The Mars Science Laboratory, also known as Curiosity, is the next NASA rover destined for the Red Planet. About the size of a car, the rover is slated for launch at the end of this year and will arrive at Mars in August of 2012.
Its destination, announced last week, is Gale Crater, which is about 96 miles in diameter. Curiosity will land at the base of a three-mile-high mountain, performing a first-ever precision landing using a new landing system.
The rover will be studying rocks in order to investigate more about the possibility for microbial life sometime in Mars’ past. Curiosity’s payload of scientific instruments is about 10 times more massive than the previous Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.
Curiosity will spend at least one Martian year, the equivalent of about two Earth years, exploring.
By the way, Spirit’s operations officially ended in March after the rover has been out of contact for over a year. Meanwhile, Opportunity is still busily roving seven years after landing on Mars, long exceeding its anticipated lifetime.
Download the Curiosity fact sheet from NASA (.pdf file).
Download the Curiosity fact sheet from NASA (.pdf file).
