This has been a productive summer for science. Not only did scientists find the Higgs Boson, but NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California landed on Mars the largest and most scientifically capable rover ever: the Mars Science Laboratory.
Better known as Curiosity, the rover touched down at approximately 10:32 p.m. Pacific Standard Time Sunday, Aug. 5. NASA had several channels streaming live for people all over the world to watch as Caltech’s JPL monitored the landing. There was even a large gathering in New York’s Times Square. I myself watched the landing from a dorm room in Washington, D.C.
For the next Martian year (That’s 23 Earth months), Curiosity will be powered by radioactive plutonium, rolling around the red planet, zapping rocks with its laser and analyzing soil on its on-board laboratory. The purpose of Curiosity’s mission: look for possible signs of extraterrestrial life or a habitable environment.
“If you love space and you love robots, this is the mission for you,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate for NASA at a news conference Sunday, Aug. 5.
According to the JPL, Mars is the second-most hospitable planet in our galaxy, having possibly harbored primitive life. Mars has been on the planetary scientist community’s radar since the days of Wernher Von Braun in the first half of the 20th century, and now we actually have the technology to be able to explore it.
For now, Curiosity will be able to analyze Mars’ history by exploring rocks and soil, searching for water and signs of current or past life.
The motto in the search for extraterrestrial life has always been “follow the water.” As long as we know that Mars has had— and may even have — water currently, the search for life is no longer a science fiction dream but may be an imminent reality.
“It’s fair to say that most of planetary science community is convinced that life has existed on other planets besides our own,” said Dan Woodard, the System Launch Communications Manager at NASA’s Huntsville, Ala., headquarters.
And the holy grail for finding life is finding water first.
Curiosity entered Mars’ atmosphere at 10:14 p.m. and landed safe and sound at approximately 10:32 p.m. The entry, descent and landing (or as the scientists call it, EDL) was one of the most complicated procedures to date. Mars has a very thin atmosphere, so anything hurtling towards the planet at 5,800 meters per second will not decelerate enough to land safely without help. Because of this, NASA had to be clever in their descent procedure.
The Seven Minutes of Terror began when Curiosity hit Mars’  atmosphere. A heat shield protected the rover from the massive amounts of friction caused by the atmosphere. Then a parachute deployed when Curiosity was tumbling at about 500 meters per second. (The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter got a fantastic photo of that stage.) The last step was the sky crane, which lowered Curiosity down on cables. Its landing velocity was .75 m/s. After safely depositing its payload, the sky crane flew off to crash-land.
Two spacecrafts orbiting Mars — Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — sent signals back to JPL at Caltech University. Every time they got some information, the whole room applauded. It was a magnificent thing to witness as I sat alone in my dark, cold dorm room on the other side of the country.
The landing site for Curiosity was in Gale Crater, near the base of Mt. Sharp. This landing site is great for two reasons.
The first is that part of Mt. Sharp’s geology is layered rock – perfect for investigating the history of an area.
“[It’s] kind of like if a Martian were to sit down on the surface of the Earth, [it] might want to go to the Grand Canyon,” Woodard said. Layered rock formations can tell a lot about the geological history of an area.
The second reason this is a great landing site is because of a formation called an alluvial fan – these form when water runs out of a canyon or riverbed and spreads out, spreading sediment, smaller bits of rocks. To NASA, this is evidence of once-existing surface water on Mars and a supposed jackpot for finding signs of past life.
Moments after landing, there were thumbnails. Curiosity beamed down its first images of the Martian world. Cheers erupted and in the background I heard some yell, “THUMBNAILS! We have THUMBNAILS!” They were grainy images, one of Curiosity’s wheel and one of its shadow. In the last week, more images have come back from Mars, including a beautiful panorama from another of NASA’s rovers, Opportunity.
The next step for NASA is to bring back geological samples. While Curiosity is the most scientifically advanced rover that NASA has, being able to analyze actual Mars rocks on Earth is a planetary geologist’s dream. And after we get samples, we’ll try to send humans there as well.
“Most of NASA honestly believes that your generation will see humans on the surface of Mars,” Woodard said to me in our interview.
I couldn’t help but get chills.