It serves as a landing area for bees and other insects that spread pollen to the plant.

VOA: special.2010.04.06

They moved Eagle forward, away from a very rocky area that might have caused a difficult landing.

VOA: special.2009.07.15

They made several trips from the landing area to study the surface of the moon.

VOA: special.2009.07.29

So Grotzinger cropped out a hundred and fifty square miles around the landing area and divided it into quadrangles of about a mile on a side.

NEWYORKER: The Martian Chroniclers

This jaw-dropping landing process, involving a sky crane and the world's largest supersonic parachute, allowed the spacecraft carrying Curiosity to target the landing area that scientists had meticulously chosen.

CNN: Mars landing went 'flawlessly,' scientists say

But, chiefly, the Admiral extolled the might of naval gunfire, whose concentration on the landing area, he said, gesturing heavenward with his meerschaum, would be the heaviest ever to support American troops.

NEWYORKER: Rat Beach