14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this year, a panel made up of mission managers and scientists decided that the NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity will land in Gale Crater. This location was selected because of the huge scientific returns it promises to deliver.
As visible in this image gallery, the central region of the crater is occupied by a massive mountain made up of ejecta plume, which is about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) high. Its slopes are gentle at times, and experts hope to be able to drive Curiosity uphill for a while.
But the main reason why this crater was selected is the fact that the space impactor which created it exposed the Martian crust to a great depth. Therefore, the machine will have access to a large number of geological strata to analyze.
The MSL mission will launch between November 25 and December 18 this year, and is expected to reach the surface of the Red Planet by August 2012. At this point, the mission is scheduled to last only for a year, though we may see some extensions, Daily Galaxy reports.
