I’m sure you’ve heard that NASA just successfully landed a car sized robot, Curiosity, on Mars. I was just wondering, what exactly are they doing on Mars anyway? So I hooked up Popular Science and found out! Here is a list, including pictures, of all of the instruments that are on Curiosity.

My favorite so far is the RAD, the Radiation Assessment Detector. As its name indicates, it measures radiation levels. Now why in the solar system would NASA want to know about radiation on Mars? According to Popular Science....

NASA wants to send people to Mars and people don’t like radiation! This is the first time that I have found definite preparations to send people to Mars.

I’m pretty excited! In our life time we might be able to see the first man and women set foot on Mars.