The USGS is excited to watch the progress of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). USGS scientist and cartographer, Ken Tanaka participated on the landing-site selection committee. Other members of the team including Randy Kirk and Robin Fergason, helped map Gale Crater, the selected landing site for the new rover, named Curiosity. Many team members are interested in MSL's mission to collect Martian soil and rock samples, and analyze them for organic compounds, looking for environmental conditions that could have supported microbial life now or in the past. In addition to our cartography duties, USGS Scientist, Ken Herkenhoff, is a particating scientist on the MSL science team, working with the microscopic imager.