NASA to choose between 2 Mars landing sites

better get on the ball or china will beat us there..

We know that something is there now. Why don't you just let us see the pictures.

That's the ticket! Now that NASA is finally done dragging their feet on a mission profile that will revolutionize space travel, I hope they take my suggestion seriously. The plain fact is, they can't launch manned missions to Mars due to weight limitations, life support deficiencies, propulsion limitations and insufficient data on long-term manned space missions. It will take over a year to launch and recover a Manned Mars flight. The necessary rations, scientific equipment, water, fuel, battery spares and back up systems will overload our current rocket engine capability. My idea is to stock ALL probes with one or more of these needed supplies. The manned launch itself could be augmented by a preceding cargo container launch. This container would hold the bulk of mission supplies. The manned spacecraft could dock with this container, and obtain all necessary supplies. This would be the only way such a mission could be accomplished with current propulsion methods.

I'd check out that thing the guy found the other day on youtube.

Have it do something to spark the popular interest in exploring further. Please note I said popular interest. Do something like debunk, or not, if there are Martian ruines. Putting it in an old river bed or sea would be interesting.

One day we will be able to successfully land on Mars and safely return them back again. Here is the beginning of one day a human being able to land and colonized itself on Mars. That is if the government don't take away NASA's budget.

This article was pretty useless.

Seriously, the new rover is supposed to have a nuclear power generator. Which should keep the lights on and the warmers warming, until the fuel runs out. Until such tiem then it should not matter where is comes down. Just so long as its a "safe" landing. It can eventually make its way to where ever the project managers want it to go to do their "research".

While they are debating which is the best "site" the launch window is slipping away!

We need to keep using robotic space exploration. Its way too early to be planning manned missions to Mars, especially given the financial constraints placed by the Govt. We would get more results in terms of $$ per project if we delayed our manned projects. There will be a place for manned exploration, but we haven't even revolutionized the new ION Drives yet. Plasma and Nuclear would certainly decrease the cost of the distant missions.

Now that we have found hydrates in igneous (volcanic) rock returned from the Moon (a new discovery in the rocks we brought back during Project Apollo), we need to start looking for the same thing on Mars. Evidently their is an ample supply of water in the form of hydrates in the mantle of the Moon, far more than they could hope to find as polar ice, and if such are part of the mantle of Mars, they may be far more than the ice and the pools of liquid water we believe to be present just below the surface of Mars. It now appears we could have sustainable civilizations on both these bodies. We need to figure where we are likely to find igneous rock on Mars and send probes to analyze it for such hydrates.

Dimwits,we would not have microwave ovens if it was not for NASA.

send all repubs to one side and democrats to the other so we can watch them suffer the way they are doing to us.

PLEASE STOP WASTING MY MONEY!! We have been to mars & there is NOTHING there that can help us!! Next planet please. If all you can do is maybe hit mars maybe obumble is right in cutting funding to NASA

There is no need to choose, simply pay mother Russia amount in gold and both sites can sucessfully be explored at cost of one US exploration rate.

NASA needs to make repair instructions in chinese for the rover. americans will not get to mars before space on a chinese spacecraft is available. our manned space program is effectively dead after the last shuttle flight.

Send it to clean up Spirit's solar panels and reorient it so it'll power up.
then we'll have 3 rovers...

obama wants to start an acorn chapter on mars

Nasa seems to be going anywhere but Cydonia and it's giant pyramids and buildings

Select the site that would have the most "utility" (ie. prospects for further exploration and development).

Oooh! Ooooh! Choose the one closest to 'Chuckie Cheese!'

The polar regions would be better but I believe this rover is too heavy for the decent to the surface through the Martian atmosphere at those latitudes.