PASADENA: The Mars science rover Curiosity landed on the Martian surface shortly after 10:30 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday (1:30 a.m. EDT Monday/0530 GMT) to begin a two-year mission seeking evidence the Red Planet once hosted ingredients for life, NASA said.
Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles burst into applause and cheered as they received signals relayed by a Mars orbiter confirming that the rover had survived a make-or-break descent and touched down within its landing zone.
NASA described the feat as perhaps the most complex achieved in robotic spaceflight.
Moments later, Curiosity beamed back its first three images from the Martian surface, one of them showing a wheel of the vehicle.
"I can't believe this. This is unbelievable," said Allen Chen, the deputy leader of the rover's descent and landing team.
The car-sized rover apparently came to rest at its planned destination near the foot of a tall mountain rising from the floor of Gale Crater in Mars' southern hemisphere, mission controllers said.
The $2.5 billion Curiosity project, formally called the Mars Science Laboratory, is NASA's first astrobiology mission since the 1970s-era Viking probes.
The landing marks a major victory and milestone for a U.S. space agency beleaguered by budget cuts and the recent loss of its 30-year-old space shuttle program.
"It's an enormous step forward in planetary exploration. Nobody has ever done anything like this," said John Holdren, the top science advisor to President Barack Obama, who was visiting JPL for the event. "It was an incredible performance."
The exact condition of the one-ton, six-wheeled, nuclear powered vehicle upon its arrival could not be immediately ascertained.
NASA plans to put the rover and its sophisticated instruments, touted as the first full-fledged mobile science lab sent to another world, through several weeks of engineering checks before starting its two-year surface mission in earnest.
The landing capped a journey of more than eight months across more than 350 million miles (567 million km) of space since the Mars Science Lab was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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The Jews, Hindus, Ahmadis are the oldest inhabitants of Mars. They invited some Western people to visit Mars. Pakistan missed the chance.
@Rafi Ka Deewana: "Regardless, India is millions of miles behind the US, especially, when it comes to the application of technology. " In my book, India is doing fine. In the field of technology, never aim for the marquis and flashing lights. Whenever you feel down when looking at India's progress, always refer back to where India started from. 65 years back India did not manufacture even a sewing needle. And, the thousand years before that we provided blood for the butchers that overwhelmed us. Today India is in a tete-a-tete with the stars and planets, all on her own. We have leapfrogged quite a leap, my friend! It is not only the story about the intrepid Indians, it is also about the open-warmheartedness of Americans who showed their confidence in Indians and opened doors to them to sit amongst them. If you intend staying in the game, "Never aim for the first spot, always for the second!" Give it some thought.
@G. Din: Indians have been involved with NASA and just about anything high tech that happens in the US and other countries.
For example, the Hadron Collider where the God particle was discovered, here is India's contribution: India has developed and supplied a total of 7080 Precision Magnet Positioning Systems (PMPS) Jacks for supporting Cryo-dipole agnets of LHC, 1146 Superconducting Corrector Magnets (MCS), 616 Superconducting octupole-decapole correcting magnets (MCDO), 5500 Quench Heater Power Supplies(QHPS), 1435 Local Protection Units (LPUs) etc., for LHC.
Regardless, India is millions of miles behind the US, especially, when it comes to the application of technology. Pakistan, in spite of having brilliant scientists in western countries, lags behind even more.
@Giri: Ahem ahem, there is water on mars. but he doesnt need water, they way he is defying the laws of physics he may get away with writing "water" on paper and using it in his kit.
Engineer Agha is disappointed that he cannot run his aqua-car on Mars, because through his research he found out that there is no water on Mars. No problem. He is already thinking of manufacturing water and asking for funding to setup a plant on Mars.
The Mars Rover is running on a nuclear battery. This might give some of our Jarnails an idea. next stop: cars running on uranium...
I'm so glad NASA landed its rover successfully. This'll mean great things for humanity in the long term. Just woke up (and first thing i did was check on mobile browser about the landing).
Meanwhile, though, reason I woke up was caz there was loadshedding and the fan was turned off. :) What a contrast. Then our people say we have to compete with the west. They are landing rovers on Mars while we have to worry about not getting full sleep due to loadshedding.
Good going, thumbs up to our rules :|
wonderfull achievement by fellow humans.curious to see more details.wate car kit believers will turn it as american propaganda.
@Tony Singh: "This illustrates the technological gap between USA and us South Asians. " While the term "South Asians" is a nebulous one, know that at least two Indians made seminal contribution to this effort. One selected the landing site for the rover and the other is Deputy Chief Scientist of this glorious mission. India shall in its own time accomplish the feat.
@Maher: I second that! :p
But still they won't be able to match the WaterKit
Kudos to team NASA. However, one fact remains that apart from the world, NASA too is dominated by men because if there were women in NASA, Curiosity would have been landed on Venus.
NASA, please take our politicians on a Rover and dump it on MARS, we will be very grateful to you..
Congratulations to all the scientists and engineers of the Curiosity Project for their great achievement. All the world must be proud and tankful to them.
This illustrates the technological gap between USA and us South Asians. We have not miles but thousands of miles to go to catch up with them