'Curiosity remains strong': Curiosity rover clocks 4,000 days in Mars' 'punishingly cold environment'

NASA's Curiosity Rover has clocked a historic milestone by spending 4,000 Martian days exploring the red planet.

The car-sized rover reached Mars on 6 August 2012, and has been on the barren planet ever since, "busy conducting exciting science".

'Staying strong'

Celebrating the 11-year-long journey, NASA on its website wrote: "The mission team is making sure the robotic scientist, now in its fourth extended mission, is staying strong, despite wear and tear from its 11-year journey."

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The rover, which at the time of its launch was the largest and the most advanced rover ever sent to Mars, aimed to determine if the alien planet was ever able to support microbial life.

Curiosity Rover's achievements

The rover's samples have helped scientists establish that the planet in ancient times had a huge network of rivers flowing with life-giving water.

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Just last month, this exciting find was published by researchers in the journal 'Geophysical Research Letters'.

"We're finding evidence that Mars was likely a planet of rivers," said the research's lead author, Benjamin Cardenas, a geoscientist at Penn State University, at the time.

Slowly ascending the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) Mount Sharp, Curiosity has helped us know a lot about Mars. Mount Sharp, the tall geological structure, as per NASA, is composed of many layers that formed during different parts of Martian history.

Recently, the resilient rover collected a sample from its target, nicknamed 'Sequoia'. This sample will help "reveal more about how the climate and habitability of Mars evolved as this region became enriched in sulfates – minerals that likely formed in salty water that was evaporating as Mars first began drying up billions of years ago".

Eventually, the planet's water disappeared. Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said: "The types of sulfate and carbonate minerals that Curiosity’s instruments have identified in the last year help us understand what Mars was like so long ago. We've been anticipating these results for decades, and now Sequoia will tell us even more."

"Curiosity remains strong," says NASA.

During its 4,000-plus day or 11-year-long journey, the rover has driven almost 20 miles (32 kilometres) through Mars' "punishingly cold environment bathed in dust and radiation". 

(With inputs from agencies)