Q&A & Storytime: NASA’s Mars Opportunity Rover replica
An unrepeatable... Opportunity!
See the Mars Opportunity replica rover and enjoy a morning of robotics, space exploration, and engineering!
Fri 27 Sep 2024, 10.00am–12.00pm
Wellington Foyer, Level 2
Free with museum entry
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity landed on Mars on January 24, 2004. The rover was planned as a 90-day mission to search for geological clues regarding environmental conditions on early Mars and to assess whether those environments were conducive to life.
The Opportunity Rover replica provides a tangible tool for explaining planetary exploration and engineering design to people of all ages.
The 3D-printed replica rover was created by The University of Auckland’s Centre for Automation and Robotic Engineering Science (CARES), in collaboration with New Dexterity research group.
Motorized components and computer vision systems have been incorporated into the structure to simulate some of the rover’s movements and interact with visitors in a socially fun manner.
Storytime at 10.30 and 11.30
Good Night Oppy!
Mixing humor with solid space and rover facts, this picture book by James McGowan gives an inside look into Opportunity's time on Mars.
An interplanetary detective, “Oppy” spent 15 years on the red planet taking thousands of pictures and making groundbreaking discoveries that she transmitted to scientists and engineers back on Earth.
From joyriding on Olympus Mons, to racing away from a treacherous dust storm, Oppy's adventure in space will fascinate and conquer kids and grown-ups!
An artist's concept portrays a NASA Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL/Cornell University
