Mr+L

=The Curiosity rover's 'long cruise to Mars': By the numbers = ==NASA's massive new mobile space lab is set to touch down on the Red Planet next August — in a mission to find evidence of alien life == POSTED ON NOVEMBER 28, 2011, AT 12:08 PM 

NASA's Curiosity rover — a car-sized robot mounted on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket — successfully [|blasted off] from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday morning at 10:02 a.m. Its task: To determine if microbial alien life could, or ever did, exist on the Red Planet. Here's a look at Curiosity's ambitious and costly "long cruise to Mars," by the numbers: ** 354 million **

Miles between Earth and Mars ** 8.5 **

Months it will take for Curiosity's spacecraft to touch down on the Red Planet. It's projected to land in August 2012. ** $2.5 billion **

Total cost of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, of which the Curiosity rover is the centerpiece ** Over 13,000 **

Guests on hand to witness the rover's launch from Cape Canaveral ** 2003 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Year the Curiosity's mission originally began taking shape <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">** 2009 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Year the Curiosity was originally scheduled to launch. "The two-year slip helped boost MSL's overall cost by 56 percent," <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0065d7; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">says Mike Wall at Space.com. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">** 1 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Weight, in tons, of the 10-foot-long, 9-foot-wide rover <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">** 400 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Weight, in pounds, of the Curiosity's predecessors (<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0065d7; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Spirit" and "Opportunity" ) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">** 10.6 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Amount of radioactive plutonium, in pounds, that the Curiosity carries aboard its nuclear generator <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">** 10 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Number of scientific instruments the mobile laboratory will use once it touches down on Martian soil, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0065d7; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">including a laser probe and high-definition cameras <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">** 100 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Diameter, in miles, of the rover's projected landing spot, the Gale Crater, which some scientists speculate may have once housed life-giving water,<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0065d7; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">thanks to evidence of clay minerals <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">** 12 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Miles that NASA expects the Curiosity rover will have logged on its odometer by mission's end <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">** 8 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Years since NASA launched its last Martian rover <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">** 3 dozen **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Missions that the world's space programs have sent to Mars <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">** 18 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Number of those missions that have actually succeeded