NASA's Mars rover set for launch

This artist's conception depicts the rover Curiosity, of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, as it uses its Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to investigate the composition of a rock surface on Mars is pictured in this NASA publicity photograph released to Reuters November 23, 2011. The spacecraft is due to be launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida November 26. 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.

In this NASA publicity image released November 22, 2011, color coding in this image of Gale Crater on Mars represents differences in elevation, with blue relatively low and tan relatively high for the landing site of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, with a landing projected to be between August 6 and 20, 2012.