NASA's Next Mars Rover Lands ... in Florida (SPACE.com)

NASA's next Mars rover to explore the Red Planet landed in Florida yesterday (June 22) after a cross-country flight, marking a key milestone on the road to its planned launch this fall.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, also known as Curiosity, arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center aboard an Air Force C-17 transport plane. Also making the trip was the novel rocket-powered descent stage that will fly the rover during the final moments before landing on Mars, NASA officials said.

The C-17 took off from March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif. The rover and the descent stage had been trucked there from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in nearby Pasadena. JPL is managing the $2.5 billion MSL mission.

The rover's aeroshell and cruise stage — which will protect the rover and guide it, respectively, during the nine-month journey to the Red Planet — arrived at Kennedy last month. The MSL mission is slated to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18, and the car-size rover should touch down on Mars in August 2012. [Video: Curiosity to Make Unusual Landing on Mars]

"The design and building part of the mission is nearly behind us now," said JPL's David Gruel, manager of MSL assembly, test and launch operations. "We're getting to final checkouts before sending the rover on its way to Mars."

The rover and other spacecraft components will undergo more testing in Florida before mission staff stack them and fuel the onboard propulsion systems.

Curiosity should be enclosed in its aeroshell for the final time in September and delivered to Kennedy's Launch Complex 41 in early November for integration with a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, NASA officials said.

Curiosity is about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as any previous Mars rover. Its 10 science instruments include two for ingesting and analyzing samples of powdered rock delivered by the
rover's robotic arm.

During a prime mission lasting one Martian year (nearly two Earth years), researchers will use the rover's tools to study whether Curiosity's landing region is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life. Mission planners have narrowed the possible landing sites to four choices and are expected to select one soon.

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New Mars rover arrives at Florida launch site (Reuters)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory, a nuclear-powered, car-sized rover designed to assess the planet's suitability for life, reached the Kennedy Space Center for launch preparations, officials said on Thursday.

Aboard the Air Force cargo plane with the rover, named Curiosity, was the complicated landing system it will use for a pinpoint touchdown on Mars in August 2012.

Curiosity is about four times bigger and has many more science instruments than NASA's last Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which reached the Red Planet in 2004 for what were expected to be three-month missions.

Seven years later, Spirit is no longer working, but Opportunity remains operational. Those rovers were dispatched to look for signs of past water on Mars.

The new rover's bigger size and more robust science capabilities are intended to answer a thornier riddle: Does the Red Planet have, or has it ever had, the right conditions for microbial life to arise?

The rover is designed to spend at least one Martian year -- the equivalent of almost two Earth years -- surveying the selected region to assess habitability.

Problems developing the "sky crane" descent system forced NASA to miss its original launch opportunity in 2009 and added $800 million to the project.

"The design and building part of the mission is nearly behind us now," David Gruel, manager of Mars Science Lab's assembly, test and launch operations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.

The agency's inspector general warned earlier this month that NASA was in danger of missing this year's launch opportunity as well, a period that opens November 25 and runs through December 18 when Earth and Mars are favorably aligned for interplanetary transport.

But NASA said it had resolved issues by the June 8 report and is in good shape for meeting the opening of the probe's launch window.

NASA is in the midst of a final assessment of four potential landing sites.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Sandra Maler)

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New Mars rover arrives at Florida launch site

Technicians check the wiring of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover 'Curiosity', where it is undergoing pre-flight tests, in the 'clean room' of the spacecraft assembly facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California September 16, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Fred Prouser

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:52pm EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory, a nuclear-powered, car-sized rover designed to assess the planet's suitability for life, reached the Kennedy Space Center for launch preparations, officials said on Thursday.

Aboard the Air Force cargo plane with the rover, named Curiosity, was the complicated landing system it will use for a pinpoint touchdown on Mars in August 2012.

Curiosity is about four times bigger and has many more science instruments than NASA's last Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which reached the Red Planet in 2004 for what were expected to be three-month missions.

Seven years later, Spirit is no longer working, but Opportunity remains operational. Those rovers were dispatched to look for signs of past water on Mars.

The new rover's bigger size and more robust science capabilities are intended to answer a thornier riddle: Does the Red Planet have, or has it ever had, the right conditions for microbial life to arise?

The rover is designed to spend at least one Martian year -- the equivalent of almost two Earth years -- surveying the selected region to assess habitability.

Problems developing the "sky crane" descent system forced NASA to miss its original launch opportunity in 2009 and added $800 million to the project.

"The design and building part of the mission is nearly behind us now," David Gruel, manager of Mars Science Lab's assembly, test and launch operations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.

The agency's inspector general warned earlier this month that NASA was in danger of missing this year's launch opportunity as well, a period that opens November 25 and runs through December 18 when Earth and Mars are favorably aligned for interplanetary transport.

But NASA said it had resolved issues by the June 8 report and is in good shape for meeting the opening of the probe's launch window.

NASA is in the midst of a final assessment of four potential landing sites.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Sandra Maler)

View the original article here