Curiosity to land on Mars on August 6



The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), also known as the Curiosity rover will finally land on Mars on August 6. It was launched 8 months ago on November 26. I had even blogged about it then! The landing sequence is very interesting and complex. It takes only about 7 minutes from touching the Mars atmosphere and landing on the ground.



Curiosity Landing Sequence
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL


Here is a video, explaining exactly what happens in those 7 minutes of descent, called "7 minutes of terror"!




Update (August 6, 2012):
Curiosity has successfully landed inside the Gale crater on Mars. The 7 minute decent has gone smoothly: the heat shield worked perfectly, the parachutes deployed, the rockets fired and the skycrane lowered the rover on the ground.

It even started sending images within minutes:

One of the first images taken by Curiosity's Hazard-avoidance cameras.
You can see one of the wheels of the rover on the right.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech



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