Comet Enthusiast

Next stop: Mars.

This past weekend the
Mars Science Laboratory carrying the Curiosity Rover
blasted off
for the red planet atop an
Atlas V rocket from
Cape Canaveral,
Florida,
USA, as
pictured above.

At five times the size of the Opportunity rover
currently operating on Mars,
Curiosity is like a
strange little car with six small wheels, a head-like camera mast, a rock crusher, a long robotic arm, and a plutonium power source.

Curiosity is scheduled to land on Mars next August and start a two year mission to explore
Gale crater, to help determine whether Mars could ever have
supported life, and to help determine how
humans might one day visit
Earth's planetary neighbor.