Nov. 21, 2008 -- NASA's next Mars rover will stake out new ground, bypassing the ancient ocean bed uncovered by one of the agency's current roving robots and head instead toward a potentially richer scientific lode at one of four candidate landing sites.
"All the sites are great," said David Blake, a lead scientist for one of the instruments on Mars Science Lab, a six-wheeled spacecraft slated for launch next fall.
"I wouldn't be dissatisfied with any place that we went," he said.
Blake heads a team that will be using X-rays to identify minerals in Martian rocks and soils. One of the mission's prime goals is to assess at least one region on Mars as a potential habitable for life, either past or present.
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Scientists this week narrowed down the list of potential landing sites to four, eliminating the Meridiani Planum region of Mars where the rover Opportunity has been scouting for signs of past water since January 2004.
One of its first discoveries was evidence of a past shallow, salty ocean.
"I think most of the (science) community has kind of evolved into being very interested in studying clays," Blake told Discovery News.
Clays have been found on several locations on Mars with orbiting spacecraft, including Europe's Mars Express and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
After taking into account potential landing hazards, the team overseeing the Mars Science Lab landing site selection has winnowed down the candidates to:
* Eberswalde Crater, located south of Vallis Marineris, is among the strongest evidence on Mars of a river flowing into a standing body of water. Many channels in the delta are inverted, which occurs as sediments deposited by flowing water solidify over time and become resistant to erosion.
* Gale Crater, located in the boundry region between Mars' southern highlands and northern lowlands near the planet's equator, is filled with layers and layers of rocks containing clays and sulfates that extend more than three miles higher than the crater floor. It is unknown if these sediments are the result of ancient floods, lava flows or wind-blown ash deposits.
* Holden Crater, a site where deep gullies may have been carved by running water. It may also contain dry lakebeds and sediments deposited by ancient streams. Located south of Vallis Marineris, scientists believe the crater was once a lake.
* Mawrth Valley, located north of the other sites, is an ancient channel carved by catastrophic floods. Its exposed layers contain at least two types of clays, which may have preserved organic materials. It is located in Mars' northern plains, east of where the Pathfinder lander touched down in 1997.
Scientists will continue site evaluations for several more months and choose a top site next summer.
Mars Science Lab is scheduled to arrive in 2010 for a two-year mission. Its complement of science instruments include cameras, spectrometers, radiation detectors and environmental sensors.
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