Curiosity’s Landing: A Rover Reaches Mars
How do you land a car-sized robot on a planet millions of miles away? On August 5, 2012, engineers at NASA waited for a signal that would tell them whether their answer had worked. Their spacecraft was carrying Curiosity, a rover built to explore Mars. By the time the signal reached Earth, the landing itself had already happened.
Radio signals take time to travel across space. During Curiosity’s landing, a message from Mars took about 14 minutes to reach Earth. That delay made it impossible for engineers to steer the spacecraft through each step in real time. Instead, they had programmed it to carry out the landing on its own.
A fast trip to the surface
Curiosity approached Mars protected inside a spacecraft. When the spacecraft entered the thin Martian atmosphere, it was traveling at about 13,000 miles per hour. Friction with the atmosphere helped slow it down, but the rushing air also created intense heat. A heat shield protected the equipment inside.
Next, a huge parachute opened to slow the spacecraft further. After the heat shield was released, instruments could measure the distance to the ground. The rover was headed for Gale Crater, a large basin with a mountain rising from its center.
- atmosphere:
- The layer of gases surrounding a planet.
- friction:
- A force that slows movement when materials rub against each other.
- resistance:
- A force that works against movement.
- descent:
- The movement of something downward.
- preserve:
- To keep something from being lost or damaged.
- evidence:
- Information or clues that help show whether something is true.
- observation:
- Something noticed or measured while studying a subject.
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Main Idea
Identify the central idea and explain how important details develop it.
Context Clues
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Summarize
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Purpose
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Structure
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Writing Prompts
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1Why did Curiosity have to land without real-time steering from Earth?
- 2How did the atmosphere both help and create a danger during the landing?
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About this explanatory article passage for Upper Elementary
“Curiosity’s Landing: A Rover Reaches Mars” is a explanatory article reading passage about Mars exploration, written for Upper Elementary. It takes about 4 minutes to read (543 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.