NASA's largest and most advanced mobile robotic laboratory is in final preparations for a launch from Florida's Space Coast at 4:25 pm. T on Nov. 25. It will examine one of the most intriguing areas on Mars, when it arrives i aug 2012

The Mars Science Laboratory mission will carry Curiosity, a rover with more scientific capability than any ever sent to another planet. The rover is now sitting atop an Atlas V rocket awaiting liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

"Preparations are on track for launching at our first opportunity," said Pete Theisinger, Mars Science Laboratory project manager at NASA's JPL"If weather or other factors prevent launching then, we have more opportunities through Dec. 18."

Scheduled to land on the Red Planet in August 2012, the 1 ton rover will examine Gale Crater during a nearly 2 year prime mission. Curiosity will land near the base of a layered mountain 5km high inside the crater. The rover will investigate whether environmental conditions ever have been favorable for development of microbial life and preserved evidence of those conditions.

Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as earlier Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The rover will carry a set of 10 science instruments weighing 15x as much as its predecessors' science payloads.  It is powered by a nuclear battery, that will enable it to continue through the Mars winter-season and at much higher speed than the previous rovers

A mast extending to 2,1m above ground provides height for cameras and a laser-firing instrument to study targets from a distance. Instruments on a 2,1m long arm, will study targets up close. Analytical instruments inside the rover will determine the composition of rock and soil samples acquired with the arm's powdering drill and scoop. Other instruments will characterize the environment, including the weather and natural radiation that will affect future human missions.

Sources: MSL homepage, NASA and JPL