Untitled Page

A £1.6 billion one-ton robot rover the size of a small car has landed safely on Mars after one of the most daring and difficult interplanetary operations attempted.

The six-wheeled rover Curiosity was lowered to the Martian surface on three nylon tethers suspended from a hovering "sky crane" kept airborne with retro rockets.

An expected signal confirming that the robot had landed was received on Earth at 6.31am UK time. There were scenes of wild jubilation at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California when the message came through to mission control: "Touchdown confirmed."

Curiosity can now start its 98 week mission - the length of one Martian year - exploring a

Roughly the size of a Mini Cooper, Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity which landed on Mars in 2004. The robot was too heavy to have its landing cushioned by bouncing air bags - the method used for the previous rovers. Instead scientists came up with the dramatic "sky crane" solution.

Curiosity's target was Gale Crater, near the Martian equator, where there is geological evidence of past water. The rover landed close to Mount Sharp, a 3.4-mile high peak in the centre of the crater with clay deposits around its base.

Proof that Curiosity was on Mars came in the form of thumbnail images showing the planet's rock-strewn surface and one of the rover's wheels. The images were relayed to Earth by the orbiting Nasa spacecraft Mars Odyssey.

Dr John Bridges, from the University of Leicester, one of two British scientists leading teams on the mission, wrote in a live blog from mission control: "It's down - landed! Lots of very happy and excited people in this room! What an opportunity we have now to explore this fascinating planet."

A live video link showed tension mounting in the mission control room in Pasadena during the final minutes before the landing. Nasa described the period between entering the Martian atmosphere and touch-down as "seven minutes of terror". When confirmation of the landing arrived, controllers leaped from their desks, cheering, clapping, punching the air and hugging each other. Some were in tears. One voice was heard to shout: "We did it, man."

An Atlas V rocket carrying Curiosity blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, last November. The journey to Mars crossed 352 million miles of space and took nine months.