NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory now has a live streaming video that gives viewers a bird's eye view of the construction of the Mars Curiosity rover.
Roughly the size of a car – 10 feet long, nine feet wide and seven feet tall – the Curiosity rover is being constructed to search sections of the planet Mars that may present conditions favorable for life or recording a history of life. It will be launched sometime between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18, 2011 from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
The rover will follow in the footsteps of three other successful American rovers, Sojourner (1997), Spirit (2004) and Opportunity (2004). While Spirit has been stuck in sand since April 2010, now operating as a stationary science platform, the rover Opportunity is still operating on Mars and is currently traveling to a crater known as Endeavour.
For more information about the latest rover, visit:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MarsCuriosity
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/marscuriosity
• Mission pages: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/
or http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/building_curiosity.html