Nasa in high gear for Mars rover launch CAPE CANAVERAL: The US
space agency plans to launch on Saturday the most powerful and
advanced robotic rover ever built to explore Mars and hunt for
signs that life may once have existed on the red planet. The
Mars Science Laboratory, an elite six-wheeled vehicle powered by
nuclear fuel, is scheduled to launch at 10:02 am from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida atop an Atlas V rocket.
“This is a Mars scientist’s dream machine,” Ashwin Vasavada, MSL
deputy project scientist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
told reporters. “This is the most capable scientific explorer we
have ever sent out.We are super excited.” At a price of $2.5
billion, the rover, also known as Curiosity, aims to provide
scientists with detailed information about the rocks on the
surface of Mars, and clues about whether life ever existed on
Earth’s nearest neighbor or not. To do that, the SUV-sized rover
is equipped with a robotic arm, a drill, a set of 10 science
instruments including two