However, at the heart of the Lunar men's interests lay a driving curiosity in the workings of the natural world (fittingly, they had chosen the full moon to meet because it gave the most light as they stumbled home, drunk on fine ideas and clever talk).

ECONOMIST: 18th-century science

Indeed, there's geologic evidence from the rover and from NASA's Mars orbiters that there may once have been a large lake and streams within the basin that Curiosity is driving around in now.

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While Curiosity isn't yet ready to start driving around, "Here we've already got an exploration hole drilled for us, " Grotzinger said.

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Yellowknife was chosen as a destination because it represents a different type of rock terrain from the one on which Curiosity landed in August and on which it has done most of its driving.

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