What concept did the foundational findings of Spirit and Opportunity set the stage for subsequent missions like Curiosity to investigate?
Answer
Habitability
The collective scientific output from the Spirit and Opportunity missions revolutionized the understanding of Mars's past, confirming it was a dynamic world that once hosted liquid water in various forms. This empirical proof was vital because it transitioned the focus of subsequent robotic exploration efforts. Once it was established that water existed, the next logical scientific objective became searching for the conditions necessary to support life itself. This subsequent focus area, which missions like Curiosity and Perseverance were designed to address, is known as habitability—the investigation into whether the ancient wet and dynamic environment of Mars could have supported life.
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