GREENBELT, Md. — On Saturday, November 26, NASA is scheduled to launch the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission featuring Curiosity, the largest and most advanced rover ever sent to the Red Planet. Scientists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will be available this week for interviews to discuss the Maryland connection to this mission.
The Curiosity rover bristles with multiple cameras and instruments, including Goddard’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite. By looking for evidence of water, carbon, and other important building blocks of life in the Martian soil and atmosphere, SAM will help discover whether Mars ever had the potential to support life. Curiosity will be delivered to Gale crater, a 96-mile-wide crater that contains a record of environmental changes in its sedimentary rock, in August 2012.
Scientists will be available for interviews at NASA Goddard beginning Tuesday, November 22, 2011. Journalists interested in setting up interviews about SAM and the next mission to Mars should contact Nancy Jones at 301-286-0039 or Malissa Reyes at 571-205-9142.
For information about Mars Science Laboratory, visit:
www.nasa.gov/msl
For information about SAM, visit:
http://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/699/marsSAM.shtml
For information about Curiosity, visit:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/
Nancy Neal Jones/Malissa Reyes
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-0039/571-205-9142
Nancy.N.Jones@nasa.gov/Malissa.Reyes@nasa.gov
