The Mars probe is ready to land

NASA's Mars probe robots are in the process of sprinting to land on Mars as planned, in order to fulfill the mission of finding evidence of life on the Red Planet.

The probe called Curiosity is leaning towards Mars after a long journey that began throughout November last year. Under the plan, a car-sized nuclear energy-powered device will end its 567-million-kilometer journey on the morning of August 6.

The landing site is 7km wide, 20km long under the basin of Gale Crater, located near the equator of Mars. This crater - one of the lowest points on Mars - is home to a 5km mountain, and seems to contain many layers of sediment. Scientists guess that this basin was once a lake.

If so, researchers believe that there are many layers of sediments that have been eroded, now only in the central soil.

If Curiosity's journey goes smoothly as planned, 7 minutes after landing, it will stand on the dusty surface of the Red Planet on 6 wheels.

In order to bring a 1-ton robot to land on mound properly, engineers invented a complex system, including a 16-meter-diameter parachute, an aerial platform supporting rockets, and something called The 'sky crane' is designed to lower the robot, helping it slowly land on the ground.

Last week, NASA successfully repositioned the Odyssey spacecraft flying around the earth so it could monitor Curiosity's landing process and transmit information about the ground controller as soon as possible.