Science

We‘re Safe on Mars’: Rover ‘Curiosity’ Touches Down on Red Planet (See the First Pictures!)

Mars Rover Curiosity Lands on the Planet See the First Pictures

IN SPACE - AUGUST 5: In this handout image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech, one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars on the evening of August 5, 2012 PDT and transmitted to Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The MSL Rover named Curiosity is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbe. (Credit: Getty Images)

PASADENA, Calif. (TheBlaze/AP) — In a show of technological wizardry, the robotic explorer Curiosity blazed through the pink skies of Mars, steering itself to a gentle landing inside a giant crater for the most ambitious dig yet into the red planet’s past.

Cheers and applause echoed through the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory late Sunday after the most high-tech interplanetary rover ever built signaled it had survived a harrowing plunge through the thin Mars atmosphere.

“Touchdown confirmed,” said engineer Allen Chen. “We’re safe on Mars.”

Mars Rover Curiosity Lands on the Planet See the First Pictures

Curiosity and its parachute seen descending on Mars. This image was first reported to have been leaked before it was officially released by NASA. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

Minutes after the landing signal reached Earth at 10:32 p.m. PDT, Curiosity beamed back the first black-and-white pictures from inside the crater showing its wheel and its shadow, cast by the afternoon sun.

“We landed in a nice flat spot. Beautiful, really beautiful,” said engineer Adam Steltzner, who led the team that devised the tricky landing routine.

It was NASA‘s seventh landing on Earth’s neighbor; many other attempts by the U.S. and other countries to zip past, circle or set down on Mars have gone awry.

The arrival was an engineering tour de force, debuting never-before-tried acrobatics packed into “seven minutes of terror” as Curiosity sliced through the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph.

In a Hollywood-style finish, cables delicately lowered the rover to the ground at a snail-paced 2 mph. A video camera was set to capture the most dramatic moments – which would give Earthlings their first glimpse of a touchdown on another world.

Celebrations by the mission team were so joyous over the next hour that JPL Director Charles Elachi had to plead for calm in order to hold a post-landing press conference. He compared the team to athletic teams that participate in the Olympics.

“This team came back with the gold,” he said.

Watch the jubilation the moment the rover touched down:

A longer version builds the suspense:

The extraterrestrial feat injected a much-needed boost to NASA, which is debating whether it can afford another robotic Mars landing this decade. At a budget-busting $2.5 billion, Curiosity is the priciest gamble yet, which scientists hope will pay off with a bonanza of discoveries and pave the way for astronaut landings.

“The wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze the trail for human footprints on Mars,” said NASA chief Charles Bolden.

Mars Rover Curiosity Lands on the Planet See the First Pictures

Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity members from left: Richard Cook, MSL deputy project manager, Adam Steltzner, MSL entry, descent and landing (EDL) lead and John Grotzinger, MSL project scientist, California Institute of Technology, from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity Rover mission team celebrate the landing of Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012. (Credit: AP)

President Barack Obama lauded the landing in a statement, calling it “an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future.”

Over the next two years, Curiosity will drive over to a mountain rising from the crater floor, poke into rocks and scoop up rust-tinted soil to see if the region ever had the right environment for microscopic organisms to thrive. It’s the latest chapter in the long-running quest to find out whether primitive life arose early in the planet’s history.

The voyage to Mars took more than eight months and spanned 352 million miles. The trickiest part of the journey? The landing. Because Curiosity weighs nearly a ton, engineers drummed up a new and more controlled way to set the rover down. The last Mars rovers, twins Spirit and Opportunity, were cocooned in air bags and bounced to a stop in 2004.

Curiosity relied on a series of braking tricks, similar to those used by the space shuttle, a heat shield and a supersonic parachute to slow down as it punched through the atmosphere.

Mars Rover Curiosity Lands on the Planet See the First Pictures

This artist's rendering released by NASA/JPL-Caltech on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012, shows how NASA's Curiosity rover will communicate with Earth during landing. As the rover descends to the surface of Mars, it will send out two different types of data: basic radio-frequency tones that go directly to Earth (pink dots) and more complex UHF radio data (blue circles) that require relaying by orbiters. NASA's Odyssey orbiter will pick up the UHF signal and relay it immediately back to Earth, while NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will record the UHF data and play it back to Earth at a later time. (Credit: AP)

And in a new twist, engineers came up with a way to lower the rover by cable from a hovering rocket-powered backpack. At touchdown, the cords cut and the rocket stage crashed a distance away.

The nuclear-powered Curiosity, the size of a small car, is packed with scientific tools, cameras and a weather station. It sports a robotic arm with a power drill, a laser that can zap distant rocks, a chemistry lab to sniff for the chemical building blocks of life and a detector to measure dangerous radiation on the surface.

It also tracked radiation levels during the journey to help NASA better understand the risks astronauts could face on a future manned trip.

Over the next several days, Curiosity is expected to send back the first color pictures. After several weeks of health checkups, the six-wheel rover could take its first short drive and flex its robotic arm.

The landing site near Mars’ equator was picked because there are signs of past water everywhere, meeting one of the requirements for life as we know it. Inside Gale Crater is a 3-mile-high mountain, and images from space show the base appears rich in minerals that formed in the presence of water.

Previous trips to Mars have uncovered ice near the Martian north pole and evidence that water once flowed when the planet was wetter and toastier unlike today’s harsh, frigid desert environment.

Curiosity’s goal: to scour for basic ingredients essential for life including carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur and oxygen. It’s not equipped to search for living or fossil microorganisms. To get a definitive answer, a future mission needs to fly Martian rocks and soil back to Earth to be examined by powerful laboratories.

The mission comes as NASA retools its Mars exploration strategy. Faced with tough economic times, the space agency pulled out of partnership with the European Space Agency to land a rock-collecting rover in 2018. The Europeans have since teamed with the Russians as NASA decides on a new roadmap.

Despite Mars’ reputation as a spacecraft graveyard, humans continue their love affair with the planet, lobbing spacecraft in search of clues about its early history. Out of more than three dozen attempts – flybys, orbiters and landings – by the U.S., Soviet Union, Europe and Japan since the 1960s, more than half have ended disastrously.

One NASA rover that defied expectations is Opportunity, which is still busy wheeling around the rim of a crater in the Martian southern hemisphere eight years later.

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Mars mission: http://www.nasa.gov/msl

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(Related: Meet the teen girl who actually got to name the rover as a result of a contest)

Comments (142)

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  • BlasberryStrat
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 10:03am

    We (the American people) can put a man on the Moon and now send rovers to Mars. We’re able to send exploratory ships not just to Pluto and Saturn, but around each of their moons. But yet we can’t get a weak spined little man out of the White House, or Pelosi to shut her big ugly mouth.

    Report Post » BlasberryStrat  
    • salvawhoray
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 10:18am

      First of all man has never been on the moon and second I believe Pluto no longer exist.

      Report Post » salvawhoray  
    • LIBERALSAREMORONS
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 10:41am

      I can’t believe there are still people like you out there SALVAWHORAY. It’s like in the Old-World when people refused to believe the world was round and people like you kept on with the whole world is flat message.

      Yes, Man went to the Moon. Yes, you can survive the trip, and stay there as long as there are no massive solar flares at the same time… And yes, Pluto still exists, just because they change the scientific designation from a Planet to a dwarf-planet doesn’t mean it no longer exists.

      Report Post »  
    • radargeek
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 10:43am

      To NASA: You didn’t build that! Signed: Your Prez

      Report Post » radargeek  
    • MBA
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 10:58am

      Agreed. My thought last night while watching the landing was we have to get rid of all politicians and replace them with NASA engineers. They know how to “git ‘er done”. Politicians are just a worthless embarrassments, need I mention they are a detriment to this great country.

      Report Post »  
    • paperpushermj
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 11:22am

      Where working on it but we have to overcome those who where… fooled some of the time

      Report Post » paperpushermj  
    • oneshiner
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 11:27am

      @BLASSBERRY, you hit the nail on the head.

      Report Post »  
    • KickinBack
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 11:27am

      @salvawhoray

      “These aren‘t the droids you’re looking for.”

      Sound familiar? You’ve probably heard it enough. Tell that to Buzz…

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wcrkxOgzhU

      Report Post » KickinBack  
    • KickinBack
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 11:32am

      Congrats to the staff at JPL and American ingenuity. I’d like to see the Russians or the Chinese accomplish such a feat.

      It‘s too bad that Obama cut NASA’s budget, so he could use that extra money for failed social and (not so) *green* energy programs.

      As for the naysayers….Go and kiss Alex Jones’ arse….I‘m sure he’s HARPing right about now.

      Report Post » KickinBack  
    • JetBlue
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:48pm

      Son’t forget your meds today Salva

      Report Post »  
    • The_Cabrito_Goat
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:57pm

      Is NASA in charge of the real estate market on Mars? I wanna invest now while prices are low

      Report Post » The_Cabrito_Goat  
    • Best_Patriot
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:29pm

      An awesome feat.

      Made by a federal agency.

      So I guess Beck-heads need to find something to gripe about with this…

      Report Post » Best_Patriot  
    • eagle2715
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:29pm

      “I’d like to see the Russians or the Chinese accomplish such a feat.”

      HAHA… I think every craft Russia has tried to send either didn’t make it out of earth orbit, missed mars entirely, or cratered into the planet in a fantastic fashion…They have yet to get a craft there successfully according to an article I read last week….

      Report Post » eagle2715  
    • JamesG161
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 2:04pm

      Actually Salva… is right. I have proof is was not the USA who landed, but the British Government and their Monarchy!
      In late 1600′s The British Royal Society of Science set up a way to provide a critique of Science.
      Issac Newton as a hobby developed:
      Universal Law of Gravitation Attractions
      Laws of Motion
      The Calculus
      These were used by USA to get to the Moon and in Fact Mars. So… the British did it!

      PS:Congrats to JPL anyway.

      Report Post »  
    • JDale
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 2:44pm

      I wish I believed there weren‘t people who were still stupid enough to deny that we’d been to the Moon. But, there are — Just like there are people who swear the world is ruled by the “Bohemian Grove,“ or according to ”The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” or some other such moronic garbage.

      Oh, and the guy who accused Buzz Aldrin of being a liar and got popped in the mouth for it? Yeah — he got what he had coming to him. Harassment and false accusations kinda tick people off after a while.

      Report Post » JDale  
    • Marine 1
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 3:02pm

      Any chance we can get our Idiot-in-Charge and his buddies on the next rocket going to Mars? Once there we could contact the Galactic Empire and put Mars off limits to everyone.

      We can only dream…

      Report Post »  
    • lossfactor
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 4:28pm

      Amen BLASBERRYSTRAT
      I give NASA and all involved with the Rover credit for “BUILDING THAT!”

      Report Post »  
    • RayOne
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 5:58pm

      The looney left suffers from Light Pollution. Let them continue to pray to the image in the mirror.

      Report Post » RayOne  
    • raytgal
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 6:11pm

      NASA should have put Obummer, Pelosi and Reid in that package. And, it looks like we still have idiots who believe we didn’t really go to the moon!!

      Report Post » raytgal  
    • SquareHead
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 6:19pm

      You actually still believe we went to the moon? Do you also believe in Mary Poppins?

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6MvcIs4OcQ&list=PL7219911842803520&index=4&feature=plpp_video

      Report Post »  
    • SquareHead
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 7:04pm

      Was the first Mars mission faked?

      Here is a video that shows the Mars images from 2003 was changed in Photoshop
      Fast forward to 1:05

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob8-TRlcZ08&list=PL7219911842803520&index=10&feature=plpp_video

      There used to be a video by this guy that showed the images released, vs. the actual rover taken on earth, and showed how some of the colors on the wiring was different from what they had on Mars. He showed that this could be explained in Photoshop when you tweaked the color. When he showed the Mars pictures and turned down the red color, that changed the color of the wiring to match the pictures of the rover on earth. If anyone has a link to that video please post it.

      Report Post »  
    • random357
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:48pm

      You hit the nail on the head.

      Report Post » random357  
    • thx1138v2
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 10:10pm

      @Marine1: Or maybe a software glitch could just make it miss altogether. I definitely would not The One there just in case there is life on Mars. I wouldn’t wish that on an ameba.

      Report Post »  
    • thx1138v2
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 10:11pm

      Oh yes we can.

      Report Post »  
    • DonLukas
      Posted on August 7, 2012 at 2:47am

      @salvia
      Pluto does exist, it’s just a hunk of ice and not a planet.

      And the man on the moon stuff, do you have any faith in man kind at all?
      Did you see some youtube video saying the flag couldn’t wave in space or something.

      you’re a truther too huh!
      but not a birther.

      Report Post » DonLukas  
    • Solexander
      Posted on August 7, 2012 at 7:57pm

      Give us a chance in November. If he’s still there come February, the proverbial bets are off.

      Report Post » Solexander  
  • RightThinking1
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:46am

    Here is an animation of the deployment/landing. Pretty nice:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFEzZarz_TI
    Frankly I feel that it is a huge waste of money. On the other hand, it is inevitable that humans will explore space. Putting aside cost, a pretty fine technical achievement.

    Report Post »  
    • mydh12
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 11:35am

      But did you see how politically incorrect that group was? It was mostly a bunch of old white geeky men. Probably not one affirmative-action hire in the whole bunch (except for maybe a couple of women PR people).

      Report Post »  
  • palerider54
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:31am

    I think it would be hilarious if some tech geek could hack into the airwaves and fake a picture of

    E T walking in front of the camera, or maybe a picture of Bigfoot strolling past.

    Report Post »  
    • handsmcml
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:53am

      I have heard that there is a picture of Marvin floating around the internet.

      Report Post » handsmcml  
    • KickinBack
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:16pm

      Remember the “face” on Mars? How about if they threw in a big ol carved pic *ala Mt. Rushmore style* of Obama on a hill in the background…

      Report Post » KickinBack  
    • thx1138v2
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 10:16pm

      @Kickinback: Better yet, George W. with an inscription, “It‘s Bush’s fault.”

      Report Post »  
  • harumph
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:30am

    Looks like it worked. Time for Barry to defund it.

    Report Post » harumph  
  • Tri-ox
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:27am

    It is pretty gross to have obama slobbering all over this event – and why did he not thank American taxpayers? NASA “didn’t build that” (as obama likes to say) – U.S. taxpayers did (and we’re all tapped out).

    Report Post » Tri-ox  
  • dublinthewagons
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:27am

    And just think. ALL THIS COST THE TAXPAYERS LESS THAN AN OBAMA FAMILY VACATION ( for one week)

    Report Post »  
  • qpwillie
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:22am

    It looks like a good place for Barack to send Michelle on her next vacation.

    Report Post » qpwillie  
    • dublinthewagons
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:29am

      Can’t wait to see the pictures of Mars roads and bridges. The ones Obama built. Lol

      Report Post »  
    • carolinasbeauty
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 5:14pm

      I’ll kick in my retirement fund to send her…if he goes too.

      Report Post » carolinasbeauty  
    • thx1138v2
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 10:19pm

      No, no, NO! I want him to live with her for the rest of his life. “Yeah, you‘re so smart you couldn’t even win a second term, blah, nag, gripe…” for ever!

      Report Post »  
  • 10mmGlockuser
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:20am

    I don’t understand….in the years that has passed it seams that our space exploration camera technology keeps getting worse or not advancing at all…It looks like they used a Kodak 110 camera or a 1 mp camera I think we here on earth have 10 mp cameras built into cell-phones now ..what gives?

    Report Post » 10mmGlockuser  
    • Tax Revolt
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:51am

      These are the very fist pictures. These grainy, low res pictures were the first to be sent because 1; they show that the rover landed safely, 2; show that some instruments are working, 3; The amount of data for these low res pics can be sent quickly over the small data stream that links the rover with earth. The HD pictures (up to 11 HD cameras) will be coming out over the next week or so. I suspect that any HD pictures, video, or analysis results will be at least 24-48 hours behind the actual arrival of the data. This is to insure that need to know information is given to those that need to know only first.

      Report Post »  
    • SamIamTwo
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:02pm

      Tax Revolt

      They prob use the same ISP I have, CenturySnail…sigh..

      Report Post » SamIamTwo  
  • Akridgerunner
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:19am

    I await the news that they’ve discovered the footsteps of non other than Mohammed on Mars!

    Report Post »  
  • nilo
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:19am

    What if they find evidence of water? What if they find any life forms? Whats going to come of such discoveries? No doubt it was a great scientific achievement. Considering the black hole of debt that America has, WHY?

    Report Post » nilo  
    • MBA
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 11:04am

      This country needs something positive right now. It’s not just NASA putting an expensive toy on Mars, everyone (foreigners included) benefits from the developments, discoveries, and technology created during this mission. You can thank NASA for velcro and microwaves–just to name a few conveniences we all use that were invented by NASA engineers paid for by US tax payers.

      Report Post »  
    • IMAWAKENOW
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 2:56pm

      I’m with you. I would love to buy a new car or replace my carpets but I don’t want to go into debt. As long as I can drive to work and my old carpet holds out I would rather put some money away for what ever is coming. Our government should live like I do and quit the spending on a show boat project. Unless Mars has an atmosphere and water exactly like earth we will never be able to live there. There are huge areas right here on earth we can’t survive on and we can drive there.

      Report Post » IMAWAKENOW  
    • Ramv36
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 4:31pm

      We found PROOF of water existing on mars several months ago. A quick google search for ‘water proven on mars’ reveals a wealth of links. They’ve found both gypsum that needed liquid water in order to form, and actual water ice.

      Report Post »  
    • RightThinking1
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 6:08pm

      MBA,
      Microwave oven? NASA? Hardly. Microwave ovens were around before NASA was a gleam in JFK’s eye. Moreover, the magnetron was developed by Brits.
      Velcro was developed in the late 40′s by a Swiss engineer.
      These urban myths about technology from NASA are grossly overblown. While we have derived great benefit from NASA’s operations (mostly satellite related), very few developments have actually originated there, and very few useful innovations have resulted.
      Others will disagree, of course, but aside from pretty pictures, I do wonder what measurable benefit we have derived from the $100,000,000,000 or so expended on the ISS, just for starters.

      Report Post »  
  • azcowboy1
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:15am

    Why are they (jpl employees) so happy. The layoffs start today..
    so sad…..

    Report Post »  
  • JQuentinEvermann
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:14am

    Impressive that they can do this but still manage to miss almost 30% of their high fives.

    Report Post » JQuentinEvermann  
  • Jenny Lind
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:08am

    I know some folks from JPL. Aside from being very, very smart. they have a desire to explore and learn in space. Much of what they do leads to neat stuff that get’s turned into things that are used here in many ways. The space and exploration groups have given a lot to us and should be celebrated. I say, good work guys, keep the knowledge coming. Congrats to them all.

    Report Post »  
  • Roby1watt
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:05am

    Hey NASA aim that camera up, we didn’t go all the way to mars to look at our own shadow.

    Report Post »  
  • myway
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:52am

    President Barack Obama lauded the landing in a statement, calling it “an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future.”

    This coming from the very moron who gutted and killed NASA. YOU DID NOT BUILD THAT!

    Report Post » myway  
    • Landon410
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:05am

      we need a “you did not do that” commerical for Obama, all the things he is taking credit for that he didn’t do.
      this for example, osama bin ladin for example etc

      Report Post »  
    • SimpleTruths
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 11:00am

      NASA funding was cut long before Obama took office and all attempts to reinstate funding for NASA have been shot down by the REPUBLICAN House. Sorry the facts don’t fit your narrative, but few do.
      Obama/Biden 2012

      Report Post » SimpleTruths  
  • thereaper
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:49am

    NASA,didn’t do that, some one else made that happen!! LOL

    Report Post »  
  • watersRpeople
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:41am

    Oh wow, one small step for a machine, one giant step for mankind. Oh except for one small thing: there’s nothing new under the sun.

    Report Post »  
    • Le Sellers
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 10:45am

      There is nothing new under the sun, but that does not mean we have learned it all.

      Exploration (although I wish it had been on the privates sector’s dime) is important, not only because we have Tang, but because we know more about the Earth from from the Apollo mission.

      It is in the nature of man to explore: we can no more stifle the urge to learn than we can the “urge to merge”. (Well, they do a great job of stifling the urge to learn in government-run, tax-funded welfare schools, but even then, most of us escape, our curiosity intact. Why do you think so many children turn to drugs: they’re bored by school and its tedium.)

      Now, turn it over to private enterprise, let us really get going to Mars, the Moon, Venus, Jupiter.

      Government mucks up everything it touches. We cannot afford another Columbia, we need real progress.

      Report Post » Le Sellers  
  • Edohiguma
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:38am

    And that’s NASA, who put a man on the moon. Now they’re playing minion for the government pushing ridiculous claims (the whole sudden melt in the Arctic, for example, they spent a lot of words trying to sell it as part of “man-made global warming”, and then ended up adding one paragraph that showed that such melts happen and this one is quite on time) and have practically no space going capabilities. Instead astronauts have to ride on Russian rockets.

    So they’re on Mars now. That’s ok. It’s just not really mattering. Now the Hayabusa landing on an asteroid, that was impressive. Mars? Pretty big. Not hard to hit.

    This all NASA is going to do for the next years. And the budget will be cut down even more. Just wait. All it takes is one of the bloodsuckers on the Hill whine “Think of the children!” and the Beltway Mafia will quickly cancel more projects.

    Report Post » Edohiguma  
    • Bruce P.
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:46am

      “Mars? Pretty big. Not hard to hit.”

      Yeah, sending a probe over 300 million miles away using a method never employed before…yeah, you’re right, not impressive whatsoever.

      Report Post » Bruce P.  
    • namron52
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:36am

      I was born in 1952, lived on Merritt Island (in the shadow of the Cape) and was witness to the space program from its beginning. The national pride was palpable. We were number one for a very long time, and shared the numerous benefits of the inventions and consumer products with the world. From the questionable, Tang, to the practical, Velcro, miniaturization of electronics, etc., etc.,etc., the cost of the programs have more than paid for themselves. On the whole, NASA is fairly inexpensive. Compared to the first failed stimulus, it is downright cheap!

      The best way to get us back on track and reclaim our rightful place of leadership for the exploration of space, we MUST cleanse our government of the cancer of Progressivism. It is a freefall ride to failure, and will guarantee we loose our standing of the global stage. Given our positive influence, the world is going to miss us, whether they know it or not.

      Vote right, vote often.

      Report Post »  
    • Chris
      Posted on August 7, 2012 at 10:54pm

      The US has missed Mars at least once and crashed a couple more times. I believe that the Russians have missed every time they have tried.

      Mars may be big but it is a long way away.

      Report Post »  
  • Beachbaby
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:35am

    Excuse me while I adjust my leather BS ear- guard. Now how much is that bridge?

    Report Post »  
  • spareGgnome
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:32am

    was hoping for more mars pictures =p. o well they will come. space is an interesting place God created =)

    Report Post »  
  • Diane TX
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:30am

    Wonderful! I’m glad that the landing went so well.

    On the hand, the Blaze could have skipped another “unprecedented” quip from the “WON”.

    Report Post »  
  • napoleon_solo
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:24am

    Congratulations NASA. An absolutely amazing achievement for America’s space engineers and an exciting and dramatic landing sequence. Successes such as this serve to boost the nation’s morale and remind us what we are capable of achieving. We are the only nation to have landed spacecraft on neighboring planets and should be proud of it.

    Report Post »  
    • politicianssuck
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:38am

      “We are the only nation to have landed spacecraft on neighboring planets and should be proud of it.”…Wrong

      European Space Administration, or ESA, partnered with Russia in 2003 to finally send a non-American spacecraft to Mars.

      Report Post »  
    • Bruce P.
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:47am

      Russia sent probes to Venus in the ’70s.

      Report Post » Bruce P.  
    • historyguy48
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 10:00am

      In fact the Russian satellite showed that the surface temperature of Venus was close to 1000F when “consensus science” said it was Earth like, or perhaps as warm as the jungles at Earths equator.
      This jived with the books written by Immanuel Velkovsky (spelling) who theorized that Venus entered our solar system and finally settled into it’s current orbit after several near collisions with the Earth.
      Once again consensus science is shown to be what it is, nonsense.
      Perhaps this Mars satellite will find what we are looking for. It would be nice to know if life is on other planets before the new dark age begins.

      Report Post » historyguy48  
    • DarthMims
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:02pm

      @HISTORYGUY48. Wow!, I didn’t know anyone read Velikovsky anymore. “Worlds In Collision” confused me when I read it, until someone pointed out to me that it confused me because it made too much sense.

      Report Post » DarthMims  
    • Rayblue
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 1:49pm

      It was Carl Sagan who led the charge in the tropical island view of Venus.
      The reason was the profusion of clouds which they assumed to be water vapor.
      Velikovsky was vindicated years after he suffered at the hands of pompous academia. He also wrote an interesting book titled; “Ramses II and his Time”. Interesting for the Hebrew aspect.

      Report Post » Rayblue  
    • RightThinking1
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 6:12pm

      Rayblue,
      Well, we know now that Sagan was regularly smoking pot. Hey wait…, do we know of any other delusional people that were doing the same thing about that time? Choom…

      Report Post »  
    • themachinist239
      Posted on August 7, 2012 at 3:04pm

      RIGHTTHINKING1, Carl Sagan was an American treasure and a true man of science. A genius. Listening to you berate him like he’s some political target is disgusting. He alone contributed more to our collective knowledge than your cheap insults ever will. You can hate science and scientists all you want but at the end of the day, you only serve to hinder human advancement. QUIT politicizing everything in order to get a cheap shot in. Comments like the one you just posted make it clear you have nothing to add to the discussion.

      Report Post »  
  • Deibido
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:18am

    Exactly…

    Report Post »  
  • Falandarin
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:16am

    Awesome!

    Report Post » Falandarin  
  • watashbuddyfriend
    Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:09am

    Dang, so much interest in space exploration! I can’t believe I am the first to comment? Still did not get a response from yesterday; where in Arizona was that landing to be?

    Report Post »  
    • brotherjohn
      Posted on August 6, 2012 at 8:33am

      Here’s your response: Move out of your mother’s basement!

      Report Post » brotherjohn  
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