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NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring Mars for nine years.
The car-sized robot was launched in November 2011 and landed inside the 154-kilometer-wide Gale Crater on Mars on the night of August 5, 2012. (The landing was on August 6 , Eastern Time, but it was still August 5 in California, where NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the Curiosity mission, is based.)
Since then, Curiosity has helped scientists better understand the past habitability of Mars and how the planet has changed over time. For example, observations from the rover showed that Gale was home to a system of lakes and streams in the ancient past, which may have been able to support Earth-like life for millions of years at a time.
Related: Stunning photos of Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover
In September 2014, Curiosity reached the base of Mount Sharp, which rises 5.5 km into the Red Planet sky from central Gale. The six-wheeled robot then began to climb the wide sloping massif, reading the rock layers as it climbed.
The history of Mars’ climate is embedded in these layers, which has grown over eons from relatively hot and humid to cold and dry. And Curiosity is now poised to collect data that could dramatically inform this change.
The rover almost reached a section of Mount Sharp rich in sulphated rocks, indicating a relatively dry environment. The layers Curiosity has looked at on slopes so far typically contain clays that form in the presence of liquid water.
Curiosity made a number of other intriguing discoveries while on Mars. For example, he discovered organic chemicals, the building blocks of life containing carbon as we know it. And the rover detected several peaks in the concentration of methane, which here on Earth is mainly generated by living creatures.
However, methane can also be produced by abiotic processes, and the source of the gas in Gale Crater remains a mystery.
During its nine years on Mars, Curiosity has traveled a total of 16.14 miles (25.98 km). And his odometer could keep running for a while. The rover is in good health despite its relatively advanced age, mission team members said, and its nuclear power system is designed to operate for at least 14 years. (All discussion of years in this story refers to Earth years. Martian years are longer, each lasting approximately 687 Earth days.)
Curiosity isn’t the only robot active on the Martian surface. NASA’s InSight lander has been listening to Marsquakes since it landed in November 2018, and the agency’s Perseverance rover landed last February inside the 28-mile-wide Jezero crater.
Perseverance, which is heavily inspired by curiosity, is looking for signs of ancient life on Mars and collecting samples for a future return to Earth. Perseverance traveled to Mars with the 4-pound Ingenuity helicopter, which flew 10 (and more) flights inside Jezero.
Then there’s the Zhurong rover, which is part of Tianwen-1, China’s first all-house Martian mission. Zhurong landed on May 14, launching a surface mission designed to last at least three months.
Mike Wall is the author of “The low“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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