MIRACLE OF ENGINEERING!
S PA C E CURIOSITY LANDED FLAWLESSLY ON THE RED PLANET
THE SUPER-SIZE ROVER
The one-ton, six-wheeled laboratory Curiosity sent by NASA scientists landed safely on the red planet, Mars on August 6th.
Curiosity is the biggest, best equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet.
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.
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'.
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 the Skycrane and its expensive cargo.
STUNNING IMAGES SENT BY CURIOSITY
06 Punnagai Ulagam, August 2012
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.
Punnagai Ulagam, August 2012 07