NASA’s Curiosity rover spent seven long years on Mars, roaming the Red Planet in search of signs of old life.
The time spent fighting the hard element Mars, with its freezing temperatures, high winds and dusty storms, has had a significant impact on the car-sized robot.
A side-by-side comparison of an image the rover captured shortly after landing on the Red Planet, and one the robot took back in January, highlights the shocking transformation.
INVERSE COUNT DOWN THE 20 MOST UNIVERSE-CHANGING MOMENTS OF 2020. THIS IS NUMBER 9. Check out the full list here.
The photo was posted on the image sharing website Imgur with a ‘before’ shot. It later landed on the space community board on Reddit and climbed up with tens of thousands of upvotes.
Curiosity launched in November 2011 and landed on Mars on August 5, 2012. It followed in the footsteps of its predecessors Sojourner, Opportunity and Spirit, and will soon be followed by the Perseverance rover, which is scheduled to land on Mars in February 2021 .
During its time on Mars, the Curiosity rover loves to take selfies with its outstretched robotic arm with a camera on the end.
In one of its last communications with Earth, the Curiosity rover captured a photo of itself on Mars on October 11, 2019. And the comparison between Curiosity’s most recent selfie with the selfie he took earlier on his journey shows the toll the Red Planet has taken. taken on the robot explorer.
Curiosity has had to navigate the rocky surface of Mars, with dried-up lakes, craters and volcanoes. The red planet is also covered in red dust, which, according to NASA, is often blown by rough Martian winds into tornado-like dust storms that are sometimes so large that they can be seen from Earth.
The robot was sent on a two-year mission to find out if Mars ever had the right environmental conditions to support life in its early history.
Since it landed on Mars in 2012, Curiosity has roamed Gale Crater and discovered a lake that may have held water billions of years ago and an environment that might have supported microbial life.
The robber has been through a lot and it shows, but he shouldn’t be discouraged by his fading shine.
INVERSE COUNT DOWN THE 20 MOST UNIVERSE MOMENTS OF 2020. THIS IS NUMBER 9. READ THE ORIGINAL STORY HERE.