Part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, Curiosity is the largest and most capable rover ever sent to Mars. It launched Nov. 26, 2011 and landed on Mars at 10:32 p.m. on Aug. 5, 2012. On August 6, 2022, a detailed overview of accomplishments by the Curiosity rover for the last ten years was reported. The rover is still operational, and as of 29 November 2022, Curiosity has been active on Mars for 3767 total days; 10 years, 115 days since its landing.
*Curiosity Rover is shown above and below*
Curiosity's mission is to determine whether the Red Planet ever was habitable to microbial life. The rover, which is about the size of a MINI Cooper, is equipped with 17 cameras and a robotic arm containing a suite of specialized laboratory-like tools and instruments. Curiosity uses its high-gain antenna to receive commands for the mission team back on Earth. The high-gain antenna can send a "beam" of information in a specific direction, and it is steerable, so the antenna can move to point itself directly to any antenna on Earth.
Just after landing, Curiosity found smooth, rounded pebbles that likely rolled downstream for at least a few miles in a river that was ankle- to hip-deep. When Curiosity reached Mount Sharp, the team found that over 1,000 vertical feet of rock formed originally as mud at the bottom of a series of shallow lakes. Rivers and lakes persisted in Gale crater for perhaps a million years or longer. Also, the Curiosity rover found that ancient Mars had the right chemistry to support living microbes. Curiosity found sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon-- key ingredients necessary for life--in the powder sample drilled from the "Sheepbed" mudstone in Yellowknife Bay.
*Above is some examples of what Curiosity has found.*
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