CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The biggest, most sophisticated Mars rover ever built — a car-size vehicle bristling with cameras, microphones, drills and lasers — blasted off Thursday as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analyzed for evidence of ancient life.
It may seem like a waste - until you consider that things like the small telephone in your pocket owes its existence to technology developed by NASA for the Apollo missions. Who knows what will eventually emerge from the Mars missions?
