Curiosity Lands On Mars, Twitter Explodes, NASA Parties Like It?s 2001?

At 10:32 p.m. PST on Sunday night, NASA's robotic space rover, "Curiosity," touched down on the surface of the Red Planet -- in the "Gale Crater" for those keeping track. The landing was a landmark event -- the culmination of eight months of space travel (Curiosity launched on November 26, 2011) and some $2.5 billion. While the mere feat of surviving a trip through space (35 million+ miles) and a seven-minute atmospheric entry (which was totally automated, by the way, and required the craft to decelerate from 13,000 MPH) is impressive enough, the show is just getting started. The Mini Cooper-sized rover, which is the largest envoy of its kind to be sent to Mars, will spend nearly two years roaming the surface of Mars, collecting data and photographs -- all in service of of better understanding the origins of the planet, determining its habitability, and perhaps setting the stage for future, manned missions to our red neighbor.

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