Mars Curiosity ROVER. And More Scientific Feat

Mars Curiosity ROVER.

And More Scientific Feats 2012.

High-Resolution Self-Portrait by Curiosity Rover Arm Camera

NASA and other nations have launched spacecraft into Earth orbit for decades. Rovers have already explored Mars. And scientists have known since the 1960s about the possible existence of a nearly undetectable particle that fills the gaps in understanding physics and the universe.

Out of the most celebrated scientific achievements and events of 2012, many relied on pages straight out of the history books, yet provided new twists that captured the world's attention.

During the year, Hawthorne-based SpaceX became the first private company to launch a spacecraft, sending its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station and starting a new era of space missions.

The Mars Science Laboratory - aboard the Curiosity rover and managed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory - landed at one of the lowest elevation points on Mars and began a two-year mission to find evidence that life might have once existed there.

Plenty more science is also expected from Curiosity this year, particularly when the rover turns its attention later to a possible mother lode of scientific discovery: Mars' Mt. Sharp.

"The complexity and the capability that Curiosity has just dwarfs all the other missions that we've sent to Mars in the past," JPL mission manager Mike Watkins said. "The fact the Curiosity has worked so well has been amazing."

Just getting to Mars was a notable achievement. Engineers designed a complicated landing procedure involving a parachute and a "sky-crane" that would lower the rover gently to the ground much like a helicopter.

NASA called the landing "Seven Minutes of Terror," and when it worked, the jubilant JPL employees - including "Mohawk guy," Bobak Ferdowsi - became worldwide stars.

Curiosity went on to make several discoveries, including identifying its landing site and as ancient river bed, but the mission is really just getting started.

Its first scientific results were mostly check-out procedures for the MSL instruments, but project scientist John Grotzinger set the rumor mill buzzing in November when he declared results would be "one for the history books." Speculation centered on organic matter, a major clue that life may have existed there, but the results turned out to be only hints that organic matter might be present.

Curiosity's final check-out, drilling, is expected to start in January at an area called Glenelg.

"We're trying to take a close circle of that area to find the best drilling target," Watkins said. "We want the rover straight and level, and we want to drill straight down below us."

The mission's success inspired NASA to announce a twin rover to launch by 2020. Another visit to Mars will come sooner, when the MAVEN orbiter launches in late 2013 to test the planet's atmospher