Curiosity's mission: Pictures

The trip will take over eight months...The rover will travel about 354 million miles (570 million kilometers).

The spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere 78 miles above the planet. The rover will take approximately seven minutes to reach the ground.
The spacecraft can steer its way through the turbulent atmosphere so it can land more accurately.

The friction of the atmosphere slows the spacecraft from 13,000 mph to about 900 mph.
The heat shield may reach 3,800 degrees Fahrenheit!

While slowing down using the parachute, the heat shield is popped off, exposing the rover to the Martian atmosphere.
The rover´s descent camera begins taking a movie of the remaining five-mile flight to the ground.

The engines on the descent stage roar to life and fly the rover down the last mile to the surface.
As it descends, the rover uses radar to measure its speed and altitude, which it uses to land safely.

By the time Curiosity touches down, the rover is going about two miles per hour.
Less than seven minutes before, it was traveling at 13,000 miles per hour!

For the first time, a Mars rover will land with wheels touching down first, instead of airbags.

Curiosity will start exploring Mars after raising its “head” and doing a “self-check” to make sure all systems are go. Driving could take several days to a few weeks after landing.

Curiosity will tell us about what it finds through the Deep Space Network...Three centers with large communications antennas receive the signals: in California, Spain, and Australia.

Curiosity will send data back to Earth´s Deep Space Network through Mars orbiters.

It takes about 5 to 20 minutes for a signal to travel between Earth and Mars, depending on where the planets are in their orbits.

Curiosity´s schedule will vary based on what she finds. She may take pictures one day, use her laser the next, drill into a rock for a sample, or simply drive to a new place.

Curiosity is expected to work for one Martian year, or about two Earth years.
Don´t miss the adventure on Mars, beginning August 2012!

Artist´s Concept. NASA/JPL-Caltech