One thing about human is that they have a capability to improvise on the spot. Even if you don’t have the right tools with you that robots lack. In Death Valley, this stuff was wet, they got dry when it dried, they cracked, we were investigating the idea that something similar happened on Mars. You know I’d love to be ought to do this on Mars, and we can’t, but you know, human on the scene can provides pretty well. 

 

Getting down and dirty on Mars will mean exactly that. When an ill wind blows on the red planet, dust really does go everywhere. About once every 3 years, local storms go global. And the dust can block your view for months.  It happened the very first time we sent a probe into orbit in 1971. When Marian N9 got to the planet, there was a giant dust storm that it completely shrouded the surface from it. They could see nothing just dust, and as the dust started to recede, also these dots appeared, there are 3 of them lined up, what the heck are those? It turned out to be the peaks of the 3 great volcanos on Mars. And then we gain to realize just how varied the terrain and topography Mars was. This was the moment that Mars began to reveal itself, a world with a secret history and spectacular scenery to match.