Posted by tourdemars to Mars Science Laboratory at January 18, 2006 10:09 PM

Make way Spirit and Opportunity – big daddy is coming! The next wheels on the red planet will belong to the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)—a huge step in how that planet is further poked, probed, and more fully plumbed for new information. MSL is a huge chunk of machinery. At liftoff in September 2009, it will carry the largest, most advanced set of instruments for on-the-spot science duties ever dispatched to the martian surface. The nuclear-powered rover is being designed to assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life.