New Mars Mission announced

Great news another mission planned for 2020 based on the Curiosity design which makes sense because it works the new Rover will pave the way for a sample return mission. I hope that they think about putting a very large drill on this as the real gold is more than likely quite a few meters down and that is where you would want to grab your samples to bring home.
As with the latest SAM results many are saying those samples are too close to the surface and will have been altered by Cosmic Rays and other nasty bits of Radiation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20603689

From nasawatch.com:

[link]

"Grunsfeld will host a media briefing ... today at ... the American Geophysical Union meeting"

Cowing: "When will NASA actually try and find evidence of life on Mars? ...

Grunsfeld: "I side with Keith on this. ....

Looks like NASA learned that one can use a proven chassis/framework for more than 1 mission and don't have to invent the wheel new for every other mission. Thats the good part (engeneering) - now they need to learn how to follow up previous scientific investigations and results without almost panicky changing direction every time something don't work out as smoothly as expected! The search for ancient water on Mars - although its safe business - outwears with time and wont serve as a reason for costly complex interplanetary missions much longer I guess.

[link]

Article by Craig Covault and A.J. Rayl

Quote:

"A Life Marker Chip (LMC) system being developed in Britain by Leicester and Cranfield University personnel could compete in a forthcoming instrument selection for the 2020 rover, said John Grunsfeld, NASA Associate Administrator for Science. If the LMC were to be selected and then successful, the British space program, considered by many to be an oxymoron, could possibly end up making the most important finding in the history of space exploration!"

The LMC sounds good - life detection/observation on a chip has made a lot of technical progress the last decade. And why not include the projected RAMAN spectrometer which was deselected for MSL but is further developed still?
http://epsc.wustl.edu/haskin-group/Raman/instrument.htm