Touchdown: Curiosity’s Risky Mars Landing Successful, First Pics From the Red Planet

UPDATE: August 6, 2012 – 12:53 CST

Curiosity landing confirmed at 12:38 CST.

First images sent back from Curiosity

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What sets Curiosity apart from other Mars Rovers?

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NASA’s Curiosity rover is set to arrive  on Mars at 1:31 a.m., EDT on Monday, Aug. 6.

Its approximately 352 million mile (567 million kilometer), 36-week journey from Earth nearly complete, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft and its Curiosity rover are “all systems go” for touchdown in Mars’ Gale Crater tonight at 10:31 p.m. PDT (1:31 a.m. EDT Aug. 6). This morning, flight controllers decided to forgo the sixth and final opportunity on the mission calendar for a course-correction maneuver. The spacecraft is headed for its target entry point at the top of Mars’ atmosphere precisely enough that the maneuver was deemed unnecessary. In addition, this afternoon, mission controllers determined that no further updates are necessary to the onboard information the spacecraft will use during its autonomous control of MSL’s entry, descent and landing. Parameters on a motion tracker were adjusted Saturday for fine-tuning determination of the spacecraft’s orientation during its descent. As of 6:18 p.m. PDT (9:18 p.m. EDT), MSL was approximately 36,000 miles (57,936 kilometers) from Mars, traveling at a speed of about 8,400 mph (about 3,755 meters per second).

Source: NASA

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