Drilling rock from 56 million kilometres away
Following on from NASA's successful mars mission of the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, NASA's latest rover, Curiosity, was successfully launched on Saturday. The $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission is attempting to determine if Mars has an environment that could support life.
Curiosity, which is five times the size of the previous vehicles, will orbit the red planet for a few months and then land on August 2011.
The rover is equipped with a two metre arm that can take soil samples and drill rock. Rock samples are subject to a number of tests, including laser-induced radio spectrometry where the soil sample is vapourized and analyzed.