“Tonight, on the planet Mars, the United States of America made history,” said President Barack Obama in his message to NASA soon after the landing of ‘Curiosity’ spacecraft that travelled nearly 570 million kilometres since it was launched in November. It is twice as long and five times as heavy as earlier exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The USD 2.5 billion robotic ‘Curiosity’ made a spectacular landing near the foot of a mountain 4.8 kilometres tall and 154 kilometres in diameter inside Gale Crater at 05:30 GMT (11:00 IST) on August 6, 2012. This is one more achievement of great American nation in its bid to reach the bosom of nature’s secrets. The most sophisticated spacecraft will bring back to us on the earth the knowledge whether there did or did not exist life on the Red Planet and whether there could be the possibility for survival of human beings on the other planet. Mankind on Planet Earth is now on the threshold of great explorations in the cosmos which, in all probability, might revolutionize our life. Man indeed is the greatest of creations. We salute the scientists who have done the most significant pioneering work of exploring the Mars.
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