Mars rover Curiosity lands on surface of Red Planet

PASADENA, California (Reuters) - The Mars science rover Curiosity landed on the Martian surface shortly after 10:30 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday (1:30 a.m. EDT Monday/0530 GMT) to begin a two-year mission seeking evidence the Red Planet once hosted ingredients for life, NASA said.

Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles said they 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.

Full story: http://www.reuters.c...E8721A920120806

-- REUTERS 2012-08-06

A nail biting time was had by all - but the laughter, hugs, and tears of joy as it was announced that Curiosity was on the ground and safe were wonderful to see, and on line, in a way to be a part of it as it happened.

Congratulations to the entire NASA team, all at the JPL, and all who had a hand in this wonderful project - its just the start - now the work profile changes, and the hard exploration begins.

Congratulations Curiosity!

I tell you,,,,,,, watching and listening to the blue shirt NASA crew put my heart in my throat.

The gazillion things that could have gone wrong, didn't ..... and it is down.....

The brains that put this together, not only American, but partners the world over, made it happen...... and this is the same organization {NASA] that this government in Thailand, decided that their help was not needed in the climate study.

IMO the missing link has been found.

I tell you,,,,,,, watching and listening to the blue shirt NASA crew put my heart in my throat.

The gazillion things that could have gone wrong, didn't ..... and it is down.....

The brains that put this together, not only American, but partners the world over, made it happen...... and this is the same organization {NASA] that this government in Thailand, decided that their help was not needed in the climate study.

IMO the missing link has been found.

Gonzo you should know , landing on Mars is complicated, but politics in TH is just plain f_ed up. NASA found it easier to land on a planet millions of mile away apparently. Took the easier route.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, the police are still using two-way radios with 5 foot antennas and people are tossed into the back of pick-up trucks labelled "ambulance" ...

Meanwhile, in Thailand, the police are still using two-way radios with 5 foot antennas and people are tossed into the back of pick-up trucks labelled "ambulance" ...

A wonderful acheivement by the NASA scientists.

I am surprised that it took all of 4 posts at Thai Visa for someone to use the event as an excuse to start slagging on Thailand.

Congratulations Curiosity~! Now time for a shameless pic I drew:

It was the peanuts that did it, nothin' else. It was the peanuts (yes, I was watching the whole thing live for two hours and a half before touchdown). Congratulations NASA... damned proud to be American (we got there first, nyah nyah)... now if only we can put a fraction of what we spend on WAR and WEAPONS maybe we can put a couple people on Mars and start the first Mars colony...

Meanwhile, in Thailand, the police are still using two-way radios with 5 foot antennas and people are tossed into the back of pick-up trucks labelled "ambulance" ...

A wonderful acheivement by the NASA scientists.

I am surprised that it took all of 4 posts at Thai Visa for someone to use the event as an excuse to start slagging on Thailand.

It only took 3, get your facts right.

Question: the data collected from the flight and all -- this stuff isn't distributed freely, right? This stuff is sold?

Seriously? I have been watching the NASA live TV today - absolutely enthralled by this event - and I'm somewhat appalled by the flippant off-topic comments which have already appeared by the cynical attention-seeking morons....

Give it a rest.

Kudos to the mod who removes their idiotic remarks....

Congratulations to the boffins who made this happen. Well done....

Off-topic posts removed.

Lets hope its nuclear cell batteries don't end up contaminating another planet.

I watched the last 15 minutes or so of that on the JPL website via ABC news live broadcast here in Bangkok.

I'm old enough to have heard the beeps of the first Russian Sputnik on the radio news, I saw John Glenn's splashdown on network television in the U.S., I heard the Apollo 11 moon landing live on a sattelite relay (I was working for the U.S. military communications then and had direct access to the actual feed to Houston while it was being broadcast via U.S. military to all military forces personnel)....and now I watched a remote computer controlled lander touchdown on Mars by live relay from an orbiting sattelite relay circling Mars on an internet connection to California while siiting at my house here in Bangkok.

Might be nice to be around in another 20 years or so to see the first manned landing on mars...but at 66 years old now...I don't expect that.

Anyhow, I personally think those first men landing on Mars might very well be Chinese.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, the police are still using two-way radios with 5 foot antennas and people are tossed into the back of pick-up trucks labelled "ambulance" ...

A wonderful acheivement by the NASA scientists.

I am surprised that it took all of 4 posts at Thai Visa for someone to use the event as an excuse to start slagging on Thailand.

Yep, the rover certainly wouldn't be called Curiosity if it were Thai, but I would expect to see mudflaps with Chuck Norris on them.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, the police are still using two-way radios with 5 foot antennas and people are tossed into the back of pick-up trucks labelled "ambulance" ...

A wonderful acheivement by the NASA scientists.

I am surprised that it took all of 4 posts at Thai Visa for someone to use the event as an excuse to start slagging on Thailand.

Yep, the rover certainly wouldn't be called Curiosity if it were Thai, but I would expect to see mudflaps with Chuck Norris on them.

go home.richard

Seriously? I have been watching the NASA live TV today - absolutely enthralled by this event - and I'm somewhat appalled by the flippant off-topic comments which have already appeared by the cynical attention-seeking morons....

Give it a rest.

Kudos to the mod who removes their idiotic remarks....

Congratulations to the boffins who made this happen. Well done....

Go easy mate, were just having a laugh. Will try to catch some of the footage tonight on the news. It is pretty amazing stuff.

Anyhow, I personally think those first men landing on Mars might very well be Chinese.

One of the great things about space exploration is that it belongs to all mankind. Sure, in present day governments and taxpayers fund it, and nationalities have bragging rights, but in the loooong term big picture it benefits everyone on the planet. Unless of course we wake up some superior alien race who decided it's time to squash us before we progress too fast. In that case, I blame the Soviets and their Sputnik. They started it.

NASA MISSION PAGES

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/main/index.html

Congradulations to NASA: - Good to see the right hand was talking to the left this time and they didn't get metric/imperial conversions mixed up this time!

Yahoo! They just might get their act together enough so that in 20 years time.....I'll only be a young 87, they'll have men walking around without spacesuits! They could do it now (in the daytime!)

Hats off to NASA...job well done lads...well done indeed.

Lets hope you fellers keep it from getting stuck in a sink hole.

Hats off to NASA...job well done lads...well done indeed.

Lets hope you fellers keep it from getting stuck in a sink hole.

WHAT !!!! the Mars Rover is going to be in Bangkok ??????

I watched the last 15 minutes or so of that on the JPL website via ABC news live broadcast here in Bangkok.

I'm old enough to have heard the beeps of the first Russian Sputnik on the radio news, I saw John Glenn's splashdown on network television in the U.S., I heard the Apollo 11 moon landing live on a sattelite relay (I was working for the U.S. military communications then and had direct access to the actual feed to Houston while it was being broadcast via U.S. military to all military forces personnel)....and now I watched a remote computer controlled lander touchdown on Mars by live relay from an orbiting sattelite relay circling Mars on an internet connection to California while siiting at my house here in Bangkok.

Might be nice to be around in another 20 years or so to see the first manned landing on mars...but at 66 years old now...I don't expect that.

Anyhow, I personally think those first men landing on Mars might very well be Chinese.

I too am of that generation and was infatuated with the space program as a youth. Imagine my surprise when later in life I found that we have had bases on the moon since 1958 and on Mars since 1962.

Question: the data collected from the flight and all -- this stuff isn't distributed freely, right? This stuff is sold?

NASA created technology is in use daily all over the world and not charge. Look at the tips of the wings on all modern commercials aircraft as example.

Anyhow, I personally think those first men landing on Mars might very well be Chinese.

One of the great things about space exploration is that it belongs to all mankind. Sure, in present day governments and taxpayers fund it, and nationalities have bragging rights, but in the loooong term big picture it benefits everyone on the planet. Unless of course we wake up some superior alien race who decided it's time to squash us before we progress too fast. In that case, I blame the Soviets and their Sputnik. They started it.

And will use technology of others to do it...some stolen. NASA is not what it was in the 60's for sure and has gotten very little budget wise and brain power wise in later years. I have worked at the Cape on several projects over the years and it is becoming a ghost town.

Ridiculous waste of money that could have been used for assisiting humans on this planet. I saw the waste when I was a kid in the 1950s & 1960s. Space Race with the Russians - Sputnik - Apollo "BS"-- men on the moon! (Maybe!), Machines to Mars? Useless!

Then war after war -- Vietnam, Middle East Wars, Bosnia, Iraq, You name it!

And this space idiocy is still being funded and people actually care about this useless BS? Cant even get this small planet to work and function properly.

Unbelievable!

Ridiculous waste of money that could have been used for assisiting humans on this planet. I saw the waste when I was a kid in the 1950s & 1960s. Space Race with the Russians - Sputnik - Apollo "BS"-- men on the moon! (Maybe!), Machines to Mars? Useless!

Then war after war -- Vietnam, Middle East Wars, Bosnia, Iraq, You name it!

And this space idiocy is still being funded and people actually care about this useless BS? Cant even get this small planet to work and function properly.

Unbelievable!

Wow, you are one jaded individual. Truth be told the Russians have some scientific devices aboard this spacecraft which is a milestone for all of us here on the blue ball. The scientists are perhaps the only ones who prove that all nationalities really can work together. Screw the politicians!

Jaded perhaps. Realistic may be a better adjective,

Take a look at our planet and judge for yourself. Perhaps stopping useless expenditures for space, weapons, and wars and using these assests to help those humans who live on this planet may be the way to go. I am sure I am wrong. But I think all those with the bravado of knowing "everything" that have come before us have only demonstrated that no culture, person, or governace has ever gotten it right.

And I don't either.

Jaded perhaps. Realistic may be a better adjective,

Take a look at our planet and judge for yourself. Perhaps stopping useless expenditures for space, weapons, and wars and using these assests to help those humans who live on this planet may be the way to go. I am sure I am wrong. But I think all those with the bravado of knowing "everything" that have come before us have only demonstrated that no culture, person, or governace has ever gotten it right.

And I don't either.

What do you suggest? You are just like every other politician who knows it all but does not have a clue on how to resolve the problem.

In case anyone was wondering how the name Curiosity was chosen. It was by contest and Clara Ma won with her essay. Facebook

Her essay soundbite here - Curiosity Sound Bite (mp3)