Benjamin Dean Lecture: The Mars Science Laboratory Mission

The past 15 years of Mars exploration - by landers, rovers and orbiting spacecraft - has yielded a treasure trove of knowledge about the Red Planet.  Each successive mission has carried with it a more capable, refined and nuanced science payload, building on the discoveries of its predecessors.  The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity is currently en route to Mars, to arrive at Gale Crater on Aug. 5th, 2012.  Curiosity is the most sophisticated and capable rover yet and it will provide us with new knowledge of Mars' present climate and geology, and clues to its early habitability.

Speaker: Dr. David Blake Exobiology Branch, NASA Ames Research Center