NASA has launched the world's biggest robotic explorer yet into space, complete with a little piece of Canadian content.
The agency's latest Mars rover – a six-wheeled, one-armed robot – took off Saturday morning from a launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
It was up to an unmanned Atlas V rocket to do the heavy lifting and launch the rover on an eight-and-a-half month voyage to the Red Planet.
"I HAVE LIFTOFF!" read a message posted to the explorer's Twitter account as the actual rover hurtled into the sky.
The rover, named Curiosity, is equipped with a mobile laboratory which will come in handy during its mission sampling soil and rocks on Mars.
And some of the sampling will be conducted with equipment made in Canada. The Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer, designed to analyze chemical elements in Martian rocks and soil, was designed by Prof. Ralf Gellert at the University of Guelph.
"We do this a lot with space exploration missions," Alain Berinstain, director of science and academic development at the Canadian Space Agency in Longueuil, Que, told The Canadian Press on Saturday. "We contribute a modest but critical component to the success of the mission and our international partners seek out our expertise here in Canada."
Curiosity is tasked with scouring the Red Planet for evidence of microbial life, a quest that costs roughly USD$2.5 billion.
"It is by far the most sophisticated vehicle we have ever sent to Mars," Paul Delaney, a York University astronomy professor, told CTV News Channel on Saturday.
Part of the reason the cost is so steep, said Delaney, is because the project has run over its scheduled timeline.
"If you're going to make that kind of investment in trying to understand Mars, you want it to work properly," said Delaney.
"NASA pushed the timeline to make sure they could prepare the vehicle as thoroughly and as completely as they possibly could."
Earlier Saturday morning, NASA had reported some concern over cloudy weather conditions. But those concerns were quelled moments later.
"The forecasters declared conditions are now "GO" for launch after the clouds over the launch site scattered enough to allow a launch," a representative from NASA's Kennedy Space Center wrote in a message posted to Twitter.Curiosity is expected to land in Gale Crater, a 154-kilometre-diameter area on the Red Planet.
With files from The Associated Press
