Interplanetary Robots: Curiosity

Curiosity is the biggest, baddest, and the best rover to ever be sent out of this planet.

Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012 amid worldwide attention. Do you remember where you were when Curiosity landed? Chances are you might. “7 mins of terror” made viral news. Watch:

Curiosity’s goals are: investigation of the Martian climate and geology; figure out whether the selected field site inside Gale Crater has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life; and planetary habitability studies in preparation for future human exploration.

Curiosity assesses rock, soil, climate, geology, presence of water, history, conditions for microbial life, and for future human colonization. Curiosity has done a lot for us to understand Mars. It has discovered the first water stream bed. It also drilled the first hole on another planet.

Curiosity has also taken incredible images that arewidely popularized on social media, including the now iconic blue sunsets.

Curiosity’s design will serve as the basis for the planned Mars 2020 rover. In December 2012, Curiosity’s two-year mission was extended indefinitely. As of April 30, 2017, Curiosity has been on Mars for 1681 sols (Martian days), a total of 1728 earth days.