Washington, July 23 (ANI): NASA has announced that it has made a final decision on the landing destination for the next Mars Rover - at the foot of a mountain inside a 96-mile-wide crater named Gale.
The mountain in Gale Crater is layered, and scientists believe it is the surviving remnant of an extensive sequence of deposits.
A large Martian crater that once featured running water and now has a three-mile high mountain in the middle of it, was selected as the landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, NASA officials said Friday.
The long-debated decision was based on the wide range of features the rover can explore in Gale Crater - ranging from a fan that was likely once a river delta, to layers of clay and additional areas where minerals were created in the presence of water.
In addition, the rover - which can travel as far as 14 miles - will explore what may well have once been a river gorge like the Grand Canyon and will climb hundreds of yards up the central mountain.
"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," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at agency headquarters.
The rover Curiosity and other pars of the MSL spacecraft are undergoing final testing. The mission is targeted to launch from Cape Canaveral between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18. (ANI)
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