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| The first picture received from Curiosity upon landing. A 250x250 image from the rear hazcam. If you look closely, you can see a wheel in the lower right of the picture. |
The Mars Science Laboratory Rover landed safely on the surface of mars at 10:41 pacific time.
Every part of the multi-step process of descent and landing went as planned, and the team at JPL is as happy as possible. Their years of work has finally paid off!
I got to watch a live video stream from the mission control room during the last few minutes of the landing process. This was, of course, the infamous 'seven minutes of terror', where the team can watch the incoming telemetry but cannot intervene in the landing process, since the signal transmission delay from Mars means that the incoming data does not reflect up-to-the-minute the state of the rover. If anything were to go wrong, by the time we knew about it on Earth, the rover would already have crashed. The tension was palpable, but there was also a confidence I felt from every person at mission control. I think they had confidence in their work, and in the creation they have so carefully crafted over the last few years. The excitement grew as each successive message from the lander indicated that everything was running according to plan. All the way down through the skycrane maneuver, everyone was nervous but anticipating a safe landing. At the signal that the rover had achieved "wheels down on Mars" the room absolutely erupted in happy cheers, and for the next ten minutes chaos reigned as the tension released, and everyone expressed their feelings freely. I observed quite a few damp eyes, as well as the most hugging and high-fiving I think I've every seen. I can only imagine the relief of stress that the team experienced. I have to admit, I was close to tears myself.
Now it may be extremely nerdy to cry over a machine landing on another planet, but I am by nature a slightly romantic person, and I think of it not as simply another rover, but as possibly one of the biggest scientific achievments of the century. And it may stay that way, if budget cuts continue to limit space exploration in the future. I may have well been witness to the beginning of the biggest extra-terrestrial exploration mission in my lifetime! And while it's still nerdy to cry about that, I think it can be excused. After all, I didn't get to be alive during the moon landings. This is at least some compensation.
Well, I don't exactly know what's next for Curiosity. The signal relay satellite, Odyssey, which was positioned to in orbit over the correct spot at the time of landing, has now gone over the horizon from Curiosity's position, and communication with the rover won't resume for about forty-eight hours. When the data link is reestablished, I assume the team responsible for controlling the robot and navigating it to it's scientific destination will take over, and Curiosity will head out across Large Gale Crater, to start exploring her new home.
Curiosity, from all of us here on Earth, your home planet, I would like to wish you "good luck, and good hunting". May your discoveries be many, your health excellent, and your mission successful.
Godspeed!
