mars

PASADENA, Calif.--The nuclear-powered Curiosity Mars rover survived its nail-biting plunge to a pinpoint landing on the floor of Gale Crater in remarkably good shape, engineers said Monday, setting down on a flat, wind-swept plain littered with uniform gravel-like rocks and firm soil.

In a low-resolution view from a hazard avoidance camera on Curiosity's back fender, the rim of Gale Crater can be seen some 12 miles away to the northwest, while a fish-eye view from a front hazcam shows Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high mound of layered rocks to the southeast that the rover will attempt to climb later … Read more

In our twisted pop geek culture, it's not cutting-edge technology until it's been replicated with the most simplistic of child's toys. With that in mind, congrats are due to NASA's Curiosity rover, which has finally been reduced to a scale model made of Legos. Oh yea, the full-size rover also landed on Mars yesterday. … Read more

After its triumphant touchdown on Mars last night, it would be tempting to think that NASA's Curiosity rover is a complete success.

But while the part of the mission involving sending the one-ton rover on its 352 million journey to Mars ended in worldwide celebration, the real work hasn't even gotten started.

Over the coming weeks and months, NASA scientists have to ensure that everything on Curiosity is in working order, and only then will the rover take its first "baby steps," let alone begin to explore the many square kilometers of Martian terrain it was … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Sol Republic introduces headphones for cats.

- Digipacking: what to put on your emergency flash drive.

- Literally the worst word on the planet.

- How to use psychological tactics to avoid strangers on the bus.

- eBay testing same-day delivery service for iOS called eBay now.

- One percenter turns home theater into Nolan's Batcave.… Read more

If you have even the slightest interest in space exploration, you know the Mars Curiosity rover has successfully touched down on the Red Planet.

Watching online videos doesn't do the mighty space explorer justice. To put it in perspective, Ford put together an infographic comparing the Rover with a 2013 F-150 SVT Raptor.

Let's just say the truck wouldn't stand a chance in the harsh conditions of Mars, but the Ford does have certain advantages. At $43,970, the Raptor is kind of expensive, but the Rover Curiosity mission has racked up a $2.5 billion bill. That's equivalent to 56,857 of the fancy trucks.… Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--In an unparalleled technological triumph, a one-ton nuclear-powered rover the size of a small car was lowered to the surface of Mars on the end of a 25-foot-long bridle suspended from the belly of a rocket-powered flying crane late Sunday to kick off an unprecedented $2.5 billion mission.

With flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory anxiously watching telemetry flowing in from Mars, 154 million miles away and 13.8 minutes after the fact, the Mars Science Laboratory rover -- Curiosity -- radioed confirmation of touchdown at 10:32 p.m. PDT (GMT-7; 1:32 a.… Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--Dutifully executing its complex flight control software, the Mars Science Laboratory silently raced toward its target Sunday, picking up speed as it closed in for a 13,200-mph plunge into the Red Planet's atmosphere and an action-packed seven-minute descent that will require a rocket-powered "sky crane" to lower a one-ton nuclear-powered rover to the surface.

The target is Gale Crater and the goal is a pinpoint landing near the base of a three-mile-high mound of layered rock that represents hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of years of martian history, a frozen record of … Read more

The arrival of the Curiosity rover on Mars may well be the biggest, boldest extraterrestrial landing for NASA since Apollo 11 settled down on the moon on a summer's night in 1969.

Curiosity is scheduled to land in the Red Planet's Gale Crater late Sunday or very, very early Monday, depending on your Earthbound time zone. Confirmation of the landing should come at about 10:31 p.m. PT Sunday for folks on the U.S. West Coast, or 1:31 a.m. ET Monday for those on the East Coast. The rover will have actually touched down … Read more

PASADENA, Calif. -- The Mars Science Laboratory rover, still attached to its drum-shaped interplanetary cruise stage, closed in on the Red Planet on Saturday, steadily accelerating under the increasing tug of the planet's gravity as it streaked toward a precisely targeted plunge into the martian atmosphere overnight Sunday for a high-stakes descent to the surface.

"The spacecraft and ground systems are all healthy and performing as expected," said MSL mission manager Arthur Amador. "The spacecraft is now in the EDL (entry, descent, and landing) approach configuration, in our final approach orientation, pointing our medium gain antenna … Read more