Curiosity begins its grand mission

摘要

"Touchdown confirmed!" said landing engineer Allen Chen at 10.32 pm Pacific Standard Time on 5 August. "We're safely on Mars." Scientists and engineers hugged and punched the air as confirmation of the Curiosity rover's landing reached Earth. It was a "miracle of engineering", says project scientist John Grotzinger at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. "Everything went so smoothly, I had to keep reminding myself it wasn't a test run."