NASA's rover Curiosity lands safely, tweets out first images from Mars

Mars rover Curiosity's landing site: A mysterious giant crater

12.24 pm Somebody asks Adam Stelzner if he would name his daughter Curiosity. He confirms that his daughter’s name will not be Curiosity. Stelzner is listed on Twitter as Master of Mars.

Somebody also asked the file type and compression used to send the image back. Stelzner says not happening.

12.20 pm The Press conference is now open to questions from the press. This should get interesting. The first question is predictably around the landing.

Adam Stelzner: It looked extremely clean. We touched down in conditions that were on the more benign side of our expectations.

12.15 pm Adam Stelzner, head of the Entry, Descent and Landing phase for Mars Curiosity is discussing the landing. He’s clearly overwhelmed by this:

I am terribly humbled by this experience. In my life I will be forever satisfied if this is the greatest thing I have ever given.

12:00 pm : NASA’s press conference has begun and its a crazy rush. The Guardian reports,

Charles Bolden, the NASA administrator, tells the press conference that the President’s science adviser, John Holdren “nearly threw-up”, presumably with the stress and excitement of the landing.

11.40 am So is this NASA’s first landing on Mars?

No, in fact this is NASA’s seventh landing on the red planet. Other attempts by the US and other countries to zip past, circle or set down on Mars have gone awry, reports the Associated Press.

So what did the team do right this time? Well they used some never-before-tried acrobatics Curiosity sliced traveled through Mars’ atmosphere at 13,000 mph (20,920.5 kph) to make its historic landing. Here’s what the Rover saw when it first land on the planet. This one is a high-definition version. Big bummer, why is it in black and white? Oh well, you can’t have everything.

by FP Staff