Curiosity’s landing on Mars – a marvel of 21st century engineering – was in and of itself probably the rover’s greatest accomplishment to date. After all, most missions to Mars fail, and Curiosity had to undergo a series of complex and novel procedures in order to make a safe landing on the Red Planet.
In other words, the risky $2.5 billion mission easily could have been a failure. And worse yet, NASA scientists would have to endure “seven minutes of terror” – the time that would elapse before they would know if the landing was a success or failure. We detailed the major challenges the landing had to overcome here, and it is also worth revisiting NASA’s video below.
Curiosity’s successful landing was a huge marketing win for NASA, and as you might recall, every movement it made was monumental and every photo it snapped was historic. But our attention has since waned. Not even the exploration of Mars can produce the kind of thrill-a-minute buzz that is required to capture our crowded attention spans.
But Curiosity has been busy, and the rover’s accomplishments are many. We recommend you check out this gallery of Curiosity images and videos.
Get the latest Curiosity updates from NASA here.
Image courtesy of NASA