Mars Science Laboratory landing site location was an elliptical area . Gale Crater's diameter is . The landing location for the rover was less than from the center of the planned landing ellipse, after a journey. NASA named the rover landing site Bradbury Landing on sol , August 22, 2012. According to NASA, an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 heat-resistant bacterial spores were on "Curiosity" at launch, and as much as 1,000 times that number may not have been counted. Mars Science Laboratory Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully
Scientific information from the Mars Exploration Rover mission made during a press conference, where mission scientists listed a number of observations that strongly support this view: Detailed analysis of environmental, chemical, and mineralogical data taken from the Opportunity rover led to the elimination of the competing hypotheses, and the confirmation of the conclusion that the spherules were formed in place as post-depositional sedimentary concretions from an aqueous source On March 23, 2004, NASA announced that they believe that "Opportunity" had not landed in a location merely "drenched in water", but on what was once a coastal area. "We think "Opportunity" is parked on what was once the shoreline