It seems the title I chose for this thread might be appropriate, as there is clearly
a lot of confusion about the MSL/Curiosity mission goals.
So, straight from
the horse's mouth (NASA/JPL's site) …
Quote:
The MSL mission has four primary science objectives to meet the overall habitability assessment goal:
1) The first is to assess the biological potential of at least one target environment by determining the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds, searching for the chemical building blocks of life, and identifying features that may record the actions of biologically relevant processes.
2) The second objective is to characterize the geology of the landing region at all appropriate spatial scales by investigating the chemical, isotopic, and mineralogical composition of surface and near-surface materials, and interpreting the processes that have formed rocks and soils.
3) The third objective is to investigate planetary processes of relevance to past habitability (including the role of water) by assessing the long timescale atmospheric evolution and determining the present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide.
4) The fourth objective is to characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic cosmic radiation, solar proton events, and secondary neutrons.
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So, notice that they are searching for present-day evidence
of past habitability environments … so, I stand corrected .. and I retract what I implied earlier .. ie: something along the lines of: 'this is the first time they've gone specifically searching for life' … clearly this is not strictly accurate.
My previous statement is as much a result of the media spin on the true mission objectives, (ie: it was not intentionally, my own view).
Cheers