The Curiosity mission is now only 40 days away from touchdown, or complete destruction. The highly risky landing of the Curiosity probe is why this mission is so exciting. Oh, and the fact that the rover’s main mission is to search for bacteria on the surface of Mars. Thats right, this rover is going to look for life with todays technology. This hasn’t really been tried in years. So hopefully with todays technology, we will be able to find life.
The scariest part of this mission is the descent of the rover. The highly technical landing will feature a heat shield, a rocket booster, and a supersonic parachute. This part is known as the “Seven Minutes of Terror.” This is due to the fact that information takes 14 minutes to get to earth from Mars. So from the time the probe reaches the atmosphere to the time we get the info, the probe will have either been destroyed or landed safely for 7 minutes. Here is the video released by NASA about the landing:
This is one of a couple of high profile missions that humans on Earth are up to. Some of these include the planning phases of missions to an asteroid and a permanent base on the moon.