Curiosity and The Red Planet

Mars at the boundary between dark and day with an area including Gale Crater as it catches morning light

Are we ready for a new Mars mission?

NASA's most advanced mobile robotic laboratory, which will examine one of the most intriguing areas on Mars, is in final preparations for a launch from Florida's Space Coast on Nov. 25. The Mars Science Laboratory mission will carry Curiosity, a rover with more scientific capability than any ever sent to another planet.

Scheduled to land on the Red Planet in August 2012, the one-ton rover will examine Gale Crater during a nearly two-year prime mission. Curiosity will land near the base of a layered mountain 3 miles (5 kilometers) high inside the crater. The rover will investigate whether environmental conditions ever have been favorable for development of microbial life and preserved evidence of those conditions.
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This is such a exciting event for us and for seekers of SF and R for sure. The future holds many possibilities to explore Mars.

What do you think about the idea of sending manned explorers to Mars in the not to distant future? Sounds very exciting to me!


Kaye