Many of the rocks in the image appear to have the rounded shape produced on
Earth by water erosion. This is speculation on my part, but it is the
primary reason why the site was selected, per the NASA site:

"Primary among the mission's scientific goals is to search for and
characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water
activity on Mars. The spacecraft are targeted to sites on opposite sides of
Mars that appear to have been affected by liquid water in the past. The
landing sites are at Gusev Crater, a possible former lake in a giant impact
crater, and Meridiani Planum, where mineral deposits (hematite) suggest Mars
had a wet past."

Question: must the rounding be the result of flowing water? A lake bed would
not seem to be the place for this type of erosion, unless the rocks were in
place at some other time before or after the lake formed.

Comments?

Bob


"Paul Neave" wrote in message
...
The first of many, hopefully:


http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/rove...es-1-6-04.html