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Jet Propulsion Laboratory
08/05/2012 | Press release
NASA Lands Car-Size Rover Beside Martian Mountain
distributed by noodls on 08/06/2012 06:16
This is the first image taken by
NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening
of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). Image credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Full image and caption | › Curiosity latest images
› Full image and caption | › Curiosity latest images
August 05, 2012
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's most advanced Mars rover
Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet. The one-ton rover,
hanging by ropes from a rocket backpack, touched down onto
Mars Sunday to end a 36-week flight and begin a two-year
investigation.
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that carried
Curiosity succeeded in every step of the most complex
landing ever attempted on Mars, including the final
severing of the bridle cords and flyaway maneuver of the
rocket backpack.
"Today, the wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze
the trail for human footprints on Mars. Curiosity,
the most sophisticated rover ever built, is now on the
surface of the Red Planet, where it will seek to answer
age-old questions about whether life ever existed on Mars
-- or if the planet can sustain life in the future,"
said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "This is
an amazing achievement, made possible by a team of
scientists and engineers from around the world and led by
the extraordinary men and women of NASA and our Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. President Obama has laid out a bold
vision for sending humans to Mars in the mid-2030's,
and today's landing marks a significant step toward
achieving this goal."
Curiosity landed at 10:32 p.m. Aug. 5, PDT, (1:32 a.m. EDT
Aug. 6) near the foot of a mountain three miles tall and 96
miles in diameter inside Gale Crater. During a nearly
two-year prime mission, the rover will investigate whether
the region ever offered conditions favorable for microbial
life.
"The Seven Minutes of Terror has turned into the Seven
Minutes of Triumph," said NASA Associate Administrator
for Science John Grunsfeld. "My immense joy in the
success of this mission is matched only by overwhelming
pride I feel for the women and men of the mission's
team."
Curiosity returned its first view of Mars, a wide-angle
scene of rocky ground near the front of the rover. More
images are anticipated in the next several days as the
mission blends observations of the landing site with
activities to configure the rover for work and check the
performance of its instruments and mechanisms.
"Our Curiosity is talking to us from the surface of
Mars," said MSL Project Manager Peter Theisinger of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"The landing takes us past the most hazardous moments
for this project, and begins a new and exciting mission to
pursue its scientific objectives."
Confirmation of Curiosity's successful landing came in
communications relayed by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter
and received by the Canberra, Australia, antenna station of
NASA's Deep Space Network.
Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass
15 times as large as the science payloads on the Mars
rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some of the tools are the
first of their kind on Mars, such as a laser-firing
instrument for checking elemental composition of rocks from
a distance. The rover will use a drill and scoop at the end
of its robotic arm to gather soil and powdered samples of
rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples
into analytical laboratory instruments inside the
rover.
To handle this science toolkit, Curiosity is twice as long
and five times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. The Gale
Crater landing site places the rover within driving
distance of layers of the crater's interior mountain.
Observations from orbit have identified clay and sulfate
minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history.
The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed,
developed and assembled at JPL. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
For more information on the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mars and
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl
.
Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity
And http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity
.
Guy Webster / D.C. Agle 818-354-6278 / 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov / agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov
2012-230
