Mars Curiosity Rover Team to Receive Smithsonian Award

Following the announcement by NASA that Mars did indeed have conditions sustainable for life, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum said Thursday they will be awarding the team responsible for the successful landing of NASA's Mars Curiosity rover.

The NASA team will receive its 2013 Trophy for Current Achievement on April 24 in Washington DC, the organization said in a statement.

"The Current Achievement winner can be summarized in two words: sky crane," according to a museum press release describing the award. "This phrase embodied the audacious plan that the Entry, Descent, and Landing team devised to deliver the heaviest man-made object yet sent to Mars: the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover."

Mars Curiosity Rover landed on the Martian surface Aug. 6, 2012  for a two year mission. The $2.5 billion Curiosity is about the size of a car, making it the largest rover ever to explore Mars. It carries 10 different science instruments to study the Red Planet in unprecedented detail.

"The science that Curiosity will reveal during the coming years is possible only because the (landing) team ensured that the new landing system worked-perfectly-entirely on its own," the Smithsonian said in their announcement. "Thanks to this success, the 'fun' part of the Curiosity mission is underway."

NASA announced this Tuesday that following anazlyes from rock particles extracted from Mars, they learnt that several billion years ago; Mars may have supported life, with plenty of water as well as minerals that could have served as food. Scientists clarified that they are still searching for organic compounds but has not yet found them.

Starting in 1985, the National Air and Space Museum has given its Lifetime Achievement and Current Achievement awards away each year, with a few exceptions, to recognize aerospace science and technology accomplishments in both the past and present.