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Curiosity for ten years on Mars

Curiosity for ten years on Mars

Six years of development, about two billion euros, eight months of space flight, and then Curiosity landed on Mars ten years ago. The crowd favorite is still trading.

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The basics in brief

  • “Curiosity” is pretty humble on Twitter: The team describes the robot there as a “NASA friendly living roamer of Mars” – more than 4.3 million fans on the social platform alone have given the idea that “Curiosity” goes much further.

The craft that landed ten years ago on Saturday (August 6) delighted researchers and fans around the world with its scientific explorations on the Red Planet, photo. NASA Polished – and laid the foundation for the further development of Mars exploration.

These were Curiosity’s original goals.

Origin from NASA Curiosity (Curiosity) has long achieved its stated mission goals: Rolling through Gale Crater on Mars for two years? he did. Evidence that life was possible on the red planet? he did. The duration of the assignment has officially been extended by three years, but it is already unofficially listed as the “longest possible period”. There are always minor issues, especially with the wheels, but the rover is “strongly built” — and given what it’s already gone through — in good shape, according to his team.

That Curiosity’s arrival to Mars – after six years of development, cost nearly two billion dollars euro, an eight-month journey through space and a complex landing maneuver — everything that went smoothly ten years ago to cheers, applause and tears of joy at the control center in Pasadena, California. “It feels like we’re in the Olympics,” Charles Al-Ashi, director of the control center, said at the time. “And this team just won the gold medal.” The then President of the United States Barack Obama He praised the landing, calling it an “unprecedented technical achievement.” Today the United States made history on Mars.

The first pictures come to Earth

Shortly thereafter, the six-wheeled rover, which weighs about 900 kilograms and is about the size of a small car, sent out the first coarse-grained images. a landWhich sparked more storms of enthusiasm. Later, the nuclear-powered vehicle began to roll, sending more high-resolution images and publishing its scientific instruments. For example, “Curiosity” can take soil samples and analyze them on the spot in its own laboratory. The rover also has several cameras, a laser, a weather station, a radiometer and a hydrogen detector on board.

Curiosity now has nearly a million images available a land Skillfully – science helped to many discoveries. Already at the beginning of the task, NASA We promised “discoveries beyond imagination”.

The successor to Perseverance is Curiosity 2.0.

The Rover – thanks to its sophisticated and award-winning social media strategy – is still popular with the public, but technically it is already outdated. In November, the stationary lander “Insight” reached Mars, and last year the “Perseverance” (Survival Force) rover, a kind of “Curiosity 2.0”, arrived. “Perseverance” records audio and video clips, even has a small helicopter and is supposed to take a sample from Mars to a land send.

The two rovers aren’t rivals, but they complement each other, he stresses NASA – And recently issued «Curiosity» via Twitter Write to Perseverance: “Thank you for joining me to find new ways to understand our universe. Exploring uncharted territory is a little easier when you know that a friend shares the same world with you.”

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