NASA’s Mars Rover “Curiosity” lands on Mars

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover successfully lands on the Red Planet Mars

 After travelling more than 300 million miles, the NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Mission has achieved one of the most complex landings of the spacecraft on surface of the Mars on Monday, 6th August, 2012.  The Curiosity will start investigating whether the  conditions on the Mars are favorable for life or not..   

The NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity successfully carried out the highly challenging job of landing on the surface of the red planet Mars early on Monday, 6th August,2012.  The Curiosity rover has sent its first photograph back to earth two hours after landing on the red planet.  

 This challenging Curiosity landing process involved a sky crane and the world's largest supersonic parachute which allowed the spacecraft carrying Curiosity to target the landing area exactly.   The Curiosity landed on the Gale Crater which may have contained a lake once upon a time.   The rover will arrive at Mount Sharp in the center of the crater after 1 martian year equal to 98 weeks of earth .   The Curiosity will drive up the mountains examining the layers of sediment.    The $2.6 billion Curiosity had made its dramatic arrival on the Martian surface in a spectacle popularly known as Seven minutes of Terror.

The Mission Control at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL) burst into cheers as the Curiosity touched down on the surface of Mars.  The team members hugged each other and some shed tears when Curiosity beamed back its first picture.

The spacecraft carrying Curiosity has been traveling away from Earth since 25th November, 2011 and has made a journey of approximately 567 million kilometers.  The Curiosity which will be controlled by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has all the sophisticated tools for exploring the red planet.  These tools include 17 cameras, a laser which can survey the composition from a distance and instruments which analyze samples from rocks and soil.  The main aim of sending Curiosity to Mars is to know whether Mars ever had an environment to support life.

About Curiosity Rover 

  The Curiosity is a six-wheel nuclear powered  rover and is a much better technical experiment than any of the spacecrafts that landed on the red planet.  Some of the important things about Curiosity are given below.

• Curiosity carries a laser that can drill holes in rocks up to about 25 feet and identify the chemicals inside. 
• Curiosity has a 7 foot long robotic arm which has a power drill at the end which can bore into rocks and soils.  It can transfer the ground up powder into its onboard work bench to check for organics.
• Curiosity has a 2 mega pixel color cameras which can beam panoramic views back to earth. 
• Curiosity also has a video camera which records the last few minutes of its descent to Mars. 
• Curiosity also has a weather station to take daily temperature and pressure readings and record seasonal changes. 
• Curiosity has 20 inch aluminum wheels.
• The highest speed of Curiosity is  one tenth ( 1/10) of a mile.  

Curiosity landed on Mars Surface at 06:33 BST.  ( 11:03 AM  IST).

 Here is the sequence of events that happened from entry into Mars atmosphere and landing.

5.45 AM  BST:   During the descent phase,  the space craft has to shed tungsten weights to shift its center  of gravity and fly through the Martian atmosphere.  It has to pop a huge parachute, fire the retro rockets and finally lower down the Curiosity on to the ground.  During these Seven minutes of terror, the spacecraft will be reducing its speed from 13,000 mils per hour to a standstill on the Martian surface.  

5.53 AM  BST:   The MARS Science Laboratory spacecraft is now within 10,000 Kms from Mars planet.  The probe accelerates as it arrives at the red planet and then slows down as it enters the Mars atmosphere.  The first move by the spacecraft is to pull the heat shield into a forward position.  

5.57 AM  BST:   The spacecraft is now inside the orbit of the Martian moon, Phobos.  During the entry, landing and descent phases 76 pyrotechnic charges will be fired on board the probe to release the tungsten weights and release the parachute.  The spacecraft has to sense its position and atmospheric conditions and use the onboard thrusters to steer its way to the landing site.

  

6.03 AM  BST:   Mars size is around half of earth.  The target landing spot for Curiosity is the Gale Crater which is around 3.5 billion years old.   The Curiosity will spend most of its Martian year at this crater exploring Mount Sharp which is an enormous mount in the center of the crater which is 5 Kms above the ground.  The space craft is now 20 minutes for entry.