NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration


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"How long does it take light to travel from the Sun to Earth, and what is the formula? (I would like to calculate the answer with my students.)"
  1. Content with the tag: “mars science laboratory

  2. MSL Delayed


    NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will no longer launch in October of 2009 due to testing and hardware challenges that must be addressed in order to ensure a successful mission. The mission has been pushed back to 2011, when MSL will carry a science payload ten times larger than NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers to the martian surface. On Mars, MSL will study the martian environment and will help astrobiologists determine if Mars was once habitable for life as we know it.

    Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

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  3. Baking the Rover is Not an Option


    NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is now being prepared for its 2009 voyage to Mars, where the rover will sniff about for traces of organic material. The mission is designed to accurately “see and taste” the martian environment like never before, and could determine if the building blocks of life are present at the planet’s surface. The problem is that many of the substances MSL is made from can release molecules that might interfere with experiments. Many steps had to be taken during the mission’s design and preparation in order to to address this issue of contamination.

    Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

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