Scientists cheered NASA's decision to send a new rover to Mars
in 2020, but stressed that the mission should pave the way to
return Martian rocks to Earth — a major goal of the planetary
science community. In a set of statements released Jan. 28 and
Jan. 30, two large and well-respected groups of scientists — the
Planetary Society and the American Astronomical Society's
Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS), respectively — shared
their views on the plan to send another robotic explorer to the
Red Planet in seven years. The new Mars rover mission was
announced Dec. 4 by John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate
administrator for science, at the annual meeting of the American
Geophysical Union in San Francisco. The new rover will share
some design features with NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in August to begin at
least a two-year mission. "We welcome the recent announcement
that NASA will return to Mars in 2020 with a new rover derived
from the MSL Curiosity design," the Plane