By STEPHANIE BEECKEN
6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - The White House says Curiosity is the most sophisticated roving laboratory ever to land on another planet, and a very important part of its technology was developed at the University of Tennessee.
President Barack Obama says Curiosity marks an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future.
A key component of the rover was developed with the help of two students and a professor at the UT.
It was an exciting moment as NASA's Curiosity landed safely on Mars. UT electronic engineering professor Dr. Ben Blalock was anxiously waiting for the first pictures to arrive.
"The fact that it was using a camera and it had unfolded everything and it was getting ready to start rolling around it means it's using the motors. It's using these chips, mission accomplished," Dr. Blalock said.
From 2004 to 2007, he worked with two of his graduate students and partnered with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to design a new and improved microchip for Curiosity.
"It's virtually unprecedented for a university research team to be able to develop flight hardware, particularly a microchip like this," said Blalock.
UT had collaborated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on previous projects so they decided to work on the new microchip together.
After years of work, they came up with a chip that will withstand extreme temperatures and radiation. Eighty chips are being used in Curiosity's 40 motors, which are vital in making the rover move and function.
"Make the camera move, pan around, go up and down, robotic arms move around, all that stuff and the wheels on the rover, all these things require motors," Blalock said.
Dr. Blalock plans to keep an eye on the rover over the next few years as it takes pictures, drills into rocks and scoops up soil. He'll watch with a sense of accomplishment.
"My students and I have worked on dozens of research projects, finally to see something go the whole distance it's just incredible," he said.
Blalock says because these are the first microchips to withstand extreme environmental conditions, he believes they'll be used in the future for other missions to help improve space exploration.
"It's virtually unprecedented for a university research team to be able to develop flight hardware, particularly a microchip like this," said Dr. Ben Blalock.
