Mars Science Laboratory
Nilosyrtis is one of the sites proposed as a landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory. However, it did not make the final cut. It was in the top 7, but not in the top 4. The aim of the Mars Science Laboratory is to search for signs of ancient life. It is hoped that a later mission could then return samples from sites identified as probably containing remains of life. To safely bring the craft down, a 12 mile wide, smooth, flat circle is needed. Geologists hope to examine places where water once ponded. They would like to examine sediment layers.
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Famous quotes containing the words mars, science and/or laboratory:
“It makes us, or it mars us, think on that,
And fix most firm thy resolution.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“There is a chasm between knowledge and ignorance which the arches of science can never span.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“For a novelist, a given historic situation is an anthropologic laboratory in which he explores his basic question: What is human existence?”
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