Dutch researcher cheers Mars landing
Monday 06 August 2012
Inge Loes Ten Kate cheered when the rover Curiosity landed safely on Mars on Monday morning, reports the Nos.
The researcher from Utrecht university has worked for five years on the development of a crucial instrument for the vehicle. SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) is a mini-laboratorium that will grind, warm and analyse the Marsian soil.
Curiosity was lowered to the surface of the red planet by a floating 'sky crane' which set it gently down in a massive crater.
The high-tech rover has already sent back black and white photos of the rocky surface. Colour pictures will begin to arrive later this week.
Ten Kate, who works for the Goddard Space Flight Center at NASA, is now back in the Netherlands, but she will continue to monitor SAM and the samples it sends back from the European Space Agency in Noordwijk.
Are you excited about what the Curiosty will find? Let us know on the comment form below.
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I stayed up very late to watch the landing: it was fantastic. The engineering and technology that have gone into making this event possible is amazing. I hope that I live long enough to see all the experiments come to fruition.
By Adrianus Binne Martinus Van Den Enden | 7 August 2012 6:20 AM