Curiosity killed the cat!

So Im back! and I guess theres no better topic to start with than the mars rover "Curiosity".

For those of you who dont know;

"The Curiosity rover is a robotic, car-sized Mars rover currently exploring Gale Crater, near the equator of Mars. " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_rover

The rover, launched on November 26th 2011 successfully landed on mars  August 6, 2012 (Monday).

 NASA puts the cost of the Curiosity mission at $2.5 billion, which includes spacecraft development, science investigations, and the cost of launch and operations.

 The spacecraft approached Mars at 8,000 miles per hour, then, when it hit the top of Mars' atmosphere, gravity pulled it in at about 13,200 mph. With its "sky crane" landing technique, the rover slowed to 1.7 mph. as it touched down!

Curiosity landed on target, at the foot of a mountain three miles tall and 96 miles across inside the Gale Crater!

The rover has 6 Main objectives:

1. Determine the mineralogical composition of the crater surface and near-surface geological materials.
2. Attempt to detect chemical building blocks of life (biosignatures).
3. Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils.
4. Assess the long timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) Martian atmospheric evolution processes.
5. Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide.
6. Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic radiation, cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons.  

     (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_rover#Goals_and_objectives)

Below are a few of the first images to be recieved from the rover!

First image captured by the mars rover.

Colour image of mars recived today!

First 360 degree colour view of mars.