Curiosity rover: Nasa jubilant as Mars touchdown confirmed

£1.6bn robot the size of a small car has landed safely on Mars after daring interplanetary operation

A £1.6bn one-tonne robot rover the size of a small car has landed safely on Mars after one of the most daring and difficult interplanetary missions attempted.



There were scenes of jubilation at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California when the message came through to mission control: "Touchdown confirmed."

Curiosity can now start its 98-week mission, the length of one Martian year, exploring a crater that billions of years ago may have been filled with water.

The nuclear-powered rover is bristling with sophisticated technology designed to discover if Mars may have supported life.

Roughly the size of a Mini Cooper, Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity which landed on Mars in 2004.

The robot was too heavy to have its landing cushioned by bouncing air bags – the method used for the previous rovers.

Instead scientists came up with the dramatic "sky crane" solution.

After entering the Martian atmosphere at 13,200mph, the capsule containing the rover was first slowed by friction and then a supersonic parachute.

Closer to the ground, the descent stage carrying Curiosity was released, firing retro rockets positioned around its rim. Above the landing site in Gale Crater, near the Martian equator, the rover was dropped to the surface on huge tethers.

The purpose of this was to prevent damage from sand and debris kicked up by the retro rockets.

Finally, the descent stage broke away to crash at a safe distance.

Curiosity's target was Gale Crater, near the Martian equator, where there is geological evidence of water in the past.

The rover landed close to Mount Sharp, a 3.4-mile high peak in the centre of the crater with clay deposits around its base.

Proof that Curiosity was on Mars came in the form of thumbnail images showing the planet's rock-strewn surface and one of the rover's wheels.

The images were relayed to Earth by the orbiting Nasa spacecraft Mars Odyssey.




The landing marks the start of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission during which Curiosity will act as a mobile geologist, gathering and analysing samples from the Martian surface.

The rover has a robot arm fitted with a multi-tool "hand" for scooping up soil and drilling into rock.

It also carries its own laser gun which can be used to "zap" rocks more than 20ft (6m) away. The laser will vaporise tiny amounts of material in a flash of light that can be analysed to reveal chemical data.

As well as a stereo camera fitted to a mast for panoramic shots, Curiosity has a magnifying imager that can reveal details smaller than the width of a human hair.

Samples will be analysed using an on-board laboratory.

Speaking after the landing, Bridges said: "The science community has been given a very valuable chance to move forward our understanding of how Mars has evolved. How long did wet conditions last and were there standing bodies of water on Mars?

"I hope the effective combination in MSL of science objectives and space engineering will point the way towards more exploration of the solar system and technological innovations."


