|Next stop: Mars. This past weekend the Mars Science Laboratory
carrying the Curiosity Rover for the red planet atop an Atlas V
rocket from At five times the size of the Opportunity rover
currently operating on Mars, Curiosity is like a strange little
car with six small wheels, a head-like camera mast, a rock
crusher, a long robotic arm, and a plutonium power source.
Curiosity is scheduled to land on Mars next August and start a
two year mission to explore Gale crater, to help determine
whether Mars could ever have supported life, and to help
determine how humans might one day visit Earth's planetary
neighbor.