NASA's Space Rover Curiosity Finally Lands on Mars

Today marks another important milestone in human history as NASA's Curiosity rover lands on the planet Mars.

Curiosity, formally called the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), is a space probe that is designated to determine the habitability of the red planet and to gather data for possible future human missions. It landed on the Gale Crater on August 6, 2012 at 05:14:39 GMT.

MSL Curiosity Rover

Landing rovers on Mars isn't totally new to humanity. Back in 2004 two Mars rovers, the Spirit and the Opportunity, landed successfully on Martian soil. Their task: Explore Mars' surface and geology. 1997 meanwhile marked the successful landing of the Mars Pathfinder probe, including its very own rover the Sojourner.

NASA livestreamed Curiosity's Mars landing via their website, which later suffered outages due to undisclosed circumstances. YouTube streams meanwhile have been blocked due to several private outfits claiming copyright, a curious situation given the fact that: A) NASA is a public government organization intent on sharing their success with everyone and; B) these private news organizations didn't spend a single dime in producing the end product, therefore they don't own it and can't claim copyright on it.

First MSL Curiosity Photos


Here's Curiosity's first photos on Mars. The photos show the rover's shadow and its wheel on Martian dirt. Higher resolution images are expected to come as soon as Curiosity and its technicians gather its bearings.

A big congratulations to NASA and all the people involved for this very successful mission. This is not one country's triumph, but humanity's. Godspeed to humans and their genius.

'Till my next installment.