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NASA Rover Lands On Mars; Beams Back First Photos
August 6, 2012
NASA’s newest Mars rover, Curiosity, landed on the Red Planet early Monday. The rover’s entry and descent was nerve-wracking for NASA engineers, compounded by a 14-minute delay as the rover’s signals travel to Earth from Mars. Curiosity became the seventh NASA spacecraft to land on the Red Planet.
Shortly after landing, Curiosity beamed two images back to earth — one showing a wheel on the Martian soil and the other showing the vehicle’s shadow on the surface (pictured top).
“No photo or it didn’t happen? Well lookee here, I’m casting a shadow on the ground in Mars’ Gale crater,” Curiosity posted on Twitter after the landing. “It once was one small step… now it’s six big wheels. Here’s a look at one of them on the soil of Mars.”
Curiosity is the centerpiece of the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, launched in November aboard an Atlas V rocket. It’s traveled some 560 million kilometers toward its destination, the Red Planet.
Curiosity was traveling at about 20,000 kilometers per hour when it hits the Martian atmosphere. It had only seven minutes to reduce its speed for a soft landing but NASA engineers were not able to control or even witness the events in real time. They called this period “seven minutes of terror.”
Its descent-stage retrorockets fired, guiding it to the surface. Nylon cords lowered the rover to the ground in the “sky crane” maneuver. When the spacecraft sensed touchdown, the connecting cords were severed, and the descent stage flew out of the way.
Curiosity is a “Mars scientist’s dream machine,” said Deputy Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada ahead of its launch. “This rover is not only the most technically capable rover ever sent to another planet, but it’s actually the most capable scientific explorer we’ve ever sent out,” he said.
Curiosity is the size of a small car and has 17 cameras. It’s much larger than previous rovers and can travel as far as 200 meters per day. It’s a nuclear-powered mobile laboratory.
The remote-controlled vehicle can gather samples of soil and rocks and analyze them using instruments onboard.
The goal is to see if the area ever had environmental conditions that could have supported microbial life, explains Vasavada. “This mission is really about looking for those habitable environments, and not detecting life itself,” he said.
A team of space agency scientists selected the landing site, the foot of a mountain within a deep, 150-kilometer-wide depression called Gale Crater. Each layer of rock contains clues about the planet’s evolution.
Curiosity will investigate Martian geology, weather and radiation levels during the mission, which is expected to last about two Earth years. . .the equivalent of one Martian year.
Pictured top: The first images back from Curiosity, showing a shadow of the rover on Mars (left) and a wheel on the dusty red planet (right). Pictured top inset: This artist concept features NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover. Pictured below: The Mars Science Laboratory team reacts early Monday morning after learning that the Curiosity rover had landed safely on Mars.. (NASA/JPL-Caltec)
Comments
15 Responses to “NASA Rover Lands On Mars; Beams Back First Photos”
I feel that they should be looking around the Cydonia region, the area containing the artificial? structures and the face?
Government doing what the government SHOULD be doing with our tax dollars! Exploring, learning, teaching——not handing it out to free loaders and nay sayers who have no thought for tomorrow or the future of our great country!
I guess what I meant was at one point we were a can do nation that wanted to expand our frontiers….now we just want to expand welfare.
REGARDING:
“Though it is cool to explore space, I think we could spend the money elsewhere and have better/faster benefits.”
Rejoice! You will be happy to know ALL the money for space exploration was spent right here on Earth. (The Martians are on strike for longer coffee breaks.)
David using the spin-offs of the space program
and other government research
to send this message
CONSIDERING:
“People need to have some self reliance and make themselves great and not expect the government to do it for them.”
So you think individuals should have put Curiosity on Mars rather than a government program?
Just joking but also pointing out that some things we agree need to be done require resources an individual couldn’t provide.
That’s the problem with self-reliance, it is also contingent on cooperation.
I knew a fellow once who just wanted to live in the woods in a cabin with his rifles and Toyota pickup. He never thought about the fact that he would need a government to establish that he alone had the right to the cabin and surroundings, people to build and repair his pickup, drillers, tankers, refineries, distributors and Tom Thumb to supply his gasoline, petrochemical industry to supply tires, – - – He never realized how many thousands of cooperating working people he depended on.
That said, I’m glad Curiosity is there to study Mars. I look forward to its discoveries. Now, if we only put the same thing on the Moon – - -.
David for payback in knowledge
For anyone who would consider this a waste they should consider the fact that without discovery and exploration there would be no US. Had European explorers, Chinese, Native Americans crossing the Bering Strait, there would be no US or North America.
Who knows what there is to find on Mars? And every landing brings us closer to the day when colonies and habitations on Mars will be viable.
The problem we have today is that people are so hung up on social programs that this nation can no longer be great. History is going to give us a correction and I hope it isn’t like the one that brought down the Soviet Union because of the massive size of their government and their wealth redistribution but the US can’t continue to spend untold billions on lazy people and people who have this entitlement mentality.
People need to have some self reliance and make themselves great and not expect the government to do it for them. If we got back to that maybe we could put a man or woman in space again and not have to have Obama pay the Russians to run a taxi to the space station.
Well sense it is OUR government money, I would have them spend the money on these type of missions, that could benefit man kind , over giving it to people who think the government owes them every thing, Great job NASA hope it works out alright. It is a great step in the right direction.
Gigantic waste of money (as is most of our military ventures)when 50 million Americans have no health insurance.
Pictures of rocks,,,,,WOW
Can’t wait till the high resolution pics start coming in, it always takes a couple days before they start taking the good pics.
Though it is cool to explore space, I think we could spend the money elsewhere and have better/faster benefits.
I’m sure God provided everything on Earth that we need, IMHO.
We need to continue our space program…it is responsible for many of our medical and technical break-throughs over the years. And yes, the computer “stuff” we are using originally came from the need to have better communication internally and out in the world!
Looks like there is also somethings head in the shadow picture………?
Congrats NASA and thw whole team. What a spectacular accomplishment. I’ve been a follower of NASA since the first Mercury missions. Best of luck to the crew taking over daily operations!!!
T. Chris Minor
Sacramento
Exploring the universe seems like a good thing.
I also hope it goes well.
Hate to see two billion dollars splat and the information it would send back be lost.
David for nuclear-powered mobile laboratories
Yep, I believe Nasa has still got it, this thing is super cool and loaded with tech. Hope all goes well on landing late tonight or early morning.