At 1:31 a.m. ET on August 6 , 2012 , NASA ’s Curiosity bird of passage made a spectacular landing place on the surface of Mars .
To mark the 12th day of remembrance , NASA has shared a video ( below ) in which penis of the Curiosity squad talk about how they achieved the remarkable feat , paying particular attending to the so - called “ seven minutes of panic ” during the last second of lineage .
What's that about sticking the landing ? 🥇
12 year ago , my landing place on the Red Planet required 76 pyrotechnic devices and had zero security deposit for mistake – and my team absolutely apprehend it .
Do you commemorate the drama of those & quot;7 Minutes of Terror"?pic.twitter.com/5iZd7PSQax
& mdash ; Curiosity Rover ( @MarsCuriosity)August 5 , 2024
“ Entry , extraction , and landing ( EDL ) is look up to as the ‘ seven minutes of terror ’ because we ’ve catch literally seven moment to get from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars , ” EDL engineer Tom Rivell explained in the video . “ Going from 13,000 miles per hour to zero , in double-dyed chronological sequence , perfect stage dancing , perfect timing , and the computer has to do it all by itself , with no service from the earth . If any one affair does n’t solve just right , it ’s game over . ”
The video give reset the unbelievable forces that acted against the space vehicle as it speedily go down toward the Earth’s surface of Mars more than a decade ago . It also spotlight the deployment of the spacecraft ’s “ ultrasonic parachute , ” which had to withstand 65,000 pounds of force .
The next crucial step involved the ejection of the oestrus carapace so that measuring puppet aboard the blood line stage could scan the ground for the indicate landing zone .
The parachute only slowed the line of descent stage to a speed of about 200 miles per hour , so arugula boosters had to be force out up to slow it further .
The booster took the descent microscope stage nearer to the primer , but they could n’t be used for the landing as the dust kvetch up by the boosters could finalise on Curiosity and damage its various instruments . So engineer developed the stupefying “ skycrane manoeuvre ” where , at an ALT of just 20 meter , the descent stage used a lead to lower Curiosity to the surface . Once safely on the ground , the lineage point cut back the lead and flew off to a landing post well unclouded of Curiosity .
The landing inside the red planet ’s Gale Crater was an impressive feat of applied science and pave the way for the landing place of the Perseverance roamer nine years later . persistency used a similar landing process that was captured in high - definition video . If you ’ve never catch it , the footage really is deserving checking out .
Twelves years on , Curiositycontinues to operate on Mars , beaming back data for scientist penetrating to see more about the remote major planet whereNASA is hoping to place humansin the come tenner .
