New York: A nuclear-powered U.S. rover lifted off on Saturday morning on a nearly nine-month journey to help assess Mars’ habitability, or whether the Red Planet is or ever was an environment able to support life.
The car-sized rover is the biggest and most advanced ever built, and is part of NASA’s $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft that lifted off at 1502 GMT atop an Atlas V rocket.
Weighed nearly a ton, the six-wheeled vehicle, also known as the Mars Science Laboratory, dwarfs all the previous robots sent to the surface of the planet.
During the prime mission lasting one Martian year nearly two Earth years researchers will use the rover’s tools to study whether the landing region has environmental conditions favorable for supporting microbial life and preserving clues about whether life had existed.
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