NASA is not wasting time in moving forward on its next rover that will strut its stuff across the far-flung sands of the red planet. The space agency released mid-month an “Announcement of Opportunity” that calls for science gear and related ideas that could wind up onboard the Mars Science Laboratory — or MSL, for short. The overall MSL science objective is to explore and quantitatively assess a local region on the Mars surface as a potential habitat for life, past or present.