Nasa’s curiosity has just finished 5 years on mars . Ever wondered what life on Mars would be like? Is Mars habitable? Would that be a possibility in the distant future? To find answers to all these questions and study the surface of Mars,
Nasa sent Curiosity Rover to the Red planet on August 5, 2012. The mission team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, exalted at radio confirmation and first images from Curiosity after the rover’s touchdown using a new “sky crane” landing method. Transmissions at the speed of light took nearly 14 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth, which that day were about 248 million kilometres apart, NASA said. Those first images included a view of Mount Sharp.
Since then Curiosity’s journey has been similar to that of Mark Watney’s in the movie ‘The Martian.’ Within weeks of its arrival inside Mars’ Gale Crater, Curiosity hit scientific pay dirt and found an ancient lake. Since then, Curiosity has found enough evidence to support the theory that ancient Mars had the right conditions to support microbial life. There was proof that the red planet once had fresh water, other key chemical ingredients and an energy source.
The $2.5 billion rover was meant to last for only two earth years. It has long outlived its warranty and is still going strong. Having studied more than 600 vertical feet of rock with signs of lakes and later groundwater, Curiosity’s international science team concluded that habitable conditions lasted for at least millions of years.
NASA will soon send anotther Rover around 2021 , around which Indias space agency ISRO (INDIAN SPACE RESEARCH ORGANISATION ) will also send rover to MARS.
