Comment 6 by Cook@Tahiti

America has succeeded where Russia's recent Mars mission (Fobos-Grunt) failed. And Britain's Mars mission (Beagles II) failed. And most of Japan's recent missions have had major problems.

After no Mars missions in the 1980s and a few failures in the 1990s, JPL-NASA have had flawless landings for Spirit & Opportunity, Phoenix and Curiosity. Good on 'em. They do it better than any other country.

Where's China?

While congratulating NASA on this latest achievement, perhaps we should not forget where the first use of extraterrestrial robot wheeled rovers started a very long time ago!

Lunokhod 1 (Луноход, moon walker in Russian; Аппарат 8ЕЛ № 203, vehicle 8ЕЛ№203) was the first of two unmanned lunar rovers. It landed on the Moon in 1970! - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunokhod_1