Pasadena/California, Aug 5 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - NASA plans to follow
up a decade-long search for Mars' lost water with a mission to learn
whether the Red Planet once harboured other ingredients necessary for
life.
The astrobiological hunt begins once the $2.5 billion Mars Science Lab rover Curiosity lands itself beside a towering mountain that rises from the floor of a vast, ancient impact basin called Gale Crater.
Touchdown, monitored from mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, is scheduled for 10:31pm Sunday Pacific time (1:31am EDT on Monday/0531 GMT on Monday).
"It's a big science goal. We're not just looking for water anymore," said California Institute of Technology geologist John Grotzinger, the lead mission scientist.
"The expectations go up. The scientific challenge is much greater. It's just going to be harder to address this question of habitability," he told Reuters.
The astrobiological hunt begins once the $2.5 billion Mars Science Lab rover Curiosity lands itself beside a towering mountain that rises from the floor of a vast, ancient impact basin called Gale Crater.
Touchdown, monitored from mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, is scheduled for 10:31pm Sunday Pacific time (1:31am EDT on Monday/0531 GMT on Monday).
"It's a big science goal. We're not just looking for water anymore," said California Institute of Technology geologist John Grotzinger, the lead mission scientist.
"The expectations go up. The scientific challenge is much greater. It's just going to be harder to address this question of habitability," he told Reuters.



















