Planetary Society logo
  • “Exploration is in our nature.” - Carl Sagan

Code on Curiosity's wheel

Code on Curiosity's wheel
Code on Curiosity's wheel Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory snuck a code onto Mars. The Curiosity rover’s wheels were designed to navigate the Martian terrain, but they also include a flourish that was just for fun — a series of dots and wider lines that translate in Morse code to “J,” “P,” and “L.” The mission team hadn’t been given permission to include the JPL logo on the rover anywhere, so they snuck it onto the wheels. Now, wherever the rover drives on Mars, it leaves traces of JPL in its tracks.  NASA/JPL-Caltech