At 1:32 am today a car-sized unit of scientific instruments landed on Mars to determine if conditions there were ever favorable to life. Curiosity cost $2.5 billion and employed 5,000 people from 37 states. It took over eight months from launch for Curiosity to make the long journey to Mars and was the most complex mission ever attempted. The Curiosity rover will spend two years roaming Gale Crater. All done because we are curious: Are we alone?
In Times Square this morning people viewed the first images sent by Curiosity and the elated scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and began chanting: "NASA, NASA" and "Science, Science."
