Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Scheduled to launch in the fall of 2009, Mars Science Laboratory is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. Mars Science Laboratory is a rover that is being designed to assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's "habitability."

To find out, the rover would carry the biggest, most advanced suite of instruments for scientific studies ever sent to the martian surface. The rover would analyze dozens of samples scooped from the soil and cored from rocks. The record of the planet's climate and geology is essentially "written in the rocks and soil" -- in their formation, structure, and chemical composition. The rover's onboard laboratory is being designed to study rocks, soils, and the local geologic setting in order to detect chemical building blocks of life (e.g., forms of carbon) on Mars and to assess what the martian environment was like in the past.

Links

• Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Website

People

Richard Vasquez Sources and Detectors Group Supervisor Read More >>		Wayne Zimmerman CheMin Read More >>
Maher Hanna Instrument Ground Systems Group Supervisor Read More >>		Justin Maki Visible and Infrared Imaging and Spectrometers Project Manager Read More >>
David Randall Low-Noise Electronics Group Supervisor Read More >>		Robert Wilson Low-Noise Electronics Group Supervisor Read More >>