Ross Wilkers
Amazon Web Services recently provided NASA live streaming images and video from Mars as the Curiosity rover landed on the planet, Wired reports.
Amazon is one of several large companies that have played a technological role in the Curiosity project, ranging from helping capture images to developing the rover’s instruments.
- ATK worked with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop Curiosity’s propellant tanks, composite heat shield and thermal protection for the rover to descend into Mars’ atmosphere.
- BAE Systems‘ U.S. subsidiary developed Curiosity’s spectrometer and systems for detecting radiation, among other atmospheric traits.
- Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. built a camera that hovered above the planet as the rover landed, capturing a still image of Curiosity with its parachutes deployed.
- Two Dell high performance computing clusters analyzed data to prepare the rover for landing.
