Curiosity (rover) comparison to Pancam on the Mars Exploration Rovers, the MastCam-34 has 1.25× higher spatial resolution and the MastCam-100 has 3.67× higher spatial resolution. The region the rover is set to explore has been compared to the Four Corners region of the North American west. Gale Crater has an area similar to Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. Colin Pillinger, leader of the "Beagle 2" project, reacted emotionally to the large number of technicians monitoring "Curiosity" descent, because "Beagle 2" had only four people monitoring it. The "Beagle 2" team made a virtue out of necessity; it was known that there was
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