Timeline of Mars Science Laboratory microorganisms, as well as ancient water, including fluvio-lacustrine environments (plains related to ancient rivers or lakes) that may have been habitable. The search for evidence of habitability, taphonomy (related to fossils), and organic carbon on the planet Mars is now a primary NASA objective. On September 11, 2014 (Sol 746), "Curiosity" reached the slopes of Aeolis Mons (or Mount Sharp), the rover mission's long-term prime destination and where the rover is expected to learn more about the history of Mars. "Curiosity" had traveled an estimated linear distance of to the mountain slopes since leaving its ""start"" point in Yellowknife Bay
NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge The NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge, prior to 2014 referred to as the Great Moonbuggy Race, is an annual competition for high school and college students to design, build, and race human-powered, collapsible vehicles over simulated lunar/Martian terrain. NASA sponsors the competition, first held in 1994, and, since 1996, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center hosts. Students created vehicles dubbed "moonbuggies" to face challenges similar to those engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center addressed in preparation for Apollo 15. On that mission, on July 31, 1971, the first Lunar Roving Vehicle extended the range