The Southern California team of scientists that guided Curiosity to Mars last summer accompanied a replica of the rover during Monday's inauguration parade in Washington D.C.
The life-size model -- referred to as Ms. Curiosity -- was scheduled to roll along the parade route alongside Jet Propulsion Laboratory project manager Richard Cook, flight director Bobak Ferdowsi, mission manager Jennifer Trosper and deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada. Program executive Dave Lavery and program scientist Michael Meyer, both of NASA headquarters, will march with the team.
The rovers are considered ships of exploration, so all are referred to in the feminine.
NASA has two floats in the inauguration parade. A model of rover Orion, a capsule designed to transport astronauts deep into space, will be part of the event.
Current and former astronauts also were invited to march in the parade.
Curiosity -- currently blasting rocks at exploring the Martian surface -- is part of an effort to determine whether environmental conditions on Mars could have been favorable to microbes. The journey to the drilling spot should take about two weeks.
The SUV-sized rover landed on Mars Aug. 6.
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