Speculation as to its purpose, range from astronomy to a UFO landing site.
But Nilae Fossae was eventually deemed too dangerous a landing site and it was finally removed from the list in June of this year.
Nili Fossae was put forward as a potential landing site for Nasa'a ambitious new rover, the Mars Science Laboratory, which will be launched in 2011.
The photos reveal images of the Apollo moon landing sites.
The whole area of exercises, landing site “Zhitovo”, is cordoned off by Airborne troops.
The ground search team reached the landing site immediately, and astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong opened the capsule's hatch by themselves.
Images of the Apollo 11 landing site taken by LRO clearly show where the descent stage (about 12 feet in diameter) was left behind, as well as the astronauts' tracks and equipment deployed.
Japan's "Goddess on" lunar probe had reached the U. S. landing landing site announced in 1971 and in 1972.
Though our pilots today will try to approximate the original landing site, there have the mercy of the winds, so who knows where they'll drift off to.
Lunar gravimetry is one of the most useful approaches to understand interior constitution and structure of the moon, a fundamental consideration for choice of landing sites in future.
When a drop lands, some of this mineral is deposited at the landing site, where it accumulates, forming a stalagmite.
Horizontal thrusters to align with the landing site.
The site was championed by other geologists, including John Mustard from Brown University in Rhode Island, whose team made the case to Nasa to have it included in the landing site shortlist for MSL.
However, the rover's landing site would be away from the deposits, so the rovers would have to drive anywhere up to 12 miles in order to reach them.
On the other side of the planet, the signs of water that led to Meridiani Planum being chosen as a landing site were much subtler, making it more of a gamble.
The western portion of Sinus Meridiani was the landing site of the Mars rover Opportunity.
Clouds and rain in Florida forced NASA to land the shuttle at a backup landing site.
