NASA's science rover Curiosity landed on Mars shortly after 1:30 p.m. ET this morning (August 6th), set to begin a two-year mission to look for evidence that the planet once had the necessary elements for life. Mission controllers burst into applause and cheered as they received signals confirming that the rover had survived its tricky descent and touched down within its landing zone near the foot of a tall mountain, in what NASA described it as perhaps the most complex feat achieved in robotic spaceflight. Just moments later, Curiosity beamed back its first three images from the Martian surface. The car-sized, nuclear-powered rover, described as the first full-fledged mobile science lab sent to another planet, took more than eight months to get to Mars after being launched last November.