Nasa launches Mars rover mission

Nasa has launched the world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer on a mission to Mars. The six-wheeled, one-armed robotic rover, nicknamed Curiosity, has blasted off from Cape Canaveral on an unmanned rocket. The journey to Mars will take eight and a...

Nasa has launched the world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer on a mission to Mars.

The six-wheeled, one-armed robotic rover, nicknamed Curiosity, has blasted off from Cape Canaveral on an unmanned rocket.

The journey to Mars will take eight and a half months and cover 354 million miles.

Curiosity weighs a tonne and is the size of a car. It is a mobile, nuclear-powered laboratory holding 10 science instruments that will sample Martian soil and rocks, providing instant analysis.

As well as a drill, the machine also packs 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 is costing 2.5 billion dollars.

Thousands of Nasa guests converged on Kennedy Space Centre for the launch.

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