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| First image by Curiosity from Mars |
Mars exploration and understanding Curiosity's "Seven Minutes of Terror".
The Curiosity rover landed succesfully on Planet Mars at 10:32 p.m. PDT Sunday August 5 (1:32 a.m. EDT; 0532 GMT Monday August 6). And beam back first picture of the surface of Mars with the rover's shadow.
The NASA's mission to send a robotic rover named Curiosity to planet Mars was a success with the help from thousands of scientist from around the world. Another big step forward in space exploration for mankind.
Imagine the science and technology know how needed to send and land a rover on a planet which is about 225 million km away from Earth and with harsh climate. How about controlling the craft from Earth? A radio signal send from Earth takes about 14 minutes to travel the distance to Mars.
The most challenging part of the mission was the landing. Descending to Mars's surface from speed of 13,000mph to 0mph within 7 minutes from the moment the space craft first touch Mars atmosphere. The craft have to land itself as programmed to do. The crew is unable make adjustment for any unforeseen circumstances. Since it takes 14 minutes for signal to reach Earth, by the time the crew get the news that the craft touched Mars atmosphere, it may already have landed or crashed. Nasa called this "7 Minutes of Terror". Watch this video to appreciate it.
