Get the latest tech news
NASA's Curiosity picks up new skills
New capabilities allow the rover to do science with less energy from its batteries.
Increased efficiency means the rover has ample power as it continues to decipher how the ancient Martian climate changed, transforming a world of lakes and rivers into the chilly desert it is today. Stretching for miles on this part of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain, the formations might reveal whether microbial life could have survived in the Martian subsurface eons ago, extending the period of habitability farther into when the planet was drying out. Past missions like the Spirit and Opportunity rovers and the InSight lander relied on solar panels to recharge their batteries, but that technology always runs the risk of not receiving enough sunlight to provide power.
Or read this on Hacker News
