David Blake, a research scientist at NASA Ames, led the development of CheMin, one of ten scientific instruments onboard Curiosity, the Mars Scientific Laboratory. The Powder X-Ray Diffraction tool will search for clues on the Martian surface for an environment that might have once harbored life.
For more information about NASA Ames, please visit http://www.nasa.gov/ames
This is a video of the launching of Mars Science Laboratory "Curiosity" on Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 7:02 PST (10:02 EST). The ETA (estimated time of arrival) on Mars will be sometime on August 2012.