When was rover curiosity launch

Planets , — Article Google Scholar. Horgan, B. Icarus , Allwood, A. Nature , — Download references. Article 03 NOV Article 27 OCT Article 20 OCT Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. Advanced search. Skip to main content Thank you for visiting nature. The robot which was launched in November and reached Mars on 5 August has been there on the red planet for the last nine years.

It has been designed to have a lifespan of 14 years. With help from the rover's observations , scientists have been able to better understand the red planet. During these nine years, the rover has travelled a little more than 25 km a total of Image credit: NASA. The observations made by the rover have revealed that in the ancient past, the Gale crater on Mars hosted a lake and stream system. This finding indicated the possibility that the red planet was capable of supporting life, just like Earth.

Another sign of life discovered by Curiosity on Mars is the organic chemicals. The Mission Science Team has collected together a series of pictures that record some of the rover's major achievements. When we got these images down in June it was a big relief for the team, even though it was a rather dusty time on Mars. That's because it marked the restart of drilling operations by the rover. A mechanical issue had taken the drill offline.

By June , a new technique had been planned and tested by the JPL engineers, letting us get back to the crucial drilling, without which our work had been held back. Twice every Martian year, near the seasonal equinoxes, the paths of the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos cross in front of the Sun as seen by Curiosity.

This animation shows the 22km diameter Phobos in transit across the sun on Sol The transit lasted about 35 seconds. The precise timing of transits measured in observations like this helps scientists understand the tidal interactions between Phobos and Mars. The tiny amount of water vapour in the thin atmosphere of Mars can form clouds, especially in the cooler times of year and around high peaks.

Curiosity has observed thin clouds overhead many times in its mission. But on Sol , it was able to observe a special kind of cloud that forms at very high altitudes, in this case about 31km above the surface. These clouds are called "noctilucent" because they remain illuminated by the sun even after sunset has occurred at the surface.

This stunning panorama is the highest-resolution panorama 1. EDT on Aug. Curiosity set out to answer the question: Did Mars ever have the right environmental conditions to support small life forms called microbes? Early in its mission, Curiosity's scientific tools found chemical and mineral evidence of past habitable environments on Mars. It continues to explore the rock record from a time when Mars could have been home to microbial life.

Launch Vehicle: Atlas V Landing: p.