NASA's latest Mars mission ended in triumph early Monday Michigan time, as the Mars Science Laboratory executed its complex flight control software for a successful touchdown on the Red Planet. The car-sized, one-ton rover combined a heat shield, a huge parachute, and touchdown rockets worthy of 1950s sci-fi to land without a hitch. "We are wheels down on Mars," came the word from the California Institute of Technology'sJet Propulsion Laboratory as engineers saw the first grainy image beamed directly back from the rover -- showing one of its wheels on the Martian surface. More. (And speaking of Mars, India is planning a satellite mission there.)
Monday, August 6, 2012
NASA's latest Mars mission ended in triumph early Monday Michigan time, as the Mars Science Laboratory executed its complex flight control software for a successful touchdown on the Red Planet. The car-sized, one-ton rover combined a heat shield, a huge parachute, and touchdown rockets worthy of 1950s sci-fi to land without a hitch. "We are wheels down on Mars," came the word from the California Institute of Technology'sJet Propulsion Laboratory as engineers saw the first grainy image beamed directly back from the rover -- showing one of its wheels on the Martian surface. More. (And speaking of Mars, India is planning a satellite mission there.)
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