This picture shows Gusev Crater. One of the rovers will land here. The yellow area shows where NASA thinks the rover will land.
Click on image for full size
NASA/JPL
Mars Rover Landing Sites Selected
News story originally written on April 25, 2003
NASA will soon send two robot rovers to Mars. Rockets carrying the two rovers will be launched from Earth in May and June of 2003. The rovers will get to Mars in January 2004.
NASA just decided where on Mars each rover will land. The rovers will land at places on Mars where there might have been water in the past. Scientists think places that had water are the best places to search for life. The two rovers will land at places where water may have been.
One rover will explore a large crater called Gusev Crater. It looks like Gusev Crater once had a big lake inside it. The other lander will touch down at a place called Meridiani Planum. Meridiani Planum seems to have a bunch of hematite in the area. Hematite is a mineral that often forms in wet places. So both landing sites seem like places that once had water. Maybe the rovers will find fossils of Martian life there!
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