I never get tired of watching these things. I can't imagine how exciting it must be for people that work on the mission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory#Power_s... It's really fascinating stuff. Unfortunately, I heard that this plutonium is in short supply, and this might be one of the last missions to use this type of power source. This is a great image of the comparative sizes of the Curiosity, Exploration, and Sojourner rovers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mars_Science_Laboratory_mo... I really hope this thing makes it.
There are two rovers there waiting for some company, right? As I recall, one of them is stuck. Is their a plan to use Curiosity as a rescue rover at all? It does have a laser!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory#Landing... It's about 14 sq miles. So even if they did shoot for one of the previous rovers, they might have a very long drive ahead of them. Here's a map of the previous Mars landings, and crashes: http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/astro/marsprobemap.html Curiosity will be closest to Spirit, but not in driving distance: http://toolserver.org/~geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Gale_(cr...