Dell supported the landing of NASA’s new Mars rover, the most
complicated portion of the mission, with data analysis conducted in
two NASA High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters running Dell PowerEdge
servers. Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
in Pasadena, California, the Mars rover, Curiosity,
is the largest rover ever sent to explore the Red Planet.
Artist rendering of NASA's mobile science laboratory Curiosity (Photo: Business Wire)
Launched on Nov. 26, 2011, Curiosity landed on the Red Planet at 10:32
p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Aug. 5, 2012 near the base of a mountain
inside the Gale
Crater near the Martian equator. Researchers plan to use Curiosity
to study the mountain’s layers which hold evidence about the wet
environments of early Mars and may hold clues about whether the planet
ever offered conditions favorable for life. The rolling laboratory will
search for two things: environments where life might have existed, and
the capacity of those environments to preserve evidence of past life.
JPL’s Dell HPC clusters, Galaxy and Nebula, provided vital support to
NASA’s Curiosity rover in analyzing the vast amounts of test data needed
to correctly prepare the rover for entering the Martian atmosphere and
landing it on the planet. This difficult task was powered by Dell
PowerEdge servers that make up the Galaxy and Nebula clusters. The final
landing sequence parameters developed by the mission team, which was
tested and validated using the Dell HPC clusters, were uploaded last
week to Curiosity.
Quotes:
“We’re proud to work hand-in-hand with NASA, a true American institution
that provides the world with the understanding that modern day
pioneering delivers optimism and the drive to go further. This notion
echoes Dell’s mission to provide customers with a full spectrum of IT
hardware and services, helping them to accomplish their mission more
effectively and efficiently. Most importantly, we are honored to be able
to test and validate this mission’s most critical portion, landing on
the Red Planet.” Jere Carroll, general manager civilian agencies,
Dell Federal
Links:
Mars
rover images
Video:
How hard is it to land the Curiosity on Mars?
Video:
Martian dune buggy
NASA Jet
Propulsion Lab
NASA
Mars Science Laboratory Landing Fact Sheet
Dell
HPC
Dell
Federal
About Dell
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