[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Geographer_*]

NASA's website has a vague description of an Astrobiology Field Laboratory launching around 2016, three years after ESA's rover. Would this use the philosophy of the Beagle 2, direct detection of organisms? Or would it be part of the future sample return mission, collecting interesting rocks?

[nprev]

Heck, I'd be delighted just to see three fixed-site seismometers on the planet spaced 120 deg apart in longitude, combined with a camera & a methane-sniffer. I suspect that Mars is very quiescent because of its extremely thick crust, but think we need to do some quake monitoring to provide context for other observations (landslides, dark streaks, etc.)

Sounds like a Discovery-class effort, but I'm not sure if you could do it with one launch.