This article was taken from the July 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
In August 2012, the Nasa rover Curiosity is scheduled to touch down on the surface of Mars.
The size of a Mini Cooper, it's four times as heavy as predecessors
Spirit and Opportunity, and comes with a large robot arm, a laser that can vaporise rocks at seven metres, a percussive drill and a weather station. Oh, and 4.8kg of plutonium-238. "We're stepping it up this time," says John Grotzinger, project scientist on the Mars Science Laboratory mission. In 2004, the field geologist discovered water on Mars as part of the Spirit and Opportunity missions. "It's fairly common to find evidence for water on Mars now," says the 54-year-old. "So we're going to the next level -- the search for organic compounds as a telltale sign that there may have once been life on Mars." It's a task Grotzinger compares to "looking for a needle that has dissolved in a haystack". Curiosity will be able to gather samples drilled from rocks or scooped from the ground and distribute them to onboard test chambers during the 687 Earth days it spends on Mars. "For the first time, engineering constraints won't limit the desires of scientists," says Grotzinger. The Atlas V rocket carrying Curiosity is due to launch between November 25 and December 18, from Cape Canaveral.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
