Mars Rover Landing Set for Early August

NASA Rover on Target for August Landing on Mars By Alicia Chang June 12, 2012 10:56AM NASA says the Mars rover Curiosity is zeroing in on its landing site, on target to arrive at Gale Crater near the Martian equator in early August. In a never-before-tried landing technique, instead of relying on airbags to land like previous Mars surface missions, Curiosity will be lowered to the surface on a tether and fire its thrusters to touch down. Two months before NASA is set to land its most sophisticated rover on Mars, engineers on Earth are busy troubleshooting a nagging concern with the rover's drill that could contaminate rock samples gathered for study. Project managers said Monday they were confident the rover nicknamed Curiosity will still be able to achieve its goals despite the hurdle.

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