NASA Mars Science Laboratory Launched - Biggest Ever Rover 'Curiosity' Takes Off!
NASA's yet another ambitious project, The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) i.e. the Rover Curiosity took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard an Atlas V rocket at 10:02 a.m. EST on 26th Nov 2011. Curiosity will reach Mars on August 6, 2012. This is going to be a 3rd time that NASA is set to explore Mars after the earlier rovers Spirit & Opportunity landed on the big red planet in 2004. For this mission, the rover was designed & assembles at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California Institute of Technology, while the launch was managed by the Kennedy Space Center.
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NASA's Mars Science Laboratory lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Engineers at NASA are excited about this huge launch since this is NASA's biggest ever rover that weighs near to 2000 pounds and is 10 feet long, about the size of a car, making it double the length & five times heavier as compared to the earlier Mars rover. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, "We are very excited about sending the world's most advanced scientific laboratory to Mars. MSL will tell us critical things we need to know about Mars, and while it advances science, we'll be working on the capabilities for a human mission to the Red Planet and to other destinations where we've never been."
It is the first time that Curiosity will experience precision landing based on rocket-powered backpack called "sky-crane" technology touchdown, landing it up near a Mountain inside Gale Crater. Then begins Curiosity's amazing mission for a span of two years, in which it will investigate if that area could ever have been inhabited with microbes or has chemical contents essential for life. To do so, it will use it's robotic arm to drill and scoop the rocks & gather soil & samples from the interiors of the rocks & then parcel these samples inside the rover into a analytical laboratory where it will carry out experiments like laser-firing the samples for determining the elemental composition of the rocks.
As per the updates from NASA Timeline -
1. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and its rocket are coasting in orbit around Earth before heading to Mars.
2. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory has separated from the rocket that boosted it toward Mars and has sent a signal to Earth.
3. Engineers have received data from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory showing that all systems are operating normally. The approximately eight-month journey to Mars is underway.
Now, lets look up to amazing revelations from NASA about the mysterious planet MARS.
This 11-minute animation depicts key events of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. Take a look -
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Engineers at NASA are excited about this huge launch since this is NASA's biggest ever rover that weighs near to 2000 pounds and is 10 feet long, about the size of a car, making it double the length & five times heavier as compared to the earlier Mars rover. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, "We are very excited about sending the world's most advanced scientific laboratory to Mars. MSL will tell us critical things we need to know about Mars, and while it advances science, we'll be working on the capabilities for a human mission to the Red Planet and to other destinations where we've never been."
It is the first time that Curiosity will experience precision landing based on rocket-powered backpack called "sky-crane" technology touchdown, landing it up near a Mountain inside Gale Crater. Then begins Curiosity's amazing mission for a span of two years, in which it will investigate if that area could ever have been inhabited with microbes or has chemical contents essential for life. To do so, it will use it's robotic arm to drill and scoop the rocks & gather soil & samples from the interiors of the rocks & then parcel these samples inside the rover into a analytical laboratory where it will carry out experiments like laser-firing the samples for determining the elemental composition of the rocks.
As per the updates from NASA Timeline -
1. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and its rocket are coasting in orbit around Earth before heading to Mars.
2. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory has separated from the rocket that boosted it toward Mars and has sent a signal to Earth.
3. Engineers have received data from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory showing that all systems are operating normally. The approximately eight-month journey to Mars is underway.
Now, lets look up to amazing revelations from NASA about the mysterious planet MARS.
This 11-minute animation depicts key events of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. Take a look -
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