What's this part here used for? The thing that looks like if you poured dirt into it, that it'd sift through it. Not the antenna, the white thing in center that looks as if it could spin.
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Are you asking about the roughly hexagonal object? The thing with fins is the RTG. – Organic Marble Jun 25 '19 at 20:03
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1@organicmarble Is that really the RTG? I thought that for a second because of Kerbal, but thought better of it. If you want to put that as an answer you can, I feel dumb asking now. "Object with fins on the back of curiosity" didn't come up with much. – Magic Octopus Urn Jun 25 '19 at 20:04
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1It is proving to be surprisingly hard to find a decent-sized drawing with the parts labeled from a good source. – Organic Marble Jun 25 '19 at 20:11
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1by the way here's why it is white – uhoh Jun 26 '19 at 03:10
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Ill find the hires picture this is from too. It spans my three montiors and curiosity looks out at me from the middle haha. – Magic Octopus Urn Jun 29 '19 at 02:53
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The finned cylinder is the RTG, the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. (Shown as the Multi-Mission RTG in the drawing below - MMRTG).
See also Why are planetary probe RTGs tilted at a jaunty angle?
Drawing source - JPL Mars Science Lab Landing Press Kit, page 39.
Other acronymology:
- CheMin - Chemistry and Mineralogy
- DAN - Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons
- MARDI - MARs Descent Imager
- RAD - Radiation Assessment Detector
- REMS - Rover Environmental Monitoring Station
- RLGA - Rover Low Gain Antenna
- RUHF - Rover Ultra High Frequency
- SAM - Sample Analysis at Mars
CourageousPotato
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Organic Marble
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1Also the one about the jaunty (I'd've used the word janky) angle was a GREAT read with some amazing resources. Thanks again for another well-versed answer. – Magic Octopus Urn Jun 25 '19 at 22:49