Have humans been exploring planets other than Earth?
Mars is an icy cold planet covered with red-coloured dirt. It has volcanoes, craters, mountains, and plains. Humans have been trying to go to Mars for many years now. Though humans are not yet exploring Mars, something else is - robots! A Mars rover is a robotic vehicle that travels on the surface of Mars, collecting and studying information about the red planet and sending it back to scientists on Earth.
What is Curiosity?
Curiosity is the largest rover that Earth has sent to Mars. It left Earth in November 2011 and reached Mars in August 2012. It’s been roaming Mars for ten years now, telling us many cool facts about the planet that we otherwise couldn’t have known.
What is Curiosity’s mission?
Curiosity’s mission is to find out more about the climate and history of Mars. Curiosity also has to help humans figure out if it’s safe for us to go to Mars.
How is Curiosity doing this mission?
Curiosity has many cameras and machines that it uses to click pictures and study the things it collects on Mars. It has a seven-foot-long robotic arm that it uses as a hand. It even uses the arm to click selfies! Curiosity has a super-strong antenna on its back that it uses to receive and send information to Earth. That’s how we know about all the things it’s up to on Mars.
What has Curiosity discovered about Mars?
Curiosity found that once upon a time, Mars had a habitable environment for living things. The environment on Mars doesn’t seem to support life now and there’s no proof that any plants or animals ever lived on Mars.
However, there’s proof that a long time ago life could have survived on Mars. That’s very hopeful news because it means that Mars could support life again someday.
Who knows, maybe in your lifetime, humans will be moving to settle down on Mars. Would you want to continue living on our blue planet or would you like to move to this red one?
