NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, landed in Gale Crater after a descent sequence that involved a supersonic parachute, retro-rockets and a hovering sky crane that lowered the vehicle on cables.
Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California cheered as the first low-resolution images arrived showing the rover's wheel on the Martian surface. The mission was designed to assess whether the planet had ever offered conditions suitable for microbial life.
Curiosity later found evidence of an ancient freshwater lake bed and detected organic molecules in Martian rock, and remains operational years past its planned two-year mission.
