General Knowledge-Current Affairs-NASA lands new robot Rover on Mars known as Curiosity

NASA lands new robot Rover on Mars

The US space agency, NASA has successfully landed a huge new robot Rover on Mars. The one-tonne vehicle, known as Curiosity, touched down in a deep crater near the planet's equator after a plunging through the atmosphere.

It is going to look for evidence that Mars could once have supported life. A signal confirming the Rover was on the ground safely, was relayed to Earth via Nasa's Odyssey satellite, which is in orbit around the Red Planet.

The successful landing of the 2.5 billion US Dollars Mars Rover was greeted with a roar of approval at mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Engineers and scientists who have worked on this project for the best part of 10 years punched the air and hugged each other.

The mission team will now spend the next few hours assessing the health of the vehicle, also referred to as the Mars Science Laboratory, MSL. An attempt will also be made to retrieve some images of the landing location.