NASA continues to be the most inspiring arm of government we have in the United States. At the beginning of the week, millions of us followed along on the web as the newest Mars Rover, Curiosity, landed on Mars to begin its study of chemistry and geology on the Martian surface. A full-fledged mobile science laboratory, it landed on Mars safely after the "7 minutes of terror" experienced by mission control in Pasadena, California.
The Internet erupted in joy when Curiosity transmitted back its first image of Mars, seven minutes after landing. For a video of the descent, NASA has kindly provided one, embedded below.
And as usual,
XKCD has succinctly summarized just what exactly NASA accomplished.
For more info on the landing:
Yahoo News
Washington Post
