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Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON)

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Web Extras

Hunting for signs of martian life

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory — aka Curiosity — will explore Gale Crater to see if the Red Planet could support life now or in the past.
By Richard Talcott
Published: June 25, 2012
Curiosity
When the Mars Science Laboratory reaches Earth’s planetary neighbor the night of August 5/6, it will mark the culmination of an eight-month journey since it took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in late November. If the cruise was relatively uneventful, the entry, descent, and landing phases will be anything but. Only about seven minutes will elapse from the time the spacecraft enters the thin martian atmosphere until Curiosity sets down in Gale Crater.

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