NASA's Curiosity on Mars

Mars rover Curiosity transmits low-resolution landing video

The Curiosity rover is a car-sized Mars rover currently exploring Gale Crater, near the equator of Mars. The rover is the largest to date, and is designed to examine whether Mars could have once supported life. It arrived on the Martian surface on 6 August 2012, after leaving Earth on 26 November 2011.

Coriosity

The rover is a nuclear-powered, mobile scientific laboratory, with dozens of instruments. It is part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory(MSL) mission bythe United States. The MSL mission has four scientific goals: investigation of the Martian climate, geology, and whether Mars could ever have supported life, including investigation of the role of water. It is also useful preparation for future missions, perhaps amanned mission to Mars. Curiosity carries the most advanced payload of scientific equipment ever used on the surface of Mars.

The MSL spacecraft carrying Curiosity was launched on November 26, 2011, and the rover was successfully landed on Aeolis Palus inGale Crater on August 6, 2012 UTC (August 5, 2012 PDT, NASA mission control time)

NASA Curiosity Landing Video :

Previous NASA Mars rovers only became active after the successful entry, descent and landing on the Martian surface. Curiosity, on the other hand, utilized the rover suspension system for the final set-down of the active rover on the surface of Mars.

Curiosity transformed from its stowed flight configuration to a landing configuration while the MSL spacecraft simultaneously lowered it beneath the spacecraft descent stage with a 20 m (66 ft) tether from the "sky crane" system to a soft landing—wheels down—on the surface of Mars. After the rover touched down it waited 2 seconds to confirm that it was on solid ground and fired several pyros (small explosive devices) activating cable cutters on the bridle to free itself from the spacecraft descent stage. The descent stage then flew away to a crash landing, and the rover prepared itself to begin the science portion of the mission.