Another mission to Ares Vallis?, A mission to continue where Pathfinder wasn't able Options

[RichforMars]

Hi,

I'm curious to know, what does anyone here think?

I sure would like to another mission to that region, within range of the P&S mission.

Sojourner's last step was to be sent to fifty meters from the craft to analyis the rocks. So a hypothetical mission would look like one of the MER's or perhaps it may even be bigger to continue where the PS mission wasn't able to.

Obviously another Sojourner rover isn't practical for the terrain in that region, there wouldn't be anything wrong with another repeat of that mission, but as it is obvious missions are always innovative with testing technology.

[algorimancer]

There seems to be an accelerated transition to smaller, but still capable spacecraft -- certainly in the cubesat realm. In 5-15 years it may be a relatively simple matter to scatter 20-30 or more small (perhaps hand-sized) rovers around all the dream locations of interest, including Ares Vallis (personally I'd like to target the bottom of Hellas as well as the putative delta regions bordering what seems to have been the northern ocean). This might take us into the realm of single-investigator spacecraft, and tolerance of failure, as opposed to the current flagship missions.