<div>US space agency's nuclear-powered one tonne rover Curiosity, packed with sophisticated instruments, touched down on Mars Sunday on a quest for signs of whether the Earth's neighbour has evidence of past and present habitable environments.<br /><br /><div>It was a tense and daring scientific mission to land the rover on the surface of Mars. And it succeeded.<br /><br /></div><div>"Touchdown confirmed for @MarsCuriosity," said a NASA tweet as ecstatic scientists celebrated.<br /><br /></div><div>Its mission: to see if Mars ever could have supported small life forms like microbes...and if humans could survive there someday.<br /><br /></div><div>The six-wheeled rover, weighing about one tonne, dwarfs all previous robots sent to the surface of Mars. <br /><br /></div><div>It is about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as any previous Mars rover, Xinhua reported. </div><div> </div><div>It has been equipped with 10 scientific instruments, including two for ingesting and analysing samples of powdered rock delivered by the rover's robotic arm.<br /><br /></div><div>The rover was on a precise course for a landing beside a Martian mountain to begin two years of unprecedented scientific detective work, according to NASA. <br /><br /></div><div>During a prime mission lasting one Martian year - nearly two Earth years - researchers will use the rover's tools to study whether the landing region has had environmental conditions favourable for supporting microbial life and favorable for preserving clues about whether life existed.<br /><br /></div><div>The $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory, the formal name of the mission deploying the Curiosity rover, was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Nov 26, 2011.<br /><br /></div><div>BBC reported that a staggering two-thirds of all missions sent to Mars have failed while entering the thin but unforgiving Martian atmosphere.<br /><br /></div><div>NASA's strategy was to use a sequence of fully automated manoeuvres to slow the entry from an initial 20,000km/h at the top of the atmosphere to less than 1m/s at touch-down. <br /><br /></div><div>The last stage in the sequence will see a hovering, rocket-powered crane lower the rover to the ground on nylon cords, the media report explained.<br /><br /></div><div>Tense scientists waited for news as the 250 million km between Mars and Earth means there is a 13-minute lag in communications.<br /><br /></div><div>"I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!!," said a tweet after the rover landed safely on Mars.<br /><br /></div><div>Moments earlier, another tweet said: "Backshell separation. It's just you & me now, descent stage. Engage all retrorockets!"<br /><br /></div><div>The critical tweets began with the one saying: "Guided entry is begun. Here I go!".</div><div>Less than a minute later, another said: "Parachute deployed! Velocity 900 mph. Altitude 7 miles. 4 minutes to Mars!".<br /><br /></div><div>Soon after landing on Mars, the rover beamed its first photograph which showed a shadow of the rover on the red planet.<br /><br /></div><div>"It once was one small step... now it's six big wheels. Here's a look at one of them on the soil of Mars," added a tweet that referred to astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous words "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" after he set foot on moon.</div></div>
<div>US space agency's nuclear-powered one tonne rover Curiosity, packed with sophisticated instruments, touched down on Mars Sunday on a quest for signs of whether the Earth's neighbour has evidence of past and present habitable environments.<br /><br /><div>It was a tense and daring scientific mission to land the rover on the surface of Mars. And it succeeded.<br /><br /></div><div>"Touchdown confirmed for @MarsCuriosity," said a NASA tweet as ecstatic scientists celebrated.<br /><br /></div><div>Its mission: to see if Mars ever could have supported small life forms like microbes...and if humans could survive there someday.<br /><br /></div><div>The six-wheeled rover, weighing about one tonne, dwarfs all previous robots sent to the surface of Mars. <br /><br /></div><div>It is about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as any previous Mars rover, Xinhua reported. </div><div> </div><div>It has been equipped with 10 scientific instruments, including two for ingesting and analysing samples of powdered rock delivered by the rover's robotic arm.<br /><br /></div><div>The rover was on a precise course for a landing beside a Martian mountain to begin two years of unprecedented scientific detective work, according to NASA. <br /><br /></div><div>During a prime mission lasting one Martian year - nearly two Earth years - researchers will use the rover's tools to study whether the landing region has had environmental conditions favourable for supporting microbial life and favorable for preserving clues about whether life existed.<br /><br /></div><div>The $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory, the formal name of the mission deploying the Curiosity rover, was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Nov 26, 2011.<br /><br /></div><div>BBC reported that a staggering two-thirds of all missions sent to Mars have failed while entering the thin but unforgiving Martian atmosphere.<br /><br /></div><div>NASA's strategy was to use a sequence of fully automated manoeuvres to slow the entry from an initial 20,000km/h at the top of the atmosphere to less than 1m/s at touch-down. <br /><br /></div><div>The last stage in the sequence will see a hovering, rocket-powered crane lower the rover to the ground on nylon cords, the media report explained.<br /><br /></div><div>Tense scientists waited for news as the 250 million km between Mars and Earth means there is a 13-minute lag in communications.<br /><br /></div><div>"I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!!," said a tweet after the rover landed safely on Mars.<br /><br /></div><div>Moments earlier, another tweet said: "Backshell separation. It's just you & me now, descent stage. Engage all retrorockets!"<br /><br /></div><div>The critical tweets began with the one saying: "Guided entry is begun. Here I go!".</div><div>Less than a minute later, another said: "Parachute deployed! Velocity 900 mph. Altitude 7 miles. 4 minutes to Mars!".<br /><br /></div><div>Soon after landing on Mars, the rover beamed its first photograph which showed a shadow of the rover on the red planet.<br /><br /></div><div>"It once was one small step... now it's six big wheels. Here's a look at one of them on the soil of Mars," added a tweet that referred to astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous words "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" after he set foot on moon.</div></div>