Nasa engineers are putting the finishing touches on a mega-rover to Mars before shipping it off to Florida for launch later this year.
A small army of technicians dressed in protective suits has been working around the clock inside a clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles assembling the craft, called Curiosity, and testing its science instruments.
The £1.55 billion mission was supposed to launch in 2009, but problems during construction forced a two-year delay.
With launch scheduled for late November, engineers have been busy testing the spacecraft’s various systems – all the while making sure that contamination from Earth does not accidentally hitch a ride to Mars.
The nuclear-powered Curiosity – the size of a small 4x4 – will probe rocks and soil to determine whether the red planet ever had the right environment to support primitive life. It will carry the most high-tech instruments to the Martian surface including a laser that can zap boulders from afar.
To the dismay of some space fans, Curiosity will not carry a high-resolution 3-D camera that Avatar director James Cameron was helping to build. Nasa recently scrapped it because there was not enough time to fully test the zoom lens before launch.
Scientists expect Curiosity to build on the discoveries of the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which have uncovered geologic evidence of ancient water and the Phoenix lander, which found ice at its Martian north pole landing site.
While the cruise to Mars and descent through the fiery atmosphere are similar to past missions, Nasa is testing a new technology for landing. Instead of using airbags to bounce to a stop, the 2,000-pound Curiosity will be gently lowered to the surface by a sky crane.
Nasa last October installed a camera in a viewing gallery overlooking the clean room that allows anyone with a computer to watch a live stream of the rover construction. There’s no audio feed, but the space agency hosts periodic online chats with viewers to explain what is going on.
Curiosity also has its own Twitter feed with more than 29,000 followers.