Curiosity Rover Pulls First Ever Donut On Mars

AMERICAN space agency NASA has confirmed that the Curiosity Rover pulled the first ever donut on the planet Mars this morning as part of an eight week mission to break the Guinness Book record.

At approximately 11:34 GMT, the 900 kg robotic rover made its way to the top of an elevated crater ledge, before descending at 40kmh to the centre and hand-braking slightly into a spin and performing a neatly shaped doughnut in the Martian soil.

“Our team of operators has spent two months planning this dangerous manoeuvre,” explained Dr Chris Webster of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, California. “A whole galaxy of things could have gone wrong, but thankfully we were able to complete the first ever Donut pulled on an alien world”.

At a press conference at lunchtime at the American Geophysical Union’s convention in San Francisco, NASA scientists said the $2.5 billion vehicle pulled not one, but two complete donuts before stopping to a beautiful halt in a cloud of its own dust.

“It was pretty awesome,” said scientist, Prof Terry Dean, who was part of the 567 strong team involved in today’s stunt. “We risked everything this morning and it gladly paid off in the end”.

Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011 and landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars to investigate the Martian climate and geology; and to also assess whether the selected field site inside Gale Crater has ever offered environmental conditions favourable for microbial life.