Sri Lankan scientist’s inventions in Mars Rover

by Jayam Rutnam

The mysterious red planet, Mars, will once again be the target of experiments and exploration, leading to answers whether it was ever inhabited?, whether it ever had water? whether it is inhabitable? With the roar of an Atlas 5 rocket, on Saturday morning of November 26, 2011, the Mars Science Laboratory, also known as “Curiosity” and “Mars Rover”, was on its way to the planet Mars, a journey of 354 million miles. “Curiosity” will take eight and a half months to arrive at Mars in August 2012.

This is the biggest of the rovers, and is unique in many ways. It has six wheels, weighs over a ton (the size of an automobile) and carries in it, the most sophisticated instruments.

Many scientists have been working for almost a decade to put it together. This will certainly give us a better insight as to whether Mars would be a destination for future astronauts to visit. “Curiosity” will not just be bounced on the planet with balloons, like the previous rovers. Due to its unusual size and since it weighs five times more than the two previous rovers, if balloons were used, they will immediately be punctured upon being dropped on the surface.

The solution was another wonderful invention of dropping the crane holding the vehicle with parachutes and then for it to be gently lowered down with the aid of a crane, which will be separated from the parachutes.

The vehicle will be lowered down on long bridles with the help of thrusters on the sides of the crane, using a skycrane technique modelled after what is used by helicopters.

Many other features are included in this 2.5 billion dollar project of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

These features were not utilised in the previous rovers, “sojourner”, “spirit”, and “opportunity”. For one, “curiosity” is powered by plutonium instead of solar and it can be operated in the winter months, even when there is no sun. The inventions of Sri Lankan scientist Dr. Sarath Gunapala, of Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL), in La Canada, California, play an integral part in the Mars Science Laboratory. Dr. Gunapala is a respected and lauded scientist who has received many awards. One of his inventions is an infra red photo detector which has many uses and applications.

These cameras “see” heat. This particular invention is already used by police helicopters in all of the United States for seeking out fleeing perpetrators. It has many other uses, especially in the space exploration field. This particular feature is important in exploring the atmosphere on the red planet and also around it. “Now we await its arrival in Mars in August.

It is a very exciting time. Americans and others will be waiting for the first pictures to be sent from ‘Curiosity,’ to earth.” Words of Dr. Gunapala. Dr. Sarath Gunapala is a Senior Research Scientist at JPL.

He was awarded a place in the Hall of Fame in 2000 in Space Tech. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sri Lanka Foundation.

He was awarded the Kirthi Sri by his Alma Mater Nalanda College. This is the highest honour given by the College of which there are only four recipients.