Tuesday, August 7, 2012 Mars landing ‘gold’ for NASA NASA’s
newest robotic rover Curiosity touched gently to the surface of
Mars early Monday to begin looking for evidence of life,
thrilling researchers in Pittsburgh and elsewhere who had a hand
in the $2.5 billion adventure. David Wettergreen, a research
professor in CMU’s Robotics Institute who has aided several NASA
projects including recent tests on Curiosity, was among
countless scientists and researchers around the globe glued to
their chairs on Sunday and early Monday as the largest rover
ever sent to Mars sailed to the surface for a picture-perfect
landing. Wettergreen was working late when Curiosity touched
down shortly after 1:30 a.m. Monday. “I took a break in the
middle of writing to watch the landing. It was exciting,” he
said. He said that some of the technology Carnegie Mellon
University researchers developed for use in Curiosity could
ripple into scientific efforts around Earth for years. Curiosity
was NASA’s seventh landing on the red planet;