mars rover

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Mars Mission: Rover Lands On Red Planet The Curiosity rover lands successfully on Mars in a mission to discover if the Red Planet could have once supported life. 7:22am UK, Monday 06 August 2012 Nasa's Mars robot buggy uses Chemcam laserPlay Live Live Stream: Nasa Curiosity Touchdown Email Nasa's Curiosity rover has landed successfully on Mars and the most expensive and ambitious mission to reach the Red Planet is under way. The $2.5bn rover made a dramatic touchdown to cheers among staff at mission control some 154 million miles away. Nasa said it had received a signal from the most hi-tech Mars rover ever built after a plunge through the Martian atmosphere described as "seven minutes of terror". The Mars Curiosity shadow is seen in the Gale crater. The rover's shadow in the Gale crater on Mars (Photo: Nasa) Cables were used to lower the rover - the size of a Mini - into a giant crater. "Touchdown confirmed," said engineer Allen Chen. "We're safe on Mars." Minutes after touchdown, Curiosity beamed back the first pictures from the surface showing its wheel and its shadow, cast by the afternoon sun. For the next two years it will drill into rocks and scoop up soil, exploring whether the planet's environment could have supported life in the form of microscopic organisms. President Barack Obama called the landing "an unprecedented feat of technology". It is Nasa's seventh landing on Earth's neighbour - many other attempts by the US and other countries to zip past, circle or set down on Mars have failed.