Mars rover Curiosity blasts off
Last Updated 10:17 a.m. ET
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer, NASA's Curiosity rover, rocketed toward Mars on Saturday on a search for evidence that the red planet might once have been home to itsy-bitsy life.
It will take 8? months for Curiosity to reach Mars following a journey of 354 million miles.
An unmanned Atlas V rocket hoisted the rover, officially known as Mars Science Laboratory, into a cloudy late morning sky. A Mars frenzy gripped the launch site, with more than 13,000 guests jamming the space center for NASA's first launch to Earth's next-door neighbor in four years, and the first send-off of a Martian rover in eight years.
NASA astrobiologist Pan Conrad, whose carbon compound-seeking instrument is on the rover, had a shirt custom made for the occasion. Her bright blue, short-sleeve blouse was emblazoned with rockets, planets and the words, "Next stop Mars!"
The 1-ton Curiosity — as large as a car — is a mobile, nuclear-powered laboratory holding 10 science instruments that will sample Martian soil and rocks, and analyze them right on the spot. There's a drill as well as a stone-zapping laser machine.
It's "really a rover on steroids," said NASA's Colleen Hartman, assistant associate administrator for science. "It's an order of magnitude more capable than anything we have ever launched to any planet in the solar system."
The primary goal of the $2.5 billion mission is to see whether cold, dry, barren Mars might have been hospitable for microbial life once upon a time — or might even still be conducive to life now. No actual life detectors are on board; rather, the instruments will hunt for organic compounds.
Curiosity's 7-foot arm has a jackhammer on the end to drill into the Martian red rock, and the 7-foot mast on the rover is topped with high-definition and laser cameras. No previous Martian rover has been so sophisticated or capable.
With Mars the ultimate goal for astronauts, NASA also will use Curiosity to measure radiation at the red planet. The rover also has a weather station on board that will provide temperature, wind and humidity readings; a computer software app with daily weather updates is planned.
Mars Science Laboratory set for Saturday launch (Bill Harwood)
How nuke power bested solar in latest Mars mission
CNET: How Curiosity will land on Mars
The world has launched more than three dozen missions to the ever-alluring Mars, most like Earth than the other solar-system planets. Yet fewer than half of those quests have succeeded.
Just two weeks ago, a Russian spacecraft ended up stuck in orbit around Earth, rather than en route to the Martian moon Phobos.
"Mars really is the Bermuda Triangle of the solar system," Hartman said. "It's the death planet, and the United States of America is the only nation in the world that has ever landed and driven robotic explorers on the surface of Mars, and now we're set to do it again."
Curiosity's arrival next August will be particularly hair-raising.
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In a spacecraft first, the rover will be lowered onto the Martian surface via a jet pack and tether system similar to the sky cranes used to lower heavy equipment into remote areas on Earth.
Curiosity is too heavy to use air bags like its much smaller predecessors, Spirit and Opportunity, did in 2004. Besides, this new way should provide for a more accurate landing.
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Can we please stop preparing to prepare so we can prepare to prepare to look for life NASA? It's like a bad TV Scifi. "Prepare to go to light speed. Prepare to press the big red button.". Why not just say "Hey, let's go to light speed already.".
Is it assumed that we are not smart enough to be told?
The below writing is incomplete. What is the whole story? Twin spacecraft? Earth's moon? When was or is that going to be launched?
"The Juno probe is en route to Jupiter, and twin spacecraft named Grail will arrive at Earth's moon on New Year's Eve and Day."
Dunestrider's myopic viewpoint is pathetically common. There is NOTHING humans can do that is more important than space exploration. Not because of scientific, engineering or technical developments that people like Dunestrider couldn't do without---satellite communication, aircraft de-icing systems, temper foam, breathing apparatus for firefighters and freeze-drying techniques (though it's true that some products like Velcro and Tang are misattributed, as well as Dunestrider's Straw Man transistors and Teflon), for example. If you want to learn more about NASA's contributions to your lives, check out NASA's "Spin-Off" page.
The reason we must do space is because we're human and it's there and it's human to explore to the limits of our abilities. Space is just at the edge of our ability, a frontier, and it is only by braving our frontiers that humanity grows and develops. In strength and depth, I mean, not in size; we're plenty large enough. I mean philosophically and intellectually.
Consider, if we weren't fighting several meaningless wars, arguing over asinine political issues and drowning in our economic stupidity, if we were a healthy society, we'd be headed for space, and we'd be excited about the possibilities. But we can't wait until everybody is healthy enough to proceed with our inevitable future---there will always be prosaic naysayers like Dunestrider. The best we can do is leave them behind, to wallow in their mundane existence while the rest of us pursue mankind's destiny.