Its launch week for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), scheduled for liftoff Saturday, November 26 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The one hour and 43 minute launch window opens at 10:02 a.m. EST. The MSL spacecraft, including the Mars rover Curiosity, is sealed within the protective payload fairing atop the rocket, which is inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Curiosity rover has 10 science instruments to search for evidence about whether Mars had environments favorable for microbial life, including the chemical ingredients for life. The rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release their gasses so its spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth. The $2.5 billion laboratory will study past and present potentially habitable environments on Mars after it lands on the planet in August 2012.
"On Saturday, NASA will be launching our most sophisticated science laboratory to date, the Mars Science Laboratory, and the work of dozens of small businesses helped make this happen," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
"Curiosity's mission is to get Mars to give up its secrets," Bolden said.
Various news conferences and other events are being held at NASA facilities in Cape Canaveral and Houston and will be carried live on NASA TV. Downlink information, schedule information and streaming video are available here ~ and ~ here.
For additional information, see the attached video: “Rocket and Rover Ready for Flight”
(cover image: Topography of Mars - Color coding in this image of Mars represents differences in elevation, measured by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. While surface liquid water is rare and ephermal on modern Mars, the topography of Mars reveals large, ancient valley networks and outflow channels. These are evidence that liquid water was more common and played a much more important role in Mars' past.)
Also see:
- NASA: Thanksgiving dinner in space
- NASA is looking for a few good Space Technology Graduate Fellowship applicants
- NASA's newest and largest space telescope coming to the Md. Science Center
- NASA seeks student experiments for whole world to see
- NASA contest for U.S. students: ‘Name that moon-bound spacecraft’
- Hold the world in your hands? There’s an app for that (NASA video)
- NASA satellite reenters Earth’s atmosphere (videos)
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(source: NASA)
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