The Buckingham

Photo Credit: abcnews.go.com

NASA’s Mars rover, Curiosity, has taken its first color image showing the north wall and rim of Gale Crater where the nuclear-powered, six-wheeled rover touched down Sunday night after eight months in space.

The rover’s touchdown on Sunday night has been hailed by NASA as the most elaborate and challenging ever in robotic spaceflight.

The primary mission of Curiosity is to search for evidence that the planet most similar to Earth now harbors, or once hosted, the key ingredients necessary for the evolution of microbial life.

The Curiosity rover is the first fully equipped mobile laboratory ever sent to another world.