Watch: Ultimate Mars Challenge

By Nancy Atkinson - November 17, 2012 at 11:41 PM UTC | Planetary Science
Curiosity-Sol-24_3-Ca_Ken-Kremer.jpg

The PBS special "Ultimate Mars Challenge" that aired this week in the US is now available on YouTube. The production crew did a great job capturing the challenges of putting this mission together, and included scenes from building and testing the rover here on Earth to the nail-biting landing to even including some of the most recent images and discoveries from the mission.

Note: if the video above doesn't play in your country, try going to the

PBS NOVA website

and watching it there. You can read more information about the episode

here.

As we mentioned previously, some of the mosaics and panoramas put together by Universe Today writer Ken Kremer, along with his imaging team partner Marco Di Lorenzo, were used in the PBS show. Congrats to Ken and Marco! Below is one of their images that was used:

Curiosity looks back to her rover tracks and the foothills of Mount Sharp and the eroded rim of Gale Crater in the distant horizon on Sol 24 (Aug. 30, 2012). This panorama is featured on PBS NOVA Ultimate Mars Challenge' documentary premiering on Nov. 14. The colorized mosaic was stitched together from Navcam images. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Ken Kremer / Marco Di Lorenzo

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com