As NASA's Mars rover Curiosity heads toward celebrating its first anniversary on the Red Planet, the space agency has released a two-minute video of the robot's first year of exploration.
The video, titled "Twelve Months in Two Minutes," is a series of 548 images taken from the Curiosity's hazard-avoidance camera. While not exactly the most exciting footage, there is something compelling about just how ordinary it all seems - the rover drilling for soil samples as the Sun rises and sets, the weird angles cast by the rover's shadow on the ground.
"We now know Mars offered favorable conditions for microbial life billions of years ago," said John Grotzinger, the mission's project scientist, in a statement. "It has been gratifying to succeed, but that has also whetted our appetites to learn more. We hope those enticing layers at Mount Sharp will preserve a broad diversity of other environmental conditions that could have affected habitability."
August 6, the spacecraft completes a year of exploring the Red Planet. That morning, NASA Television and the agency's website will air the Curiosity team members' remembrances about the landing night and the overall mission, followed by an event featuring NASA officials and crew members aboard the International Space Station as they observe the rover anniversary and discuss how its activities and other robotic projects are helping prepare for a human mission to Mars and an asteroid.
"Successes of our Curiosity -- that dramatic touchdown a year ago and the science findings since then -- advance us toward further exploration, including sending humans to an asteroid and Mars," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "Wheel tracks now, will lead to boot prints later."
Watch the Video below
