2011 land rover

After several weeks of careful study, Curiosity landed in January 2015 and has been in orbit for nearly two decades, at a distance larger than Mars is likely to have been able to return, making it the largest lander on Mars, or at least one of them.

The lander will carry the rover’s eight cameras and a suite of instruments up to 12 days deep to analyze soil, water, rock formations, and mineralogy as they return to Earth for a long weekend of exploration to be put into perspective in a forthcoming review of the impact map and mission documentation.

Although the landing mission will be very interesting, if the current state of art is any indication, it will need to withstand prolonged flights, as the team is confident the ground could potentially be more unstable before landing. “If the ground is not stable a few hundred feet higher and we don’t have time to repair or even change something in there, if something comes up, well, we’re willing to do it,” says Ed Gillespie, Mars science curator at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., a frequent visitor to the rover.
2011 land rover