Aeolis Palus Aeolis Palus Aeolis Palus is a plain between the northern wall of Gale crater and the northern foothills of Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp) on Mars. It is located at . The NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission landed the "Curiosity" rover on Aeolis Palus in August 2012. "Curiosity" spent two (Earth) years exploring the plain as it drove towards Aeolis Mons. The rover left the plain in September 2014 when it reached the mountain's foothills. On August 5, 2012, at 10:32 p.m. PDT/mission time (August 6, 2012 at 5:32 UTC), mission control at JPL received a signal from the NASA "Curiosity"
Crewed Mars rover called MOLAB. One of the ideas for Molab was for it touch down on its wheels, what was called a "rover first" concept. MOLAB had a pressurized cylinder for crews to operate in a shirt-sleeve environment even on an extraterrestrial surface. For options for keeping track of location as the rover moves around Mars include: Navigation on Mars is noted as important issue for human missions to the planet. Celestial navigation, used for over 500 years on Earth, may provide a way of locating on the Mars surface to within about 100 meters (109 yards). Navigation is especially relevant to