Rover Curiosity lands on Mars

NASA’s $2.6 billion rover, Curiosity, carried out a challenging landing on Mars early today after traveling hundreds of millions of miles through space in order to explore the Red Planet.
The SUV-sized Curiosity made its dramatic arrival on Martian terrain in a spectacle popularly known as the “seven minutes of terror.”
This jaw-dropping landing process, involving a sky crane and the world’s largest supersonic parachute, allowed the spacecraft carrying Curiosity to target the landing area that scientists had meticulously chosen.
The mission control in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California burst into cheers as the rover touched down. Team members hugged and high-fived one another as Curiosity beamed back the first pictures from the planet, some shed tears.
According to NASA, the spacecraft had been traveling away from Earth since November 26 on a journey of approximately 567 million kilometers.
The vehicle will be controlled from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It has a full suite of sophisticated tools for exploring Mars. They include 17 cameras, a laser that can survey the composition of rocks from a distance and instruments that can analyze samples from soil or rocks.
NASA said the aim of its work is “to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms.
If all goes according to plan, Curiosity’s first stop will be Gale Crater, which may have once contained a lake. After at least a year, the rover will arrive at Mount Sharp, in the center of the crater. Scientists said that the rover will drive up the mountain examining layers of sediment. This process is like looking at a historical record because each layer represents an era of the planet’s history.