]
No need to worry, because there are multiple solutions to any problem!
Engineers came up with a different way to protect Curiosity.
After a parachute slowed the rover down,
a flying platform gently lowered it to the ground.
That system worked so well, they used it for Perseverance, too!
So, engineers came up with two different ways to solve the problem.
[Squeaks squeaks]
I wonder if we could come up with different ways
to solve another problem, Squeaks!
[Squeaks squeaks]
Let’s see!
The Rovers need a source of power to help them to move,
and so all of the scientific tools and computers will work.
There’s no way to just plug things in on Mars!
So let’s see if we can think of an idea for the rovers to get power.
[Squeaks squeaks]
Great idea, Squeaks!
Squeaks says that he knows his remote control car uses batteries to move.
So he thinks the rovers might use batteries too.
And they do!
They’re not exactly like the ones we use in our homes and schools, though.
Some of the rovers like Spirit, Opportunity, and Zhurong use batteries.
And better yet… these batteries use solar power.
We have solar panels on the roof of the Fort, to help collect energy from the Sun.
And since the Sun reaches Mars too,
the rovers can use solar panels to collect energy!
But Mars sometimes has huge dust storms.
The clouds of dust keep the surface of the planet from getting light from the Sun.
So the batteries on Curiosity and Perseverance
get their power from a special type of fuel instead.
As this fuel breaks down, it powers the rover’s batteries, even if there’s no sunlight.
So once again, engineers found different ways
to solve the problem of getting energy on Mars.
And by solving all of these problems, we're able to send rovers to explore Mars,
and answer all of the questions we have, about the Red Planet!
Thanks to our partner, the Museum of Science,
for collaborating with us on this episode of SciShow Kids.
Are you interested in exploring Mars in your own Mars Rover?
Mission: Mars on Roblox from the Museum of Science gives you that opportunity!
You can discover the wonders of Mars as you build a rover,
explore massive canyons, and search for ice in this amazing experience,
designed using scientific data from NASA.
Thanks again to the Museum of Science,
and thanks for joining us today here at the Fort.
[Squeaks squeaks]
[♪ OUTRO]