The Mars science rover Curiosity landed on the Martian surface shortly after 10:30pm Pacific US time on Sunday (0530 GMT) to begin a two-year mission seeking evidence the Red Planet once hosted ingredients for life, NASA has said.

Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles said they had received signals relayed by a Martian orbiter confirming that the rover had survived a make-or-break descent and landing attempt to touch down as planned inside a vast impact crater.

NASA has described the feat as perhaps the most complex ever in robotic spaceflight. Early images on Monday showed the Mars rover dangling from parachute, descending on its target.

The $2.5bn Curiosity project, formally called the Mars Science Laboratory, is NASA's first astrobiology mission since the 1970s-era Viking probes.


'Daring' operation

In what the head of NASA's Mars programme called a "daring" operation, the space agency landed its largest-ever rover, weighing 900kg, by carefully lowering it to the surface on cables from what amounts to a giant jet pack in a so-called sky crane manoeuvre.

NASA's Curiosity Rover

NASA had promoted the dramatic landing in a video game and had invited space fans across the US to gather to watch the arrival live, including on the giant screens in New York's Times Square.


The mission is also being streamed live on NASA's website.

Zooming toward the surface at 17 times the speed of sound, after its nearly nine-month journey, the craft carrying Curiosity decelerated using thrusters and a parachute.


The new routine involved Curiosity steering itself for the final phase of landing. 

Due to the signal time lag between Mars and Earth (it takes about 14 minutes for a signal on Mars to reach Earth), Curiosity executed the landing autonomously.

One Martian year

The mission will spend at least one Martian year, nearly two Earth years, studying Mars' Gale crater, in a bid to transition from the search for water to a wider search for the presence of other ingredients necessary for life, such as carbon.



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Source: Agencies