Mars Central.(Evening)

Byline: Sue Vorenberg svorenberg@abqtrib.com / 823-3678

Scientist Larry Crumpler will be among those in California directing two roverson the Red Planet. But he's also curator of Albuquerque's own hub of Mars activity.

Larry Crumpler stares out over a diorama of the Mars landscape at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science and sees his future.

Crumpler is a scientist on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Mars Exploration Rover team. He's also curator at the museum, which has created what is probably the most realistic Mars rover display in the world, he said.

The Mars exhibit opens Saturday at the museum in Albuquerque's Old Town.

As Crumpler looks at the rolling artificial landscape covered with a smattering of New Mexico rocks, where a highly technical rover model will soon be placed, the geologist in him feels a twinge of excitement for his upcoming job, he …