Curiosity rover celebrates 1st anniversary on Mars

It was shortly after 10 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, on August 5th, 2012, that the Mars Science Laboratory — otherwise known as Curiosity — performed a destruction-defying stunt dive into the Martian atmosphere.

The scientists and engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory called this white-knuckle ride the 'seven minutes of terror', and with good reason:

Fortunately, the story had a happy ending, and the year since has been incredible.

The rover hasn't even reached its intended destination — Aeolis Mons, the 5.5 km-tall mountain at the centre of Gale Crater, better known as Mount Sharp — and yet it has already completed its primary mission. The main reason Curiosity was sent to Mars was to determine if the planet once had an environment that could support life. It had been on the planet for just under two months, and still in the phase of testing out all its systems, when it discovered the remains of an ancient stream that once flowed along the crater floor. It wasn't known, at the time, if the water that flowed in that stream was capable of supporting life, though. The stream bore all the hallmarks of a stream here on earth, with rounded pebbles much to heavy to be moved by the thin Martian atmosphere cemented together with deposited sediments.

Then, in early March, the rover drilled down into layers of sediment in another ancient stream bed that one flowed down from the rim of Gale Crater, called Yellowknife Bay. After examining the dust it collected from the drill holes, Curiosity found the distinct chemical signature of clays that form in water with a neutral pH — not too acidic or too basic. From everything we know about Earth, that kind of environment is an excellent place for life to hang out. It didn't prove there was life there (either now or then), it just showed that life could have lived there.

Curiosity's lead scientist, John Grotzinger said during a press conference: "We have found a habitable environment that is so benign and supportive of life that probably if this water was around and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it."

The accomplishments of the mission so far have been outstanding:

[ More Geekquinox: Time-lapse shows Mars Curiosity rover’s past year in just 2 minutes ]

The rover's mission isn't over, of course. It's still on course towards Mount Sharp, to climb up the side and investigate the layers of rock exposed on the mountain's side. The trip will still take several months at Curiosity's pace, and there are sure to be stops along the way to investigate anything that peaks the science team's interest, so exactly when it will arrive is still unknown. What is known, though, is that there's still plenty of Curiosity news to come. Stay tuned!

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