This site may earn chapter commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

curiosity

On Baronial half-dozen 2022, NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars and kicked off a new era of Martian exploration. It was NASA'southward fourth rover mission to Mars over the by 20 years; previous missions successfully landed the Sojurner, Spirit, and Opportunity rovers. Curiosity represented a far more difficult undertaking than its predecessors. The rover was and then large, NASA had to invent a new type of rocket-braking sky crane to deploy the lander; the Martian atmosphere was too thin to successfully aerobrake a vehicle of Marvel's mass.

In the five years since, Curiosity has contributed critical data to our understanding of Martian weather, geology, geohistory, and the presence of water on its surface at various points in its aboriginal history. Thanks to Curiosity's well-chosen landing site at Gale Crater, we now know that liquid water flowed over that area, and that the sediment deposits Curiosity has plant equally it climbed upward show that the pH and salt content of the water changed over time, as the crater filled, dried, and filled again.

MudstoneMinerals

How mineral composition has changed as Curiosity climbs.

Mineral deposits found to-date on Mars echo such findings on World and accept provided additional hints well-nigh the planet'southward afar past. To gloat the rover's work, NASA has released a point-of-view video showcasing five years of the rover'south planetary exploration.

The video is taken from Curiosity's left-forepart hazard avoidance camera, and there'southward a contextual map of the rover's location on the Martian surface in the right-mitt corner. Though information technology takes a chip to play out and these images aren't as polished every bit the shots NASA sometimes uses for PR, they yet showcase gradually shifting terrain and environments over the five years Curiosity has been in performance.

We've also included a slideshow of Curiosity's activities on Mars between its 2022 landing and the present twenty-four hour period, forth with a "selfie" that was stitched together from 57 photos. (No, Curiosity can't take snapshots of itself, much less attach them to a Tweet with a terrible Instagram-style filter.)

Curiosity has endured some battering from the Martian weather and unforgiving terrain. Its wheels have been wearing out and in that location's an intermittent short in its drill arm. Initial fears that the rover might exist left unable to bulldoze last December have proven unfounded, though the drill hasn't been used in 2022 and may be clogged with debris. Despite these bug, Curiosity is expected to remain in performance through the indefinite hereafter, and its experiences have informed NASA'due south blueprint of its Mars 2022 rover. All-time of all, it still has a partner on the Martian surface: The indefatigable Opportunity is still going stiff, 4,943 days afterwards landing.