Curious about Curiosity? A Check on the Mars Rover

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LifeOnMars(OrWater)-0213.mp3

February 13, 2013

On the planet Mars, scientists have discovered that what is now a crater…may have at one point been an underground lake fed by groundwater.  The evidence comes from images taken by CRISM--or to go by the instrument’s long name, the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars.

While CRISM captures images of Mars from above, the rover Curiosity is exploring the surface of the planet.  It’s been there since August, and is slated for a two-year mission.  You can learn more about Curiosity here.

Nathan Sterner talks with two of the scientists overseeing these projects.  Kim Seelos is a planetary geologist with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who's been working with CRISM, and Nathan Bridges, a senior Research Scientist, also with the Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. He is a co-investigator with the rover Curiosity.