Curiosity Lands

Ken AshfordScience & TechnologyLeave a Comment

The NASA Mars Rover, Curiosity, successfully landed on Mars this morning, and sent back pictures of its shadow.

Curiosity Rover shadow

Nobody knew if it would work.  Even NASA billed it as the hardest mission ever done involving robots.  Here's what had to be done — it's mindboggling complex:

 

But they did it.  So NASA chalks up a successful mission.  Curiosity will spend the next two years combing the Red Planet for evidence that it once had the necessary conditions for life.

There's no video of the landing of course, but there's a better video of blue-shirted NASA engineers nerds celebrating the news.

 

Good on you, guys.