An artist’s rendering of Curiosity, the rover that is currently exploring Gale Crater on Mars. Learn about the rover from the scientist in charge of its mission this Tuesday at the Air and Space Museum. Photo by NASA, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Tuesday, March 12: Curiosity’s Mission of Exploration at Gale Crater, Mars
Scientists are looking for a lot more than life on Mars. Mars Science Laboratory‘s Curiosity rover landed on the Red Planet last August, and now is on a mission of investigating Gale Crater, a 91-mile-wide crater that is estimated to be more than 3 billion years old. The crater has preserved an extensive series of geologic layers, which the rover studies to get a look into the planet’s environmental history. Mars Science Laboratory Chief Scientist John Grotzinger