re: #253 Stanley Sea

OK, I’m lazy to look this up, and obviously my science memory is short term, but my teabagger co-worker made a comment that we’ve already sent a thing to Mars, why are we trying again?

The most important task, IMO, of Curiosity will be providing the data to understand the surface processes of Mars over billions of years. It will do this by sampling the rock through many layers as it makes its way from the lower parts of the crater up to somewhere in the middle of the side of the mountain inside the crater. On the mountain side is exposed geologic layers.

These layers will tell us how the surface of Mars changed in the past.

The onboard chemical analysis tools also will be able to detect signs of life, but as I strongly doubt there are any living things on the surface of Mars today, these results will come back null.