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NASA Rover 'Curiosity' Set For Saturday Launch

Posted by Soulskill on from the wave-at-phobos-grunt-on-the-way-up dept.

arcite writes "The Mars Science Laboratory Rover 'Curiosity,' an SUV-sized rover packed to the gills with the latest scientific instruments and an innovative landing system, is set to launch tomorrow. As the heaviest and largest Mars rover to date, if it is successful in touching down on the red planet, it will be the best bet yet for NASA to find signs of life. Stuffed with turkey and burned out on holiday shopping, Geeks everywhere will be watching the skies above (or the livestream here) and wishing NASA's Curiosity godspeed!"

2 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Holy hell, they built a MALP! by Tastecicles · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Have you heard about the instrument package??

    two HD cameras
    mass spectrometers
    chemical laser
    x-ray diffractometer
    full terrestrial weather station
    radiation meter
    magnetometer
    rock abrasion tool
    thermal emission spectrometer
    Moessbauer gamma spectrometer
    panoramic multispectral camera
    microscopic imager

    They could send one of these to Titan to discover once and for all if that moon could ever be settled...

    --
    Operation Guillotine is in effect.
  2. Re:Backups by gblackwo · · Score: 5, Informative

    They did in fact build two of them simultaneously, however the 2nd rover was built for testing and is not sterile enough to send to Mars without a serious teardown. There may be further reasons why the 2nd rover is unsuitable to go.