On August 6, 2012, NASA’s Curiosity spacecraft completed its 255-day, 
354-million-mile journey and plunged down into Mars at Gale Crater, 
decelerating from 13,200 to 0 mph in 7 dramatic and suspenseful minutes.
 The whole world watched the thrilling success of the most complicated 
and precise landing ever undertaken. What happen after the exhilarating landing? This
 book covers Curiosity’s first six months on the red planet from the 
highly successful landing, through system checks and into the 
exploration and science of the Martian mission. Best of all it contains 
over 50 full color photos of the Martian surface. With its rover 
named Curiosity, Mars Science Laboratory mission is part of NASA's Mars 
Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the 
red planet. Curiosity is designed to assess whether Mars ever had an 
environment able to support small life forms called microbes. In other 
words, its mission is to determine the planet's "habitability." To find 
out, the rover carries the biggest, most advanced suite of instruments 
for scientific studies ever sent to the Martian surface. The rover 
analyzes samples scooped from the soil and drilled from rocks. The 
onboard laboratory studies rocks, soils, and the local geologic setting 
in order to detect chemical building blocks of life on Mars and will 
assess what the Martian environment was like in the past. This book 
contains comprehensive coverage of all aspects of NASA's Mars Science 
Laboratory (MSL) and its Curiosity rover. There is complete data on the 
MSL mission, science investigations, historical Mars missions, the Gale 
Crater landing site, and the radioisotope nuclear power source. Over 50 
photos and illustrations, most in full color. Hyperlinked table of 
contents for easy navigation.

NASA MSL: Curiosity’s Diary - Six Months on Mars PDF

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