Begin forwarded message: > > Subject: NASA Lands Car-Size Rover Beside Martian Mountain > Reply-To: <[email protected]> > > > > News release: 2012-230 > Aug. 5, 2012 > > NASA Lands Car-Size Rover Beside Martian Mountain > > The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: > http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120805c.html > > 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. > [email protected] / [email protected] > > Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726 > NASA Headquarters, Washington > [email protected] > > - end - > > > Remove yourself from this mailing. > > Remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. >
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