SEVEN MINUTES OF TERROR
Curiosity successfully carried out a highly
challenging landing on Mars on August
6th.
The complexity was described as 'seven
minutes of terror'. Curiosity's landed on
the Red Planet, having travelled more
than half a billion kilometers since its
launch last November.
The touchdown required a sudden
reduction in speed from 21,000 km per
hour to just 3 km per hour in just seven
minutes. Closer to the ground, the vessel
was slowed further by a giant supersonic
parachute before a jet backpack and
flying "sky crane" took over to deliver
Curiosity the last mile to the surface.
The first photo of the
Curiosity lander making its
final journey through the
Martian atmosphere has
emerged, a rare image of the
huge parachute used to slow
t h e S k y c r a n e a n d i t s
expensive cargo.
The picture was captured by
the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter (MRO). It clearly
shows the dangling cradle
beneath the 16m wide
supersonic parachute that
slowed down the speed
drastically.
STUNNING
IMAGES SENT
BY CURIOSITY
MIRACLE OF ENGINEERING!
Punnagai Ulagam, August 2012 07
The one-ton, six-wheeled laboratory
Curiosity sent by NASA scientists landed
safely on the red planet, Mars on August
6th.
After travelling 556 million km through
space, the $2.5 billion nuclear-powered
NASA rover carried out a highly
challenging landing on Mars. It has also
started transmitting images back to
Earth. "This is a stunning achievement.
The engineering went flawlessly," said
Scott Hubbard, the Project Director.
CURIOSITY LANDED FLAWLESSLY
ON THE RED PLANET
THE SUPER-SIZE ROVER
Curiosity is the biggest, best equipped
robot ever sent to explore another
planet.
It has 10 science instruments with a mass
15 times greater than the earlier Mars
rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
The super-size rover of the size of a car
was lifted off toward Mars on November
26 2011.
It was assigned with an 8-1/2-month
journey to pass through 556 million km
to reach the 'Red Planet'.
S P A C E
06 2012Punnagai Ulagam, August
