NASA launched its latest unmanned Mars rover Saturday in Florida in an effort to scour the planet’s surface for signs of microbial life. The Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral with the rover, nicknamed Curiosity, aboard. It will take eight and a half months for Curiosity to make the 354 million-mile journey to the surface of Mars. NASA scientists expect the 1-ton rover to land on the planet the morning of August 6th. Curiosity should land in Gale Crater, which contains a mountain about 3 miles high. Satellite imagery has shown sediments in this area were laid down by water, which could have supported micro-organisms. Curiosity part of a $2.5 billion mission, has 10 sophisticated instruments on board to study rocks, soil and the atmosphere. The funding will cover the first two years of operation, though the rover has enough power to keep it running for about a decade.
Monday, November 28, 2011
NASA Launches Mars Rover
NASA launched its latest unmanned Mars rover Saturday in Florida in an effort to scour the planet’s surface for signs of microbial life. The Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral with the rover, nicknamed Curiosity, aboard. It will take eight and a half months for Curiosity to make the 354 million-mile journey to the surface of Mars. NASA scientists expect the 1-ton rover to land on the planet the morning of August 6th. Curiosity should land in Gale Crater, which contains a mountain about 3 miles high. Satellite imagery has shown sediments in this area were laid down by water, which could have supported micro-organisms. Curiosity part of a $2.5 billion mission, has 10 sophisticated instruments on board to study rocks, soil and the atmosphere. The funding will cover the first two years of operation, though the rover has enough power to keep it running for about a decade.
