NASA’s Mars Curiosity Stretches Robotic Arm for First Time
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity flexed its 7-foot-long robotic arm for the first time since it landed on Mars. The robotics maneuver had the rover checking its motors and joints by unstowing the arm, extending it using all five joints and then stowing it again.
NASA noted that weeks of testing and calibrating arm movements will lie ahead before the arm will capture its first soil samples and deliver them to Curiosity’s scientific instruments.