The United States' space agency NASA just landed another robotic science laboratory on the planet Mars! The robotic vehicle - or rover - is nicknamed Curiosity. Curiosity is about the size of an SUV and travelled over 350,000,000 miles after it was launched on board a rocket that blasted into space from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Check out a picture of the Curiosity rover to the left.
If you thought that travelling 350,000,000 miles was bad, imagine having to slow down from 22,500 miles per hour to zero in just under 7 minutes. That's what the curiosity rover had to do in order to land safely on Mars. The video below is an animation showing how hundreds of engineers and scientists planned for Curiosity to land safely after its long journey. Do you want to know the most amazing part? Their plan worked!
If you thought that travelling 350,000,000 miles was bad, imagine having to slow down from 22,500 miles per hour to zero in just under 7 minutes. That's what the curiosity rover had to do in order to land safely on Mars. The video below is an animation showing how hundreds of engineers and scientists planned for Curiosity to land safely after its long journey. Do you want to know the most amazing part? Their plan worked!
NASA needed thousands of engineers to work on the Mars Curiosity rover and the space agency spent over $2.5 billion getting the rover to Mars. Do you want to see what mission control looked like when all of those engineers found out that their robot had landed safely and the $2.5 billion machine hadn't crashed? Check out the video below! Can you imagine yourself in that room 15 years from now celebrating YOUR rover landing on another planet?
By the way, in case you thought that all engineers were boring, then check out the Flight Director for the Mars Curiosity mission. Bobak Ferdowsi rocks a MOHAWK!
Wait, was that animation before not cool enough for you? Here is actual video - yes, actual video from MARS - showing the landing of Mars Curiosity Rover!
And, here is one person's take on the 5 Coolest Things about the Curiosity Rover. (Hint, one of them is that Curiosity is NUCLEAR!)