[muckshifter]

Curiosity has landed on Mars!

Nasa lands Curiosity, a metric-tonne rover, on Mars, the first time the US space agency has attempted to land a probe of that size on Mars. Touchdown took place just after 6.30am Monday morning.

The descent through the atmosphere after a 570-million-km journey from Earth had been billed as the "seven minutes of terror" - the time it would take to complete a series of high-risk, automated manoeuvres that would slow the rover from an entry speed of 20,000km/h to allow its wheels to set down softly.

The Curiosity team had to wait 13 tense minutes for the signals from Odyssey and the lander to make their way back to Earth.

After the landing, the flight director reported that Curiosity had hit the surface of Mars at a gentle 0.6 metres per second.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19144464

[Becky]

Amazing stuff. Can't wait to see some of the high-res shots!

[Ian]

Pretty cool that it can operate for around 14 years - and no doubt those clever people at NASA will figure out a way to get a little more out of it!

I still can't get my head around how we can blast something this size off to a far away planet and then get it to land more or less where we wanted it. Incredible...

[nivrip]

Absolutely fantastic that they can design, build and then send this all the way to Mars and engineer a soft landing.

However, they still can't design a milk carton that I can open without using a carving knife.

[crazylegs]

Originally Posted by nivrip

Absolutely fantastic that they can design, build and then send this all the way to Mars and engineer a soft landing.

However, they still can't design a milk carton that I can open without using a carving knife.

Ha ha too true

[crazylegs]

[feckit]

so it's been around the milky way & the galaxy and had a twirl, what next a twix?

[bootneck02]

It is a great science achievement BUT wouldn't it be better if the billions spent on this project could have been spent to solve some of this worlds problems as man in our lifetime or if ever is unlikely to ever step on Mars.

[floppybootstomp]

I love that stuff. My view is forget the politics, marvel at the technology.

Man must always push further at boundaries. It is his way.

As we are human, on this planet there will always be dischord, inequality, poverty, wars and injustice. That is also our way.

You could throw the entire resources of this planet to address all the wrong, harmony may last a week or so but soon, oh so very soon, nastiness would start occurring again.

Sad but true. I don't have an answer, except, perhaps, for us to mature at least another 2000 years or so and maybe, one day, we'll wake up.

In the meantime - yay! Mars!

[muckshifter]

An image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance orbiter captured the Curiosity rover still connected to its 51-foot-wide (almost 16 meter) parachute as it descended towards its landing site at Gale Crater.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ms...pia15978b.html

http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/...ws&NewsID=1290

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/main/index.html