On Saturday, Nov. 26, NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory, which carries a one-ton, car-sized rover named Curiosity.After landing in August 2012, over a two-year mission, the rover will investigate whether a region of Mars has ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life, including the chemical ingredients for life. Observations from orbit have identified clay and sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history.
Curiosity’s ambitious science goals are among the mission’s many differences from earlier Mars rovers. It will use a drill and scoop at the end of its robotic arm to gather soil and powdered samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into analytical laboratory instruments inside the rover.
Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science-instrument payloads on the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some of the tools are the first of their kind on Mars, such as a laser-firing instrument for checking the elemental composition of rocks from a distance, and an X-ray diffraction instrument for definitive identification of minerals in powdered samples.
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