On November 26, 2011, the NASA Curiosity rover launched to Mars.
Curiosity was the biggest and most powerful rover anyone had ever sent to the Red Planet. The two-ton science laboratory is about the size of a small SUV. The mission's goal was to search for habitable environments on Mars, or evidence that the planet could have been habitable in the past. It launched on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. About nine months later, Curiosity made a challenging landing on Mars. It successfully used a new landing technology called a sky crane to gently lower it to the surface. Within weeks, Curiosity fulfilled its mission. It found evidence of ancient running water on Mars. It later found organic molecules on Mars as well.
Curiosity was the biggest and most powerful rover anyone had ever sent to the Red Planet. The two-ton science laboratory is about the size of a small SUV. The mission's goal was to search for habitable environments on Mars, or evidence that the planet could have been habitable in the past. It launched on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. About nine months later, Curiosity made a challenging landing on Mars. It successfully used a new landing technology called a sky crane to gently lower it to the surface. Within weeks, Curiosity fulfilled its mission. It found evidence of ancient running water on Mars. It later found organic molecules on Mars as well.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03On November 26, 2011, NASA's Curiosity rover launched to Mars.
00:08Curiosity was the biggest and most powerful rover anyone had ever sent to the Red Planet.
00:13The two-ton science laboratory is about the size of a small SUV.
00:17The mission's goal was to search for habitable environments on Mars
00:21or evidence that the planet could have been habitable in the past.
00:24It launched on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
00:29About nine months later, Curiosity made a challenging landing on Mars.
00:33It successfully used a new landing technology called a sky crane to gently lower it to the surface.
00:39Within weeks, Curiosity fulfilled its mission.
00:42It found evidence of ancient running water on Mars.
00:45It later found organic molecules on Mars as well.
00:49And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:52NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology