Post by glactus on Nov 11, 2011 0:34:40 GMT
The Mars rover Curiosity
NASA is preparing to send its Curiosity rover to Mars in about two weeks. The rover will search for signs of past life on the planet and will land on a place that has the potential to have been habitable in the past, one that could have supported life, and the scientists want to understand whether that actually was the case.
Curiosity's laser portal
Scheduled to be launched by an Atlas V541 vehicle, the rover will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's "habitability."
Curiosity on Mars
Curiosity will land on Mars at Gale Crater between August 6 and August 20, 2012, and will try to perform the first-ever precision landing on Mars. It will then analyze samples scooped up from the soil and drilled powders from rocks. Curiosity will be five times as massive, and carry more than ten times the mass of scientific instruments as the rovers Spirit or Opportunity. and will be expected to operate for at least 1 Martian year (668 Martian sols/686 Earth days) as it explores with greater range than any previous Mars rover.
To see 5 minute 24 second video of the Mars Curiosity rover in action just click on the link below. Has sound.
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BudlaGh1A0o
Credits: These are NASA/JPL images
Text by wikipedia
Video by NASA./YouTube