Allah tahayul hasil khayalan orang Arab primitif itu tidak diriwayatkan
menciptakan planet Mars ini...
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NASA's Curiosity rover lands on Mars
Science rover finishes eight-month journey and will now seek evidence Red
Planet once hosted ingredients for life.
Last Modified: 06 Aug 2012 08:43
The Mars science rover Curiosity landed on the Martian surface shortly after
10:30pm Pacific US time on Sunday (0530 GMT) to begin a two-year mission
seeking evidence the Red Planet once hosted ingredients for life, NASA has said.
Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles said they
had received signals relayed by a Martian orbiter confirming that the rover had
survived a make-or-break descent and landing attempt to touch down as planned
inside a vast impact crater.
NASA has described the feat as perhaps the most complex ever in robotic
spaceflight.
The $2.5bn Curiosity project, formally called the Mars Science Laboratory, is
NASA's first astrobiology mission since the 1970s-era Viking probes.
The landing, a major victory for a US space agency beleaguered by budget cuts
and the recent loss of its space shuttle programme, was greeted with raucous
applause and tears of joy by jubilant engineers and scientists at mission
control.
'Daring' operation
In what the head of NASA's Mars programme called a "daring" operation, the
space agency landed its largest-ever rover, weighing 900kg, by carefully
lowering it to the surface on cables from what amounts to a giant jet pack in a
so-called sky crane manoeuvre.
NASA's Curiosity Rover
NASA had promoted the dramatic landing in a video game and had invited space
fans across the US to gather to watch the arrival live, including on the giant
screens in New York's Times Square.
The landing will be followed by orbiting satellites already deployed around
Mars.
The mission is also being streamed live on NASA's website.
Zooming toward the surface at 17 times the speed of sound, after its nearly
nine-month journey, the craft carrying Curiosity decelerated using thrusters
and a parachute.
Along the way it jettisoned its cruising rockets, heat shield and outer shell -
going through six different vehicle configurations - before gently lowering the
rover to the Martian surface like a spider on a thread.
The new routine involved Curiosity steering itself for the final phase of
landing.
Due to the signal time lag between Mars and Earth (it takes about 14 minutes
for a signal on Mars to reach Earth), Curiosity executed the landing
autonomously.
One Martian year
The mission will spend at least one Martian year, nearly two Earth years,
studying Mars' Gale crater, in a bid to transition from the search for water to
a wider search for the presence of other ingredients necessary for life, such
as carbon.
It will also study minerals on the surface to get an idea what conditions were
like on the planet millions of years ago.
The Gale crater is nearly 154km in diameter and features a mountain that rises
some 5km above the surface.
The massive feature includes layers of rock strata that will provide a virtual
history of Mars' geological past.
Curiosity will make use of a range of new instruments. Armed with two cameras
atop a mast, Curiosity can take three-dimensional and panoramic images, and
shoot a laser into rocks to determine their component chemical elements.
A 2m long robotic arm can be extended out from the rover to examine its
surroundings more closely, and a drill will allow it to take samples from
inside rocks.
The area has already been studied extensively from orbiting spacecraft, and
scientists hope that Curiosity will provide clues to a probable wet Martian
past.
The area contains clay and sulfate-rich areas, where organic compounds
necessary to life could be found.
Like its predecessors, Curiosity is equipped with a series of instruments to
analyse the composition of the samples. It builds on the work of past rovers,
including Opportunity, one of a pair of water-hunting twin rovers that
continued functioning years beyond their orginal missions.
NASA eventually hopes to send a manned mission to Mars, and robotic missions to
Earth's nearest planetary neighbour have continued. Mars is the chief component
of NASA's long-term deep space exploration plans.
Source:
Agencies
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