Curiosity Lands on NASA – NASA Successfully Lands Curiosity Rover on Mars
PASADENA:
NASA on Sunday successfully landed its $2.5 billion Mars Science
Laboratory and Curiosity rover on the surface of the Red Planet, marking
the most ambitious attempt to reach Mars in history.
“Touchdown
confirmed,” said a member of mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory as the room erupted in cheers. “We are wheels down on Mars.
Oh, my God.” A dusty image of the rover’s wheel on the surface, taken
from a rear camera on the vehicle, confirmed the arrival of the
car-sized rover and its sophisticated toolkit designed to hunt for signs
that life once existed there.
A second
image arrived within seconds, showing the shadow of the rover on Mars.
When the landing was announced after a tense, seven minute process known
as entry, descent and landing, the room filled with jubilation as chief
scientists distributed Mars chocolate bars to the NASA staff members.
However,
success was anything but certain with this first-of-its-kind attempt to
drop a six-wheeled chemistry lab by rocket-powered sky crane on an alien
planet. NASA’s more recent rover dropoffs were done with the help of
airbags. In the final moments, the spacecraft accelerated with the pull
of gravity as it nears Mars’ atmosphere, making a fiery entry at a speed
of 13,200 miles (21,240 kilometers) per hour and then slowing down with
the help of a supersonic parachute. After that, an elaborate sky crane
powered by rocket blasters kicked in, and the rover was lowered down by
nylon tethers, apparently landing upright on all six wheels.
Scientists
do not expect Curiosity to find aliens or living creatures. Rather they
hope to use it to analyze soil and rocks for signs that the building
blocks of life are present and may have supported life in the past. The
project also aims to study the Martian environment to prepare for a
possible human mission there in the coming years. It has already been
collecting data on radiation during its eight and a half month journey
following launch in November 2011 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Earlier on
Sunday, Mars program director Doug McCuistion called the science
“absolutely crucial” to finding out if Earthlings are alone, how Mars
evolved from a wet to a dry planet and how accessible Mars may be for
human explorers in the future. “If we succeed, it will be one of the
greatest feats in planetary exploration ever,” he told reporters. “Our
success rate has been pretty darn good recently.” However, he cautioned
that “these things are really hard to do” and admitted that “we may not
be successful.” Attempts by global space agencies since 1960 have
resulted in a near 40 percent success rate in sending landers, orbiters
or other spacecraft for flybys to Mars. NASA has the best record.
via:
thenews.com.pk
