NASA's Next Mars Rover to Land at Gale Crater

NASA's Next Mars Rover to Land at Gale Crater

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's next Mars rover will land at the foot of a layered mountain inside the planet's Gale crater. The car-sized Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity, is scheduled to launch late this year and land in August 2012. The target crater spans 96 miles (154 kilometers) in diameter and holds a mountain rising higher from the crater floor than Mount Rainier rises above Seattle. Gale is about the combined area of Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Curiosity is about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as any previous Mars rover. Its 10 science instruments include two for ingesting and analyzing samples of powdered rock that the rover's robotic arm collects. A radioisotope power source will provide heat and electric power to the rover. A rocket-powered sky crane suspending Curiosity on tethers will lower the rover directly to the Martian surface.

NASA

Hopefully this will answer more questions about the red planet. Giving us more information what’ s up there. But no doubt if the rover does find something interesting up there, of course NASA/govt will hide it from us!

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www.abovetopsecret.com...

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Red Planet?
Is mars red? a lot of people dont think so.

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