NASA has released new photos of the surface of Mars as well as video of Curiosity‘s dramatic landing on the Martian surface, as the rover begins its long mission to explore for evidence of life.
The video, pieced together from a photo sequence captured by the Hazcam cameras used for guidance and navigation, shows some of dusty descent from Curiosity’s point-of-view, while the new gallery of stills helps confirm where, exactly, on the topography of Mars the rover has arrived.
Meanwhile, back on Earth there’s an arguably tougher challenge ahead: convincing the US government that space exploration is still worth funding. “With the retirement of the Shuttle program after its final flight in July 2011, some have suggested that NASA’s leadership in the exploration of space, including our extraordinary successes on Mars, was coming to an end” NASA administrator Charles F. Bolden,
Jr. wrote after Curiosity’s successful landing. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
The rover is the next step in the path to sending a manned mission to Mars, something which President Obama has committed to do in the 2030′s. Before that, though, a second robotic mission could travel to join Curiosity before the decade is through. “Earlier this year, I directed NASA’s science mission director, along with the head of human exploration, Chief Technologist, and Chief Scientist to develop a more integrated strategy to ensure that the next steps for Mars exploration will support the nation’s planetary science objectives as well as our human exploration goals” Bolden said. “They are looking at many options, including another robotic mission to land on Mars in this decade.”
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