<p>The landing site for the 2.5 billion dollar Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) was unveiled the day after the 30-year shuttle era ended with the return to Earth of Atlantis after its final mission to the International Space Station.<br /><br />Clues sent home from Mars are important to NASA as it aims to build a spaceship capable of toting humans there by 2030, while private companies race to replace the shuttle with a capsule suitable for low-Earth orbit.<br /><br />More than 150 scientists have spent years whittling down the landing site for Curiosity, the largest US rover ever, set to launch later this year and land in August 2012.<br />From an initial set of 30 potential spots, they finally decided on the Gale crater, which contains a five kilometre (three mile) high mountain, over its leading rival the Eberswalde crater, which is home to a dried-up river delta.<br /><br />"In the end we picked the one that felt best," said John Grotzinger, MSL project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<br /><br />"This could be the tallest mountain in the solar system that we could actually climb with a rover," he said.<br /><br />The mountain, tucked inside the 154 kilometre (96 mile) wide crater, reaches higher than any peak in the continental United States but is shaped like a broad mound so the six-wheeled rover can climb at least halfway up.</p>
<p>The landing site for the 2.5 billion dollar Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) was unveiled the day after the 30-year shuttle era ended with the return to Earth of Atlantis after its final mission to the International Space Station.<br /><br />Clues sent home from Mars are important to NASA as it aims to build a spaceship capable of toting humans there by 2030, while private companies race to replace the shuttle with a capsule suitable for low-Earth orbit.<br /><br />More than 150 scientists have spent years whittling down the landing site for Curiosity, the largest US rover ever, set to launch later this year and land in August 2012.<br />From an initial set of 30 potential spots, they finally decided on the Gale crater, which contains a five kilometre (three mile) high mountain, over its leading rival the Eberswalde crater, which is home to a dried-up river delta.<br /><br />"In the end we picked the one that felt best," said John Grotzinger, MSL project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<br /><br />"This could be the tallest mountain in the solar system that we could actually climb with a rover," he said.<br /><br />The mountain, tucked inside the 154 kilometre (96 mile) wide crater, reaches higher than any peak in the continental United States but is shaped like a broad mound so the six-wheeled rover can climb at least halfway up.</p>