Rover Curiosity – Mission Mars!

Mission name: Mars Science Laboratory
Rover name: Curiosity rover
Size: About the size of a car — 10 feet long (not including the arm), 9 feet wide and 7 feet tall!
Weight: 900 kilograms (2,000 pounds)
Features: Geology lab, rocker-bogie suspension, rock-vaporizing laser and lots of cameras
Mission: To search areas of Mars for past or present conditions favorable for life, and conditions capable of preserving a record of life
Launch: Between Nov. 25–Dec. 18, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida
Arrival: August 2012 at Mars
Length of mission on Mars: The prime mission will last one Mars year or about 23 Earth months.

NASA’s Rover Curiosity has been on Mars for 3 days now. And more and more, the mission impossible is turning out to be a dream come true for scientists across the world!

Now you can actually see color photographs of the surface of Mars. And the good news is no creepy aliens have been sighted yet!

Jokes apart, here is the little wonder’s diary entry till now

Late August 5, 2012 : Curiosity lands safely on the planet closes to home, Mars. After a crucial eight month journey, the landing was as smooth as could be. There were a few terror moments but they passed swiftly. The first tasks that day were to do a health check of itself and communication tests.

August 7, 2012 : This is the second full Martian day.

Curiosity’s second day on Mars ‘flawless’: NASA

The robot worth $2.5 billion did all the NASA scientists proud. The first pics show the surface to be almost Earth like. Better cameras (almost eye-like) are getting ready to be used for better images.
Curiosity dug half a metre into the surface (around 1.6 feet) and the images seem to be that of the Martian bedrock. The knowledge of how far the bedrock can be used by the scientists as a very valuable data.

August 8, 2012
Gale Crater Vista, in Glorious Color
The first 360-degree panorama in color of the Gale Crater landing site taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover was shot and sent. The panorama was made from thumbnail versions of images taken by the Mast Camera.

May Rover Curiosity satisfy all of our curiosity!!!

Cheers!

Tags: curiosity, NASA, Rover Curiosity