‘Enormous step forward’ as NASA lands rover on Mars
US: NASA successfully landed its $2.5 billion Mars Science
Laboratory and Curiosity rover on the surface of the Red Planet on early
Monday morning , 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
the mission team cheered, exchanged hugs and chief scientists handed out
Mars chocolate bars. President Barack Obama described the feat as a
singular source of American pride.
“The successful landing of Curiosity -- the most sophisticated roving
laboratory ever to land on another planet -- marks an unprecedented feat
of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the
future,” he said in a statement.
“It proves that even the longest of odds are no match for our unique
blend of ingenuity and determination.” Charles Bolden, the NASA
administrator, echoed that sentiment and applauded all the nations who
contributed to science experiments on board the rover.
“It is a huge day for the nation, it is a huge day for all of our
partners who have something on Curiosity and it is a huge day for the
American people,” Bolden said.
Obama’s science advisor John Holdren described the landing as “an
enormous step forward in planetary exploration. Nobody has ever done
anything like this. We are actually the only country that has landed
surface landers on any other planet,” he told NASA television.
“But this lander is vastly bigger, vastly more capable and much more
complicated to bring in,” he added. “It was an incredible performance.”
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 neared 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.
AFP |