NASA to launch new Mars rover

NASA is planning to launch a nuclear-powered rover on a nine-month journey to Mars to examine if the planet is or ever was suitable for life.

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory is set to launch at 15:02 GMT on Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, located in the south of the Kennedy Space Center, Reuters reported.

"This is the most complicated mission we have attempted on the surface of Mars," Mars Science Lab project manager Peter Theisinger told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.

The mission is the first since NASA’s twin Viking program in 1970s.

After experiments by the Viking landers, scientists agreed that life did not exist on Mars.

Two decades later, NASA began working on a new plan to find signs of past water on the Red Planet.

The Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed on opposite sides of Mars' equator in 2004 to embark upon the question of water.

Both rovers found signs that water mingled with rocks in the past.

The new rover, Curiosity, shifts the search to other elements key to life, particularly organics.

Source: presstv.com