NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has discovered its third meteorite on the planet, and its second this year. The two rocks are within a half-mile of each other.
Opportunity spent six weeks studying the first one, and engineers are maneuvering the rover to get it in position to make contact with the second so analysis can begin. Presumably, a big question to pursue is whether the two were once part of the same body, or in fact represent two separate falls.
The story of the Mars rovers is amazing, but note-- Opportunity spent six weeks on one rock. A human expedition would have taken samples off the meteorite for analysis and moved on. The proceedure may have taken a couple hours. The question is: Are we in any hurry to understand Mars? If not, continuing with robotic probes is probably good enough. However, if the point is to put together the big picture within the next two or three decades, that may well require putting humans on Mars.
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