Life on Mars Ca(ClO) in the Phoenix soil has not interacted with liquid water of any form, perhaps for as long as 600 Myr. If it had, the highly soluble Ca(ClO) in contact with liquid water would have formed only CaSO. This suggests a severely arid environment, with minimal or no liquid water interaction. The Mars Science Laboratory mission is a NASA project that launched on November 26, 2011, the "Curiosity" rover, a nuclear-powered robotic vehicle, bearing instruments designed to assess past and present habitability conditions on Mars. The "Curiosity" rover landed on Mars on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater, near Aeolis Mons
Mars sample-return mission request of NASA and the NSF, declared a MSR campaign its highest priority Flagship Mission for that period. In particular, it endorsed the proposed Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher (MAX-C) mission in a "descoped" (less ambitious) form, although this mission plan was officially cancelled in April 2011. In September 2012, the United States' Mars Program Planning Group endorsed a sample-return after evaluating long-term Mars' plans. The key mission requirement for the planned Mars 2020 rover is that it must help prepare NASA for its MSR campaign. which is needed before any crewed mission takes place. Such effort would require three additional vehicles: