India has successfully put a satellite into orbit around Mars, becoming the fourth country to do so.
The Mangalyaan robotic probe, one of the cheapest interplanetary missions ever, will soon begin work studying the Red Planet’s atmosphere.
A 24-minute engine burn slowed the probe down enough to allow it to be captured by Mars’ gravity.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had achieved the “near impossible”.
Speaking at the mission control centre in the southern city of Bangalore he said: “The odds were stacked against us. Of 51 missions attempted in world only 21 have succeeded. We have prevailed.”
Only the US, Europe and Russia have previously sent missions to Mars, but India is the first country to succeed on its first attempt.
The latest US satellite, Maven, arrived at Mars on Monday.
US space agency Nasa congratulated its Indian counterpart, the Indian Space and Research Organization (Isro), on Wednesday’s success.
-BBC
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If you have read some of my stuff before, then no doubt you know I’m a bit of a nerd. I like new tech and new apps and my computer to run at least 2 different OS side by side just beacuse I can. Oh, and I love the occasional Sci-Fi movie. So when the opportunity to take a virtual tour around the Moon courtesy of Google maps came along, then I just couldn’t resist taking a look!
Google has just put some really neat 3D images, which you can explore, of the Moon and Mars in their Maps software. This coincides with the 2nd anniversary of the NASA Curiosity rover touching down on Martian soil.
In real life it would be quite some feat to be able to navigate to the Moon and the red planet and take a look around. But doing so in Google Maps is pretty easy, as long as you know whereabouts to click.
First of all navigate to Google Maps. Now look down in the bottom left and you should see an icon, which lets you put the map in “Google Earth” mode. Enable that mode. Wait for the map to load in 3D and then begin zooming out. In fact you need to zoom out as far as you can possible do.
Once you have zoomed all the way out, wait a second and you should see options for “Moon” and “Mars” that should appear at the bottom of your screen. If nothing shows up, you will have to adjust your settings as you may have the “Explore” tab closed. To remedy this, just click the pair of upward arrows in the bottom right to expand the Explore drawer. That’s it and I must say I love it!
Now we can view not just our planet, but the Moon and Mars too. If you want to check out some cool things on Google Maps just navigate to Google Maps and check out whatever you like. Now I’m sure I spotted a TARDIS around here somewhere.
As always, if you would like to leave a sensible comment, then please do so in the comments section below.
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Nasa's next Martian rover will attempt to make oxygen on the surface of the red planet when it lands there in 2021. The rover will carry seven scientific projects, aimed at paving the way for future manned missions, seeking evidence of life and storing samples to be brought back in the future.
Among them is a device for turning the CO2 that dominates the thin Martian air into oxygen, this could support human life or make rocket fuel for return missions.
The rover will also carry two cameras and an experimental weather station among its 88lb (40kg) of instruments.
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