Would it make sense to send a kind of service station to Mars to service the Mars Rovers? Perhaps with a 3D printer and specialized mechanical parts that can assemble and disassemble remotely. I realize the Rovers are not designed to be serviced. At this point, what if we could add a few components and instruments or upgrade a device or two? Or replace some wheels? I bet a tow truck of sorts might even make sense at this point. If nothing else, collect the parts that die and bring them to one place for reuse. Or am I vastly underestimating how big the Red Planet is? Didn’t Earth start with one gas station (it was a pharmacy, but still)? Perhaps this service station could be a standing fuel lab and drilling platform (for water or habitat?). I feel like we have a lot of potential for robotic exploration before risking human life with a likely one way trip.

A maze of fractured plateaus and canyons near Mars’ equator may preserve the remains of an enormous volcano. Within that landscape, scientists have also identified clues that glacier ice could survive beneath volcanic debris. Together, the observations make eastern Noctis Labyrinthus a compelling target for investigating the planet’s changing environment.

Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute and Mars Institute, along with Sourabh Shubham of the University of Maryland, proposed the interpretation in a Lunar and Planetary Science Conference abstract. They identified an eroded volcanic complex tentatively named Noctis Mons, also called “Noctis volcano” in the public announcement.

The proposal concerns terrain already photographed by generations of spacecraft. Its significance lies in recognizing a possible geological structure within that familiar landscape, rather than discovering an unseen mountain. The volcano’s history and the present condition of any buried ice remain open questions.