Entering Mars’ atmosphere. 7. Minutes. Of. Terror. Starts. NOW. #MSL
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 6, 2012
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)
One year into Curiosity’s mission to Mars, NASA has released some numbers on its rover.
A sample of what it’s been up to since arriving at Bradbury Landing on a two-year hunt for signs that the red planet once hosted life—or any indication that life could, one day, survive there:
1.6: Number of kilometres the Curiousity has travelled.
190: The number of gigabits of data collected.
36,700: The number of full images.
75,000: Number of laser shots fired to check on composition of objects.
2: Number of rocks sampled and analysed.
NASA will celebrate the one-year milestone on Tuesday. It has also celebrated the mission so far in video:
From Day 1, NASA has shared mission highlights via @MarsCuriosity on Twitter. Here’s an excerpt of a feed from earlier this year:
