Gale (crater) about above the floor of Gale—three times higher than the Grand Canyon is deep. At 10:32 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5, 2012 (1:32 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6, 2012), the Mars Science Laboratory rover "Curiosity" landed on Mars at , at the foot of the layered mountain inside Gale crater. "Curiosity" landed within a landing ellipse approximately by . The landing ellipse is about below Martian "sea level" (defined as the average elevation around the equator). The expected near-surface atmospheric temperatures at the landing site during "Curiosity"s primary mission (1 Martian year or 687 Earth days) are from to .
Mission: Earth, Voyage to the Home Planet Mission: Earth, Voyage to the Home Planet Mission: Earth, Voyage to the Home Planet is a children's literature book by science writer June A. English and astronaut Thomas David Jones that was published in 1996 by Scholastic. Jones was among the crew members of the Space Shuttle "Endeavour" during an eleven-day mission in space, which was launched in April 1994 to study the ecological well-being of Earth using specialized radar technology. The book, which is illustrated with radar images and picturesque photographs, chronicles the mission and Jones' experiences of it. "Mission: Earth, Voyage to the Home Planet" received a generally