The US space agency has just landed a huge new robot rover on Mars.

The one-tonne vehicle, known as Curiosity, was reported to have landed in a deep crater near the planet's equator at 06:32 BST (05:32 GMT).

I was reading up on that a while back - I love the concept of the "Sky crane" for the lander.

The entire landing sequence is, well, insane on the level of a Gerry Anderson production. It uses 4 different, and quite distinct, devices to get the lander down safely.

Here’s a cinematograph of the landing where “boffins” explain it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_Af_o9Q9s

Science and engineering are awesome!

+9000

I was watching the NASA channel live as it happened. The exuberance and fist pumping was OTT, but I really enjoyed the suspence and anticipation. I would have loved to experience the first moon landing like my parents.

My dad and his family didn't have a TV so they went to watch the landing at their neighbours. I always love listening to the story about that.

Apparently we could send man to Mars for £13 billion. Now that's not much more than the Olympics.

Of course most of the seats on the spacecraft would be empty.

Worst. Takedown. Ever.

Mark