It landed there, after a nine month journey, on August 5th 2012 – the landing is pictured below.
Since then, Curiosity has driven nearly 29 kilometres and climbed 625 metres.
It has detected organic compounds, methane variability and honed in on the history of water on the olanet.
It explored Gale Crater and the foothills of Mount Sharp within it.
It has analysed 41 rock and soil samples, studied the skies above the planet and captured images of shining clouds and drifting moons and measured radiation levels.
It has determined that liquid water as well as the chemical building blocks and nutrients needed for supporting life were present for at least tens of millions of years in Gale Crater and found evidence of the existence detected organic molecules preserved in 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rock.
Curiosity extracted and heated samples from Mojave and Confidence Hills in the Gale Crater revealing the presence of molecules that resembled organic-rich sedimentary rock found on Earth, including thiophenes, benzene, toluene, and small carbon chains, such as propane or butene.
