Stripping down science, the naked scientists. This week why scientists are curious about Mars.

The Curiosity rover has a very involved set of instruments, the most complex set that's ever been

flown to the surface of another planet, and we should be able to make a variety of

measurements to create a new insight into the habitability of ancient

environments on Mars as well as get a sense for the current surface

environments of Mars. This is the latest NASA mission to the red planet

landing this week. We'll hear from two of the key scientists involved.

Plus, where else in the solar system will we be exploring next?

John Zarneki, one of the pioneers of the Cassini Hygan's mission to Titan

joins us to explain why he wants to go back there.

Hello it's Sunday August the 5th, I'm Chris Smith

and also with us this week is Dominic Ford. Hello and also I'll have a round up for you later of what scientists have discovered about black holes.

The Naked Scientists Podcast is powered by UK Fast, the UK's best hosting provider on the web at

UKfast.co. UK. In November 2011, one of NASA's most ambitious missions yet mounted to explore Mars

blasted off destined for the red planet carrying a mini-Couper sized science mobile laboratory called

Curiosity.

But how do you land something the size and weight of a car on a planet millions of miles away. When Curiosity launched I spoke with

NASA's mission chief scientist John Grotinger to find out. To begin with we

launch and then on the cruise from from Earth to Mars and there's a solar array which keeps the rover charged.

It takes about eight months and then we begin to feel the pull of the gravitational field and we enter the planet's

atmosphere and begin to descend. But this time in contrast to previous Mars

landed missions, the Arrow Shell, which is the bit that you see in these videos that

...