This weekend, Curiosity successfully landed on Mars. Now the one-ton roving robotic laboratory, part of NASA's four-ton Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, gets down to business. Its task? Determining whether Mars ever did or could support life. That's the big question. To quote Humphrey Bogart's Rick in "Casablanca": "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world," why should life occur only on planet Earth? Living organisms are found in the most improbable places -- in the dark, sulfurous depths of the oceans and in the driest deserts. News: Curiosity rover lands on Mars All it takes is some water, carbon, a few other elements and energy.
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Meg Urry says this weekend, Curiosity, NASA's roving robotic laboratory, landed on Mars
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Curiosity will try to tell whether there's been life on Mars, where conditions different from Earth
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She says Curiosity made tricky Mars landing, now will take pictures, collect  information
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Urry: Rocks on Mars can give up clues about whether any life has existed there
In fact, just like science labs on @placeholder, it has a number of complex instruments capable of testing the properties of solids, liquids and gases.