A specially convened group of scientists has advised NASA on how the agency might proceed in exploring Mars into the next decade. Raymond Arvidson, Chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, chaired the “Pathways” science working group. Details of the Mars task force were released February 15 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting held in Denver, Colorado. Arvidson said the Pathways group plotted out a new “discovery-driven” agenda with the assumption that both the twin Mars Exploration Rovers next year and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2005 will return loads of data.