Mars Science Laboratory: Something to look forward to in 2009 and 2010

For the last few years, the twin Mars Exploration Rovers named Spirit and Opportunity and the Phoenix lander have been the three robotic explorers searching for signs of extraterrestrial life and performing a myriad of science experiments on Mars. Next year, NASA will be sending a new generation rover to continue the exciting work that begun with the successful Mars Pathfinder mission in 1996. The Mars Science Laboratory rover is the new NASA robotic planetary explorer currently under construction and scheduled to leave Earth for the long journey to the Red planet in the fall of 2009. This new rover is going to be much larger than the previous two. It will be the size of a small compact car. NASA's planetary exploration rovers have progressively increased in size since the very successful Sojourner rover.

The Mars Science Laboratory rover is a wonderful robot, equipped with lots of intelligent software for fault diagnosis, path planning, navigation, communications, and control of its many scientific instruments. Its 2-year mission is to answer questions about the existence of life on Mars as well as help characterize the planet's climate and geology and essentially help us prepare for a future manned mission there.

The rover's mobility is much improved over its predecessors partly due to its size and the 60 centimeter clearance its body has from the ground but also because of updated motion planning and navigation software. What this means is that during its 2-year mission, the rover will be able to explore a much larger area when compared to the other rovers.

The entire Mars Science Laboratory mission is an amazing feat of engineering starting form the construction of the plutonium-powered rover to the delivery and landing system. The video below shows a 3D animation of the rover's landing mechanism and function once safely on the planet's surface. It will have a laser and it will use it to shoot at rocks!