The Curiosity rover will spend two years looking for signs of life on the Red Planet. Credit: NASA

Curiosity is not your ordinary rover. It's bigger than a small car. The rover comes equipped "standard" with six-wheel rocker-bogie suspension and multiple camera systems, and its power supply doesn't rely on solar panels. Curiosity uses a radioisotope power generator so that it can roam longer and farther, traveling to more interesting places than previous missions. It has an expansive suite of science instruments named Sample Analysis at Mars, designed to analyze samples of material collected and delivered by the rover's arm.

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Test your programming skills and move the robot around the obstacles. Credit: NASA

NASA tests robots for exploration in areas called analogs. Analogs are places where the environment is similar to locations like Mars or the moon, where a robot may be used. One NASA analog is in the Arizona desert. NASA robotics experts conduct field tests in the desert to assess new ideas for rovers, spacewalks and ground support. Some of these tests are conducted by a team called Desert RATS, which stands for Desert Research And Technology Studies.

What is it like to be part of a team that designs and tests robots? Find out and test your programming skills with ROVER. Guide the robot over an analog of 12 terrain grids without consuming all of his battery power. Watch out for obstacles!

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