[meteorite-list] NASA'S Next Mars Rover To Land At Gale Crater (MSL)

[Ron Baalke]

July 22, 2011

Dwayne Brown      
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Guy Webster 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
818-354-6278 
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov   


RELEASE: 11-243

NASA'S NEXT MARS ROVER TO LAND AT GALE CRATER

WASHINGTON -- NASA's next Mars rover will land at the foot of a 
layered mountain inside the planet's Gale crater. 

The car-sized Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity, is scheduled to 
launch late this year and land in August 2012. The target crater 
spans 96 miles (154 kilometers) in diameter and holds a mountain 
rising higher from the crater floor than Mount Rainier rises above 
Seattle. Gale is about the combined area of Connecticut and Rhode 
Island. Layering in the mound suggests it is the surviving remnant of 
an extensive sequence of deposits. The crater is named for Australian 
astronomer Walter F. Gale. 

"Mars is firmly in our sights," said NASA Administrator Charles 
Bolden. "Curiosity not only will return a wealth of important science 
data, but it will serve as a precursor mission for human exploration 
to the Red Planet." 

During a prime mission lasting one Martian year -- nearly two Earth 
years -- researchers will use the rover's tools to study whether the 
landing region had favorable environmental conditions for supporting 
microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life ever 
existed. 

"Scientists identified Gale as their top choice to pursue the 
ambitious goals of this new rover mission," said Jim Green, director 
for the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in 
Washington. "The site offers a visually dramatic landscape and also 
great potential for significant science findings." 

In 2006, more than 100 scientists began to consider about 30 potential 
landing sites during worldwide workshops. Four candidates were 
selected in 2008. 

An abundance of targeted images enabled thorough analysis of the 
safety concerns and scientific attractions of each site. A team of 
senior NASA science officials then conducted a detailed review and 
unanimously agreed to move forward with the MSL Science Team's 
recommendation. The team is comprised of a host of principal and 
co-investigators on the project. 

Curiosity is about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as 
any previous Mars rover. Its 10 science instruments include two for 
ingesting and analyzing samples of powdered rock that the rover's 
robotic arm collects. A radioisotope power source will provide heat 
and electric power to the rover. A rocket-powered sky crane 
suspending Curiosity on tethers will lower the rover directly to the 
Martian surface. 

The portion of the crater where Curiosity will land has an alluvial 
fan likely formed by water-carried sediments. The layers at the base 
of the mountain contain clays and sulfates, both known to form in 
water. 

"One fascination with Gale is that it's a huge crater sitting in a 
very low-elevation position on Mars, and we all know that water runs 
downhill," said John Grotzinger, the mission's project scientist at 
the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. "In terms 
of the total vertical profile exposed and the low elevation, Gale 
offers attractions similar to Mars' famous Valles Marineris, the 
largest canyon in the solar system." 

Curiosity will go beyond the "follow-the-water" strategy of recent 
Mars exploration. The rover's science payload can identify other 
ingredients of life, such as the carbon-based building blocks of 
biology called organic compounds. Long-term preservation of organic 
compounds requires special conditions. Certain minerals, including 
some Curiosity may find in the clay and sulfate-rich layers near the 
bottom of Gale's mountain, are good at latching onto organic 
compounds and protecting them from oxidation. 

"Gale gives us attractive possibilities for finding organics, but that 
is still a long shot," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's 
Mars Exploration Program at agency headquarters. "What adds to Gale's 
appeal is that, organics or not, the site holds a diversity of 
features and layers for investigating changing environmental 
conditions, some of which could inform a broader understanding of 
habitability on ancient Mars." 

The rover and other spacecraft components are being assembled and 
undergoing final testing. The mission is targeted to launch from Cape 
Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18. 
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the mission for 
the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 

To view the landing site and for more information about the mission, 
visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/msl   
	
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