I don’t think it makes much of a difference on which side of the planet it’ll be.
It affects how quick the destruction would be and how much data we could get. Are there satellites to relay data from Curiosity? There won’t be fires after impact and Curiosity doesn’t need food. It might “survive” it depending on location.
psik
Don’t forget about the inevitable extended period of atmospheric obscuration by dust caused by extremely large impacts. Bad for solar-powered robots.
Curiosity is not solar powered.
http://www.about-robots.com/curiosity-rover-nuclear-battery.html
psik
