Dr John Bridges, Planetary Scientist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy's Space Research Centre, leads a team from Leicester, the Open University and CNES France which have been accepted as participating scientists on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mission, which lands in August 2012.

MSL is a 900 kg rover with instruments designed  to assess whether Mars could have been habitable for past life.  John Bridges will be at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena to study the first images returned after landing, to determine the conditions associated with the presence of water. 

Further information on the Mars Science Laboratory mission can be found here.