NASA Loves Mars A Lot And Plans To Send It Another Curiosity In 8 Years
Curiosity on Mars This artist's concept depicts the Curiosity rover using its Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to investigate the composition of a rock surface. ChemCam fires laser pulses at a target and views the resulting spark with a telescope and spectrometers to identify chemical elements. The laser is actually in an invisible infrared wavelength, but is shown here as visible red light for purposes of illustration. NASA/JPL-CaltechNASA already has an orbiter for 2013 and a lander for 2016; now it has another rover in the works, too. Still buzzing from a white-knuckle landing and so-far-flawless mission for the Mars rover Curiosity, NASA is planning to send it some company in the next several years, the space agency confirmed Tuesday. Chief among NASA's newest Mars plans: Another rover, built on the same architecture that air-dropped Curiosity in Gale Crater this summer. "The challenge to restructure the Mars Exploration Program has turned...