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his earth unique in the solar system the

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only place where life could have taken

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hold or could such an environment have

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existed at some point on Mars where

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water and key chemical building blocks

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could have come together in a way that

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could support the smallest most basic

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forms of life the Mars Science

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Laboratory Rover NASA's new robotic

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vehicle for exploring Mars is heading to

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so how does a robotic Rome try to find

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answers by copying what its human

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creators give on earth geologists might

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check out a map drive out to a remote

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location and hike to a possibly

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hard-to-reach spot where they could see

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layers of ancient rocks like in the

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walls of a dried-up riverbed for the

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sides of a canyon MSL is an incredible

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Rover because it has an amazing ability

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to move around we're going to need that

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because we're going to have to go into

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some tough to reach places it can travel

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at least 20 kilometers probably further

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we're going to be able to land in a safe

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place and go beyond that to where the

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really rough rocks are which is where

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all the good geologic clues are to tell

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us about the early environmental

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evolution of Mars in the hunt for

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evidence of life on Mars geologists

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first have to determine if certain

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conditions were right the rock record

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shows evidence of certain minerals and

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organic molecules the chemical building

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blocks on which all life is based so

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what MSL would be able to do is it would

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it would drive up to this outcrop and it

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has a drill that's about a centimeter in

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diameter and we would instruct the rover

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to drill a hole in the rock and then the

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powder that comes out of that would then

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travel back into the rover and and it

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would be split and it would go into the

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two instruments that would analyze the

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powder when would give us information on

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mineralogy another one would give us

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information if there were any organic

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molecules in here so really as close as

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we can get to putting the field

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geologist on Mars and like any good

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geologist the Mars Science Laboratory

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Rover carries a full pack of gear for

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the trip on earth geologists use tools

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like compasses Rock hammers and hand

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lenses to explore the environment and

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study the rocks they might even do a

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simple acid test to see what the rocks

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are made of

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the Mars Science Laboratory Rover

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carries a whole laboratory with it

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wherever it goes it's much bigger than

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any Rover sent before about the size of

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a car that means it can carry a lot more

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advanced instruments we've got a laser

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called chemcam and we're going to be

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able to look at rocks that are on the

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walls of outcrops or in positions where

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we can't we can't really get to it and

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we'll be able to shoot this laser beam

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and look at the light that's reflected

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back to us and get some sense of the

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chemical composition of things that we

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might not be able to touch all these

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capabilities will help scientists

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understand the history of the remote

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areas one of the questions that people

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most often ask is whether or not life is

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unique in the universe in our solar

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system and the short answer to that is

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we don't really know and the only way

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we're going to figure this out is to

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leave our own planet and we'll explore

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other solar systems as well as planets

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within our own solar system could Mars

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have had an environment capable of

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supporting life the Mars Science

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Laboratory Rover is taking all the tools

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it needs to try to solve this mystery if

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all goes well at the end of its journey

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the rover will have taken us to places

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on Mars we could never reach before

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giving us a glimpse back into the

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history of the planet and maybe even