(Image source: Dvice)

BY: STEVEN SPARKMAN

NASA has picked a destination for the next Mars rover. Engineers and scientists have debated where to send the car-sized Curiosity rover since 2006. But the debate is over. The Christian Science Monitor tells where it’s headed.

“NASA scientists announced Friday that the next Mars rover will land at the foot of a towering mountain -- higher than any in the continental United States -- and so dramatically layered that scientists hope to read it like a novel of Martian history, discovering where and when life might have existed on the Red Planet.”

That mountain is at the middle of Gale Crater, which is thought to have held running water.

Curiousity will be lowered into the crater by what’s being called the sky crane. It will check out the bottom, looking for organic compounds, then work its way uphill. A writer for the Washington Post explains what it’s looking for. (Video source: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

“While the mission is not designed to look for life, per se, the 10 major instruments on the rover will search for the kind of organic material needed for life as we know it, and will assess whether Mars once had features that made it ‘habitable.’ It will also try to determine if the makeup of the planet would allow for remnants of ancient life to be preserved.”

Curiosity has a two-year mission planned, but it’s hoped the rover will last a lot longer. It’s using a new thermal generator instead of solar panels, which has a minimum lifespan of 14 years. A writer for Dvice says -- we could be hearing from Curiosity for quite a while.

“Considering that the previous generation of Mars rovers ... had a primary mission length of a mere 90 days and Opportunity is still going after nearly 2,800 days … it seems safe to assume that Curiosity will be around for at least a couple decades, by which time humans will have shown up to give it a well-deserved pat on the back.”

Curiosity is slated for launch in November and will arrive at the red planet in August 2012.

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Transcript by Newsy.