NASA is participating in the inauguration of President Obama in Washington, D.C., with two model floats of break-through space exploration technology during the president's first term.
NASA said full-size models of the Curiosity Mars rover and Orion, the multi-purpose capsule that will take astronauts farther into space than ever before, will be on the parade route beginning at 2:30 p.m. EST Monday.
The life-size models will roll along the parade route alongside Jet Propulsion Laboratory project manager Richard Cook, flight director Bobak Ferdowsi, mission manager Jennifer Trosper and deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada. Program executive Dave Lavery and program scientist Michael Meyer, both of NASA headquarters, will march with the team.
Current and former astronauts will also march in the parade.
Curiosity is part of an effort to determine whether environmental conditions on Mars could have been favorable to microbes or life.
Obama has set a goal of sending an astronaut to Mars by the 2030s.
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