" We Are Safe On Mars " - Curiosity Has Landed On The Red Planet !

Curiosity, the largest and most advanced robot vehicle ever sent to another planet, succeeded its extraordinary landing Sunday night on Mars. May be it don't look like but the success of this new NASA - Jet Propulsion Laboratory $2.5-billion mission is amazing. Why? because Curiosity is a huge robot, three meters long, more or less the size of an Austin Mini, and sending such a huge robot vehicle which weight 900 kilos at 250 millions kilometers from Earth and have it landing perfectly on another planet was not so obvious.

"The landing sequence, which NASA had dubbed “seven minutes of terror,” required the largest supersonic parachute ever deployed in space, a perilous-looking “sky crane” and 76 pyrotechnic explosions. If any one of those “pyros” had not occurred, “we die,” said Adam Steltzner, a leader of the landing team. Officials had spent much of the day Sunday speculating about how Curiosity might fail, and what the consequences might be for America's space program".

Below, William Shatner - Star Trek Captain Kirk himself! - narrates this thrilling video about NASA's Curiosity rover, from its entry and descent through the Martian atmosphere to its landing and exploration of the Red Planet. So, have a look and you'll understand why everyone who worked on this mission had good reasons this morning to be so happy when they finally heard the voice telling them "We Are Safe On Mars " - enthusiasm that you will see on the second video.




Pictures and video: copyright NASA