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Beyond water on Mars

Mars exploration has been guided by the search for water. The more complex quest by Mars Science Laboratory for habitable environments should illuminate the Martian environmental history, and possibly deliver insights into extraterrestrial life.

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Figure 1: Scale models of Mars Science Laboratory (right) next to Pathfinder (centre) and Mars Exploration Rover (left).

NASA/JPL

Figure 2: Four potential landing sites for Mars Science Laboratory.

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Acknowledgements

Work on Mars Science Laboratory was sponsored by NASA. J. Crisp, W. Fischer, A. Knoll, R. Milliken, E. Stolper and A. Vasavada commented on the manuscript.

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Grotzinger, J. Beyond water on Mars. Nature Geosci 2, 231–233 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo480

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