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AirTalk

Mars Launch

By AirTalk Staff
Published Nov 25, 2011
French President Nicolas Sarkozy (C) stands next to the a Mars Curiosity Rover vehicle as he visits the Toulouse Space Centre (CNES - Centre National d'Études Spatiales), on November 22, 2011. The French National Space Agency (Cnes) is commemorating their 50 anniversary. AFP PHOTO POOL Michel Euler (Photo credit should read MICHEL EULER/AFP/Getty Images)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy (C) stands next to the Mars Curiosity Rover vehicle as he visits the Toulouse Space Centre, on November 22, 2011. The French National Space Agency (Cnes) is commemorating their 50 anniversary.
(
Michel Euler/AFP/Getty Images
)
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Mars Launch
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft with the Curiosity rover is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Saturday, Nov. 26.

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft with the Curiosity rover is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Saturday, Nov. 26.

The spacecraft will arrive at Mars in August 2012.

Curiosity has 10 science instruments to search for evidence of environments favorable to microbial life on Mars. The rover’s instruments will also search the Martian environment for the chemical ingredients that constitute life.

In addition, the unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release their gasses so that a spectrometer can analyze them and send the data back to Earth. The launch period extends through Dec. 18.

Guests:

Rob Manning, Mars Science Laboratory Project Chief Engineer

Bill Nye, the Science Guy and host of “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” an educational television program that originally aired from 1993 to 1998. Executive Director of the The Planetary Society, an organization that advocates space science research and the exploration of other planets, particularly Mars.