Launched from Earth on November 26, 2011 the rover will be landing on Mars later this evening.
Curiosity's main objectives include determining Mars' habitatability, its climate and geology, and collecting data for future human missions.
This $2.6 billion rover is much larger than the previous rovers Spirit and Opportunity. (Also weighs over a ton!!)
It also is carrying 10x more scientific instruments than the previous generation.
(The following is a mock up to compare the 3 generations of mars rovers)
Landing Procedure for Curiosity
Live Stream of Landing
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
In the mean time I suggest reading up on the story of Spirit and Opportunity and how they both exceed thier initial planned duration (Spirit did 4.8 miles instead of the planned 0.4 miles over +5 years, and Opportunity is still going on today after doing 21.5 miles over 8 years).
