American space agency, NASA is planning to launch its most powerful and advanced robotic rover designed to explore Mars and look for signals of life on the red planet.

The Mars Science Laboratory is a six wheel vehicle that is powered by nuclear fuel. NASA is set to launch the robotic rover at 10:02 am from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on an Atlas V rocket.

Ashwin Vasavada, MSL deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said, "This is a Mars scientist's dream machine. This is the most capable scientific explorer we have ever sent out... We are super excited."

The rover named, Curiosity will look for information about the rocks on the surface of Mars and indications of life that may have existed on the planet. The huge, car like rover has a robotic arm, a drill, a set of 10 science instruments including two color video cameras, a laser beam for cutting rocks and a tool kit for analyzing rock contents.

Curiosity is expected to land on the surface of the Mars on August 5, 2012. It will send signals about findings and analyzing rocks but will not bring back samples to Earth. The project scientists have chosen the Gale Crater near Mars' equator as the landing spot for Curiosity. The area has a three-mile high mountain and many layers of sediment that can be analyzed to find out more information about the planet.