News: Curiosity has landed on Mars!!

[JohnWillimas]

Whatever it was, Curiosity Killed it....

In one!

[SkippyBing]

They almost give the impression this has not been done before???

Well they haven't done the 'mad as a box of frogs' hovering rocket ship winching down the explorer robot before flying itself clear of the drop zone before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqqBy7C8gyU

Apparently Curiosity is too big for the previous method of using air-bags to cushion the impact.

[Garry Russell]

True...but they've got there before...

[VEGAS]

Indeed it has been done before. I remember seeing the Mars desert landscapes at school.

I think the excitement comes from the potential for further investigation into the planet itself and also I would assume much clearer pictures than those from the 1970's. We are in a HD world now.

Fingers crossed it shows us something half decent.

[NigelC]

First Image Received

[Garry Russell]

[airboatr]

First Image Received

Ahhh, what's up Doc.

[Paul K]

Well done to all involved. That picture of it descending by parachute, taken from an orbiting satellite, has to be one of the most amazing space flight photos ever.

[Chris Trott]

I think the most amazing shot so far isn't from Curiosity, but from the long-lived Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (in orbit since 2006), which (as part of the whole landing party that NASA put together) captured MSL under parachute.



I think this is actually the first known and published image of a spacecraft under parachute taken from a satellite on *ANY* planet. I know we get used to having spacecraft reentering here on Earth having full satellite data relay and a lot of imaging support, but consider that NASA was able to get Mars Odyssey, in orbit since 2001 well before MSL was even concieved, to relay high-bandwidth data (much as the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites do here on Earth) and MRO to provide photographic support of the landing (although I don't think anyone thought they'd get something like the above).

[nigelb]

I cant wait to see the colour pictures in a few days time. I had my doubts the landing but would work but it worked so congrats to NASA.

Nigel²