The Curiosity Rover is the most advanced piece of technology ever sent to Mars. It weighs 2,000 pounds and houses a full science laboratory on board. Curiosity landed on Mars on August 5th, 2012, and has been conducting science ever since. Curiosity's main mission was to determine if Mars was or ever could be a potential place for life. Curiosity is currently on the lower slopes of Mt. Sharp, drilling and examining rocks along the way.
The Curiosity rover (or Mars Science Laboratory, as NASA wonks call it) has been an immensely successful mission so far. But now NASA is planning the next mission to Mars, and today the agency announced the gadgets that will be riding on a new rover that launches in 2020.
As the Mars rover Curiosity rolls through pebbly Gale Crater, it snaps a multitude of photographs and sends them to Earth, where humans pore over them and decide where to send the rover next. But within a few months, the rover will be able to find salient rocks on its own, speeding the process of exploring Mars.
PASADENA, Calif. - The mood is increasingly electric here at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where worldwide media, dignitaries and hordes of scientists and engineers are gathered to watch the new Mars rover's landing attempt. The Mars rover Curiosity is three and a half hours from touchdown - scheduled for 10:31 p.m. Pacific time, 3:31 p.m. Monday Australian time - and it's almost time to break out the peanuts.
All eyes will be on the new Mars rover Curiosity when it lands in just over two weeks, but lest we forget, NASA's indefatigable Mars rover Opportunity is still rolling along, too. The rover has driven about 35 kilometers, which prompted some Olympic-minded NASA people to realize the rover is nearing marathon distance. It will be the first interplanetary marathon.
NASA's newest Mars rover, Curiosity, is just a few weeks away from its nail-biting landing, soaring to the surface and dropping via hovercrane. A new Kinect-based game unveiled today lets you land it yourself, using your own movement to maneuver Curiosity through the landing called "seven minutes of terror."
