Huge Mars Rover One Month from Red Planet Landing

By Tariq Malik, Space.com, 07.06.12
The biggest rover ever launched to another planet is just one month away from its target: the Red Planet, Mars.

NASA's huge Curiosity rover
is hurtling toward a planned late-night landing on Mars on Aug. 5 PDT
(early Aug. 6 EDT), and the anticipation on the science team is high.
The reasons are clear: At 1 ton, Curiosity is the largest rover ever
aimed at Mars. It will land in a completely new way, using a giant
parachute and a rocket-powered sky crane. And it is carrying a
sophisticated set of tools to find out if its Martian drop zone could
once have been home for life.

But that's all in the future. First Curiosity has to reach Mars in one piece. To read the full article, please click here.[Image: NASA/JPL]