11 Amazing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do

TheNextCorner writes "NASA is getting set to launch its next Mars rover this week. The car-size Curiosity rover is the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, slated to blast off Saturday (Nov. 26) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rover will employ 10 different science instruments to help it answer questions once it touches down on the Red Planet in August 2012."

Re:#0

[anwaya]

The landing strategy is quite spectacular [space.com], though unfortunately no-one's going to be there to observe it.

Re:#0

[camperdave]

It's no different than what they used [youtube.com] to land Spirit and Opportunity, except the rover is going to be placed gently on the surface instead of being dropped from 4 or 5 storeys up with a series of 40G impacts.

Re:No terraforming?

[jfanning]

That has been discounted. It was most likely biological contamination when the Surveyor cameras were brought back to Earth.

http://www.space.com/11536-moon-microbe-mystery-solved-apollo-12.html [space.com]