Mission to Mars, Made in LA

Sunday, when the high-tech rover Curiosity lands on Mars, all the world will be watching. But nobody will be paying more attention than the scientists at the Jet Propulsion Lab, who engineered the flight and the landing or the scientists at Caltech, who will do the exploring for the next two years. It's a huge gamble costing $2.5 billion that could end up in a heap of twisted metal, or it could help determine if there's ever been life on Mars. It could also determine the future of America's space program. We hear about generations of dreams and "seven minutes of terror." On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, is temporary employment the new normal?

Banner image: NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its panoramic camera to record this eastward horizon view on the 2,407th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars. (October 31, 2010)