Curiosity Heads to Mars

NASA's $2.5 billion robotic rover Curiosity has begun its long journey to Mars on a mission that the space agency hopes will further its understanding of life in the universe.

The Mars Science Laboratory blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday aboard an Atlas V rocket. Less than an hour after launch, the rover sent back a signal to NASA, reporting that it had successfully separated from the rocket and was flying free on its way to the Red Planet.
Its main mission is to determine if life in some form exists on Mars, or if it ever did.

Curiosity will collect soil and rock samples and analyze them for evidence that the area has, or ever had, environmental conditions favorable to microbial life.

The rover is the size of an SUV and equipped with 10 science instruments, is expected to land on Mars in August 2012.

Curiosity weighs 1 ton and is twice as long and five times heavier than previous rovers. The extra instruments and mobility should be a big help to NASA, which has been down one Mars robot since the rover Spirit, a robotic twin to Opportunity, stopped functioning earlier this year.