Today
we celebrate the one year anniversary of the Curiosity Rover. You are
probably saying didn't we celebrate that in August? You would be if
you are going by the Earth's calendar. On the Martian calender a
year equals 687 days to make this the 1 year anniversary that was
scheduled to be the winking down period of the 23 month mission.
Ever
since the mobile lab, Curiosity Rover, landed on the Red planet on
August
5, 2012 we have been anxiously await news to hear what it has
found. We all wanted to know if it will find signs that Mars could
have supported some form of life? If that life is still thriving on
the planet or long gone? Then, in September of 2013 came word the
Curiosity has found water
in the surface soil on Mars. The news made our imaginations run
wild since a small amount of water on the surface probably means
there is more deeper and that gives us a good chance for life.
"Our
goal over that time was to find a habitable environment, and we did,"
said Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist, in a NASA video. "We
found a lake bed on Mars that we drilled into and found the
ingredients and conditions that could have supported microbial life,
if life ever was on Mars."
With
that original goal meet NASA has given their rover an extension
for its anniversary present. The new goal of the mission now is to
figure out what changed to make Mars the planet it is now. To reach
the new goal Curiosity will continue on the trek to Mount Sharp where
it will be doing analysis on the rocks to try and find out what
changed.
"We
think the layered rocks there have captured the major climate changes
in Mars' history," said Vasavada. "We can't wait to get
there and figure it all out, but it's going to take a lot of
driving."
Other
articles worth reading are as follows:
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