Posts in category

Mars


Today, Opportunity celebrates a truly unfathomable achievement, entering Year 10 on Mars since she rolled to a bumpy stop on January 24, 2004. Now she’s at a super sweet spot for science loaded with clays and veined minerals and making the most remarkable findings yet about the planets watery past – building upon a long string of unthinkable discoveries due to her totally unforeseen longevity.

Starting with the Sojourner rover, launched in 1996, NASA has sent four robotic rovers to the Red Planet. On November 26, 2011, NASA launched Curiosity, its most technologically advanced rover ever. At a glance, it’s easy to see the size evolution between NASA’s youngest and oldest rover, but how else have they evolved? This chart …

As 2012 drew to a close, NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) rover celebrated her first Christmas on the Martian surface and a resoundingly successful initial five months of exploration since the pulse pounding and unprecedented sky crane rocket powered touchdown on Aug. 6, 2012 inside Gale Crater beside a towering, layered mountain named Mount …