Mars Science Laboratory
Big Picture

Atlas V launched successfully at 8:02 a.m. MST, Saturday, Nov. 26

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission is preparing to set down a large, mobile laboratory which will carry the most advance payload of scientific gear ever used on Mars’ surface. The rover’s electrical power will be supplied by a U.S. Department of Energy radioisotope power generator assembled and tested at the Idaho National Laboratory.

The rover, named Curiosity, is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center as soon as Nov. 25 and is expected to land on Mars in August 2012. It will investigate Mars’ Gale Crater for clues about whether environmental conditions there have favored the development of microbial life, and to preserve any evidence it finds.

NASA chose to use a nuclear power source because solar power alternatives did not meet the full range of the mission’s requirements. Only the radioisotope power system allows full-time communication with the rover during its atmospheric entry, descent and landing regardless of the landing site. And the nuclear powered rover can go farther, travel to more places, last longer, and power and heat a larger and more capable scientific payload compared to the solar power alternative NASA studied.

(All images and videos on this page are courtesy of NASA.)

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