Nasa’s curiosity rover lands on red planet

Nasa’s Curiosity rover has landed successfully on Mars and the most expensive and ambitious mission to reach the red planet is under way. The $2.5 billion rover made a dramatic touchdown to cheers among staff at mission control some 154 million miles away, according to the (Sky News). Nasa said it had received a signal from the most hi-tech Mars rover ever built after a plunge through the Martian atmosphere described as “seven minutes of terror”. Cables were used to lower the rover – the size of a Mini – into a giant crater. For the next two years it will drill into rocks and scoop up soil, exploring whether the planet’s environment could have supported life in the form of microscopic organisms.