Photo: Screenshot from Youtube
Back on November 26th 2011, NASA launched an Atlas V541 from Cape Canaveral carrying a very special payload: it was the largest and most complex rover ever sent into space - ‘Curiosity’. Its destination was Mars.
Now, after an eight-month trip through the Solar System, Curiosity has finally landed on the surface of Mars. Its landing site is a large crater which scientists say once contained water, and since NASA claim that the rover’s main purpose is sifting through rocks, it seemed like a good place to send it.
Scientists back on Earth are now checking that everything is in working order, and after all checks are complete, Curiosity will begin its rather difficult mission, millions of miles away from ‘home’. It will gather geological data, as well as take high definition pictures and videos which it will send back to Earth, where millions of eager people will be waiting - including ourselves.
We hope the mission finally sheds some light on the geological history of Mars which is, after the Earth, the most likely planet in our solar system to have ever been able to support liquid water on its surface. Some say it may still be there, but in a frozen state and deep beneath the planet’s surface. We hope Curiosity is the rover which finally makes us understand Mars, as ‘earthlings’ have been launching wild speculations regarding it for millennia, and this latest rover may be the one to finally confirm them or put them to rest.
Scientists back on Earth are now checking that everything is in working order, and after all checks are complete, Curiosity will begin its rather difficult mission, millions of miles away from ‘home’. It will gather geological data, as well as take high definition pictures and videos which it will send back to Earth, where millions of eager people will be waiting - including ourselves.
We hope the mission finally sheds some light on the geological history of Mars which is, after the Earth, the most likely planet in our solar system to have ever been able to support liquid water on its surface. Some say it may still be there, but in a frozen state and deep beneath the planet’s surface. We hope Curiosity is the rover which finally makes us understand Mars, as ‘earthlings’ have been launching wild speculations regarding it for millennia, and this latest rover may be the one to finally confirm them or put them to rest.
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