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![Read the release 'Deadline Nears For Student Contest to Name NASA's Next Mars Rover'](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117151144im_/http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/newsroom/pressreleases/images/nameroversad_th100.jpg) |
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Deadline Nears For Student Contest to Name NASA's Next Mars Rover
NASA is issuing a last call to the nation's youth for entries in a contest to name the agency's next Mars rover.
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![Next NASA Mars Mission Rescheduled For 2011](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117151144im_/http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/gallery/spacecraft/20081204a/Dec4_E_th100.jpg) |
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Next NASA Mars Mission Rescheduled For 2011
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will launch two years later than previously planned, in the fall of 2011. The mission will send a next-generation rover with unprecedented research tools to study the early environmental history of Mars.
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![View the spotlight 'The Games We Play'.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117151144im_/http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/spotlight/images/20081201a/20081201_th100.jpg) |
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The Games We Play
When you're training for a tough task, role-playing games can prepare you for the real thing. Scientists play "games" too. Sixty Mars scientists from around the world just finished four exercises to practice directing the Mars Science Laboratory rover's activities after it lands.
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![View the spotlight The Politics of Landing.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117151144im_/http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/spotlight/images/20081124a/20081124_anim_th100.gif) |
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The Politics of Landing
Electing where to send a rover on the diverse landscape of Mars is no easy task. With a lot at stake, two sides of the Mars team--scientists and engineers--have been lobbying for the best candidate landing site.
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![Read the release 'Site List Narrows For NASA's Next Mars Landing''](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117151144im_/http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/newsroom/pressreleases/images/20081119_MSL_final4_MOLAmap_th100.jpg) |
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Site List Narrows For NASA's Next Mars Landing
PASADENA, Calif. -- Four intriguing places on Mars have risen to the final round as NASA selects a landing site for its next Mars mission, the Mars Science Laboratory.
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![Read the release 'NASA Invites Students to Name New Mars Rover''](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117151144im_/http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/gallery/spacecraft/images/20081118_MSL_with_wheels_th100.jpg) |
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NASA Invites Students to Name New Mars Rover
WASHINGTON -- NASA is looking for the right stuff, or in this case, the right name for the next Mars rover.
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Go to the Name The Rover site >>
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![View the spotlight 'Hanging Six' on Mars.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117151144im_/http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/spotlight/images/20081112_MSL_anim_th100.gif) |
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So Happy Together
Imagine taking a very long 10-month journey with someone you’ve just recently met! The assembly team successfully introduced the Mars Science Laboratory rover to one of its space travel partners.
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![View the spotlight 'High-Flying Test Rides'.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117151144im_/http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/spotlight/images/20081103_Dryden_th100.jpg) |
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High-Flying Test Rides
When you have just one chance to land Mars' biggest rover, you have to practice - a lot. So, how do you copy a high-speed descent on Mars? Strap special sensors to an F/A-18 jet at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center.
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![View the spotlight 'One Hot, Giant 'Clamshell''](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117151144im_/http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/spotlight/images/20081027_anim_th100.gif) |
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One Hot, Giant "Clamshell"
Hot off a special delivery truck from Lockheed Martin in Denver comes the aeroshell for the Mars Science Laboratory rover. Like two pieces of a giant clam, the aeroshell's backshell and the heatshield come together to protect the rover and the propulsion stage that safely delivers it to the surface of Mars.
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![View the spotlight 'Hanging Six' on Mars.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117151144im_/http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/spotlight/images/20081023_th100.jpg) |
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"Hanging Six" on Mars
When it descends through the Martian sky, the Mars Science Laboratory rover will "hang six," riding the Martian wind. The descent stage will lower the rover to the ground using a "Bridle Umbilical Device."
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![Read the spotlight 'Survivor: Mars'](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117151144im_/http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/spotlight/images/20080918a/MSL_sites_globe2_th100.jpg) |
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Survivor: Mars
The Mars tribe has spoken. After searching far and wide for a landing site that can tell them if Mars was ever livable for microscopic life, the tribe of Mars experts has eliminated dozens of contenders. Only seven survive (labeled in white).
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![Read the feature 'Mars Rovers Sharpen Questions About Livable Conditions'](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117151144im_/http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20080215a/Sol1433B_P2423_2_False_L257_pos_2_th100.jpg) |
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Mars Rovers Sharpen Questions About Livable Conditions
Like salt used as a preservative, high concentrations of dissolved minerals in the wet, early-Mars environment known from discoveries by NASA's Opportunity rover may have thwarted any microbes from developing or surviving.
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