New life on Mars: how Curiosity saved NASA

Updated August 7 2012 - 11:08am, first published 10:17am
What a view ... An image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover showing Mars' Mount Sharp in the distance.
What a view ... An image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover showing Mars' Mount Sharp in the distance.
Touchdown ... In this image, NASA's Curiosity rover and its parachute, left, descend to the Martian surface.
Touchdown ... In this image, NASA's Curiosity rover and its parachute, left, descend to the Martian surface.
First look ... One of the first images taken by Curiosity shows the rover's wheel on Martian soil.
First look ... One of the first images taken by Curiosity shows the rover's wheel on Martian soil.
Isn't she lovely ... Mars, as pictured by the Hubble telescope in 2003.
Isn't she lovely ... Mars, as pictured by the Hubble telescope in 2003.

To look at the scenes of jubilation - the whooping, the hollering and the high fiveing - you would think that Team USA had just picked up a dozen gold medals. But these scenes were taking place more than 5,000 miles away from London in Pasadena, California, and the celebrations were not to mark the fact that someone had run faster, or jumped higher, or thrown further; they signified that perhaps the most audacious and risky mission ever to another planet appeared to have been a stunning success.

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