Curiosity (rover) no chance of obtaining funds in Europe, at that time, of the scale previously considered necessary for a Mars rover, so the team used innovative methods to reduce the cost to less than 4% of the cost of the "Curiosity" mission. They also had only one shot, with no funding for repeat missions (it was named "Beagle 2" as a successor to , not to an earlier rover). It was considered a large risk, and, although "Beagle 2" did successfully survive its entry, descent, and landing, incomplete deployment of the solar panels hampered communication back to Earth. The team has
Curiosity (rover) California, where she signed her name directly onto the rover as it was being assembled. Ma wrote in her winning essay: "Curiosity" landed in Quad 51 (nicknamed Yellowknife) of Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater. The landing site coordinates are: . The location has been named Bradbury Landing in honor of science fiction author Ray Bradbury. Gale crater, an estimated 3.5 to 3.8 billion-year-old impact crater, is hypothesized to have first been gradually filled in by sediments; first water-deposited, and then wind-deposited, possibly until it was completely covered. Wind erosion then scoured out the sediments, leaving an isolated mountain, Aeolis Mons