Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory)

Curiosity launched on November 26, 2011, and its landing on August 6, 2012, was the most audacious ever attempted: after a guided hypersonic entry and parachute descent, a rocket-powered ‘sky crane’ hovered and lowered the one-ton rover to the floor of Gale Crater on nylon cables. Engineers called the sequence ‘seven minutes of terror.’ It worked flawlessly.

Within its first year, Curiosity answered its central question by drilling into an ancient lakebed and finding the chemical ingredients and gentle waters of a once-habitable world. More than a decade on, the rover is still climbing Mount Sharp, reading billions of years of climate history in the rock layers, powered day and night by its plutonium generator.