Mars Rover Beams Back First Images After Perfect Landing
August 6, 2012
The largest and most advanced robotic laboratory ever sent to another planet made a perfect landing on Mars early Monday morning after a descent so complicated and perilous that mission controllers referred to it as “the seven minutes of terror.” The automobile-sized rover, named Curiosity, touched down at 1:32 a.m. Eastern Daylight Savings Time, capping an 8 ½-month, 354-million-mile (570-million-kilometer) journey from Earth. Its mission is to answer one of the most important questions in planetary science–whether Mars is, or ever has been, capable of supporting microbial life. Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted into cheers and high-fives as Curiosity set down in Gale Crater, an impact crater that may once have held a lake. Moments after landing, Curiosity beamed back its first photographs of the Martian surface.
One of the first images of Mars taken by Curiosity after landing. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The rover’s nail-biting landing involved a rocket-powered sky crane, the world’s largest supersonic parachute, and the incredibly precise detonation of 79 explosive devices. A failure at any stage of the descent would have doomed the mission. Curiosity, officially named the Mars Science Laboratory, began its plunge through the Martian atmosphere seven minutes before landing. At an altitude of 7 miles (11 kilometers), the parachute deployed to slow the lab, which was traveling at 13,200 miles (21,243 kilometers) per hour. At precise moments, the heat shield then the parachute and part of the rover’s protective shell broke away, leaving only the rover and its sky crane, which fired its rockets. At about 65 feet (20 meters) above the surface, the crane began lowering the rover using three cables. Once Curiosity touched down, the cables broke away and the crane flew off to crash land away from the drop site.
The rover carries a scientific payload about 15 times as massive as those carried by NASA’s Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Curiosity, which has been described as a self-contained geology laboratory, holds 10 sophisticated instruments, two of which were provided by Spain and Russia. Unlike earlier rovers, Curiosity will be able to gather samples of rock and soil, process them, and then distribute them to on-board instruments.
NASA's Curiosity rover is lowered onto the Martian surface by the sky crane, new technology designed specifically for this mission. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Curiosity’s prime target is Mount Sharp (also known as Aeolis Mons), a mysterious 3-mile- (5-kilometer-) high mountain in Gale Crater consisting of layers of rock that may have been laid down over billions of years. Although the mountain looks similar to layered mountains on Earth, scientists do not know how it formed because, unlike Earth, Mars has not been shaped by plate tectonics. As the rover scales the mountain, it will analyze the layers in an attempt to discover how Mars, which was once warmer and wetter, became so cold and dry. It will also search for organic (carbon-bearing) molecules necessary for life as we know it. Curiosity is scheduled to explore the surface of the red planet for two Earth years (one Martian year). However, because it is powered by a nuclear generator, its mission may be extend for much longer.
Additional World Book articles:
- Mars Pathfinder
- Phoenix [spacecraft]
- Space exploration (Probes to Mars)
- The Search for Water on Mars (a Special Report)
