By Nadia Drake
Editor’s note: This is the second of two articles previewing the Mars Curiosity rover’s upcoming Mars landing. (See also “Curiosity readies for dramatic entrance.”) The vehicle is scheduled to land on Sunday evening, August 5, Pacific Daylight Time. Science News astronomy writer Nadia Drake will cover the landing live from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
If, late in the evening of August 5, NASA’s Curiosity rover survives what might be the most daring interplanetary touchdown in history, the six-wheeled robot will find itself in a dramatic landscape ripe with research opportunities: Gale Crater, an enormous basin with a 5-kilometer-tall mountain in the middle, called Mount Sharp. There, Curiosity will look for evidence of water, energy sources and organic carbon — the hallmarks of life-friendly environments, past or present.