The Curiosity rover, an exploratory mission to the Red Planet launched in November 2011, is celebrating its tenth anniversary roaming the surface of the planet and making astounding scientific discoveries along the way, NPR reports.
Landing on the surface August 5, 2012 (Earth time) at a location dubbed the Bradbury Landing Site–named after Ray Bradbury who wrote “The Martian Chronicles” and who died the day the spacecraft landed on Mars–and Curiosity was deployed to the surface the following Earth Day, August 6, 2012.
Since it landed, Curiosity has cruised the surface of Mars for 3,555 sols–Martian days, which are slightly longer than Earth days–even though its expected mission duration was just two Earth years. With its array of cameras and equipment, Curiosity has made discoveries regarding the soil of Mars, potential underlying water, and even Martian weather; it’s processes to keep its solar panels function over the decade has dictated processes for future probes to the planet.