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In this 2011 artist's rendering provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech, the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover examines a rock on Mars with a set of tools at the end of its arm, which extends about 2 meters (7 feet). The mobile robot is designed to investigate Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life. NASA is all set to launch the world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer. The six-wheeled, one-armed Mars rover is due to blast off Saturday morning from Cape Canaveral.
Last updated: November 26, 2011 10:20 a.m.

NASA launches super-size Mars rover to red planet

MARCIA DUNN | Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer is on its way to Mars.

NASA on Saturday launched the six-wheeled, one-armed robotic rover, nicknamed Curiosity. An unmanned rocket blasted off with the spacecraft from Cape Canaveral.

The journey to Mars will take 8½ months and cover 354 million miles.

Curiosity weighs a ton and is the size of a car. It's a mobile, nuclear-powered laboratory holding 10 science instruments that will sample Martian soil and rocks, and analyze them right on the spot. There's a drill as well as a stone-zapping laser machine.

Curiosity will spend two years looking for evidence that Mars may once have been — or still is — suitable for microbial life.

The mission costs $2.5 billion.

Thousands of NASA guests converged on Kennedy Space Center for the launch.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Neither this material nor its presentation may be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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