"Seven Minutes of Terror," Eight Years of Ingenuity

What is Curiosity?

• a parachute used to land on Mars
• another name for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• a space rover that landed on Mars
• a video made by NASA engineers

What sequence of events is described in this passage?

• the sequence of events that led to Opportunity landing on Mars
• the sequence of events that led to Curiosity landing on Mars
• the sequence of events that led to the creation of NASA
• the sequence of events that will need to take place for Mars to be colonized

In order to land on Mars, Curiosity had to use a parachute, rockets, and a sky crane. What can be concluded from this information?

• Landing on Mars is a simple process.
• Landing on Mars is a complicated process.
• Landing on Mars is a waste of time.
• Landing on Mars in the future is unrealistic.

What helped make the Mars Science Laboratory mission successful?

• one person working by himself for decades
• two countries competing with each other
• a lot of people working together for years
• hi-tech airbags first used in 2004

What is this passage mainly about?

• a mission to Mars
• life on Mars
• what being an engineer is like
• the history of NASA

Read the following sentence: “The mission has eight scientific objectives, each one broken into specific goals and all coming together to form a more detailed understanding of all things Mars.” What does the word “mission” mean?

• a problem that develops when people do not prepare for something as much as they should
• a short period of time when people feel extremely nervous about something
• the movement of interplanetary bodies
• an important task to be carried out by a person or group of people

Choose the answer that best completes the sentence below. Engineers spent years getting Curiosity ready; ______, it landed on Mars.

• finally
• however
• third
• such as

Why might the engineers who worked on Curiosity have felt terror as they watched it land? Support your answer with evidence from the passage. Use the ACE Strategy.