August 6, 2012 was a terrifyingly exciting day for the men and women of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After years of planning and several months of space travel, Curiosity had finally reached Mars, and just seven minutes would decide if the robot would land safely on the surface. We all held our breath...and just like that the rover had touched down, safe and sound.
Curiosity has been a very busy rover since it landed on the Red Planet a year ago, so we figured that we would help commemorate this momentous occasion by recounting some of the rover's most noteworthy achievements.
Curiosity's first steps
Once the rover had successfully landed, the team behind Curiosity had little time to celebrate. Over the next few weeks, JPL scientists ran some initial tests and had Curiosity work on some very basic photography as they prepared to put the rover in motion.
We also got our first taste of freakin' space lasers as Curiosity tested its ChemCam—an on-board instrument that zaps rocks with a laser to determine their composition—on a small, hapless piece of stone. After zapping the rock, the ChemCam used its telescope to observe the elements contained within. Curiosity didn't find anything particularly noteworthy with this test shot, but it proved that the ChemCam was fully operational.
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