Steady electronic "heartbeat" tones relayed from Curiosity across space to Earth indicated a successful landing to the control room at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

WSJ: NASA's Curiosity Rover Lands on Mars

In April last year, in a clean room at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, I watched white-suited engineers gingerly assembling Curiosity.

BBC: New age of exploration in the hunt for extreme life

Rolls-Royce already gleans 51% of its revenue from servicing its engine fleet: its Trent jet engines are continuously assessed from a slick operations room at Derby.

ECONOMIST: Manufacturing: A tale of two industries | The