NASA’s biggest extraterrestrial explorer to blast off Nov 26November 26, 2011 - 14:33 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - NASA is all set to launch the world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer. A six-wheeled, one-armed Mars rover is due to blast off Saturday, November 26, morning from Cape Canaveral. The unmanned Atlas V rocket will put the spacecraft on an 8½-month trek to the red planet. The rover, nicknamed Curiosity, is the size of a car. It's a mobile laboratory holding 10 science instruments that will sample Martian soil and rocks, and analyze them right there on the surface. There's a drill as well as a stone-zapping laser machine. Curiosity will spend two years looking for evidence that Mars may once have been - or still is - suitable for microbial life. The mission costs $2.5 billion. Forecasters expect decent launching weather, The Associated Press reported. Top stories Yerevan will host the 2024 edition of the World Congress On Information Technology (WCIT). Rustam Badasyan said due to the lack of such regulation, the state budget is deprived of VAT revenues. Krisp’s smart noise suppression tech silences ambient sounds and isolates your voice for calls. Gurgen Khachatryan claimed that the "illegalities have been taking place in 2020." Partner news Most popular in the section | Police try to impede Armenian Church head’s access to war memorial Police tried to stop the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, from visiting a war memorial. Greece says ready to help as Armenia fights flooding consequences Greece is ready to assist Armenia in combatting the consequences of deadly floods in the country’s north. “He will leave”: Protest leader no longer demands meeting with Pashinyan Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan no longer demands a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Lemkin Institute petition seeks release of Armenians in Azerbaijan The Lemkin Institute is deeply concerned about the continued illegal detention of political prisoners from Karabakh in Azerbaijan. |