Two years of travel brings Curiosity to its target
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028251
New York Times : NASA’s Martian rover Curiosity has reached its destination—the base of Mount Sharp—two years after it landed. The roughly 5-km-high mountain is the site of the rover’s primary science mission. As Curiosity climbs Mount Sharp, it will examine the geological structures and collect information about Mars’s history. The two-year trip was longer than originally planned because of side trips and the difficulty of navigation. During the recent review of NASA’s planetary missions, Curiosity was criticized for not delivering results proportional to its $2.5 billion cost. But despite being evaluated as the least worthwhile of the planetary missions, the rover was given a two-year project extension.
