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Summary
To up the odds of finding signs of life on Mars, NASA has chosen mineralogically diverse but mysterious Gale crater as the target for its $2.5 billion Curiosity rover. NASA is sending the Curiosity rover on the first truly astrobiological mission since the 1970s to search for signs that Mars was ever habitable and perhaps inhabited. Planetary scientists are excited to be returning to Mars with the most scientifically capable planetary explorer ever built, but many are also anxious. They are concerned that NASA is sending Curiosity to a site that is shrouded in geologic mystery.
