At 1:32 AM EST, the NASA control room exploded into cheers and excitement as signals from Curiosity continued to transmit confirming what many had feared wouldn't happen. Curiosity successful landed on Mars.
I watched as this event was streamed. Not quite the noterity that the moon landing hand on America where everyone could tell you where they were when it happened. Still, the eruption jubilation at the words "Touchdown confirmed." were something to behold. Scientists who worked on the project jumped in celebration and hugged those around them. Mankind did something historic again.
Some of you are wondering, "Well, so what?" I want you just to step back and just think for a second about what just occurred. We shot a robot, from Earth (which is moving) to Mars (also moving) over a distance that changes from 56 to 230 million kilometers. The fact that the robot even hit the right mark is a good start, and that was the EASY part. The hard part is what is referred to as "Seven Minutes of Terror." This describes the descent of Curiosity from space, through the Martian atmosphere, to the ground. This has to happened while slowing from 13,000 mph to zero. In seven minutes. Some of you aren't even able to stop yourself from walking into other people let alone try to slow down all together.
That's not even the end of the process, as there are still plenty of opportunities for the craft to flip, fall, crash, not deploy a parachute and so on. Oh, and we won't even know what happened until seven minutes after the fact. After all, Mars isn't a walk down the block. The signal takes some time to travel the distance. We sit here waiting to know if all was for naught.
Yet, it worked.
Isn't that fucking incredible? We managed to get a one ton robot successfully onto Mars. Curiosity is roughly the size of a SUV and it is now upright on the surface reading to take pictures of anything and everything it's little robot cameras come across. And some of you are still saying, "Why should I care?"
So let me try this again: Curiosity is also called MSL, or Mars Science Laboratory. SCIENCE. LABORATORY. Mankind has put a laboratory on another PLANET. That is unbelievable.
The world has it's eyes turned to the Olympics, cheering on as humans race and compete against each other. They missed out on something truly special last night. We are beginning to explore new frontiers, learn more about our universe. These are exciting times for humanity.
So here's to you, Curiosity. Let your robot wheels lead us to new discoveries.
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