My preference was for Athabasca where clear eveidence of recent flood and volatile activity would have directly addressed the question of which volatiles are active and (possibly) whether there is any sub-surface biota.

This site was ruled out quite early. I strongly feel that Gusev is a very poor substitute, since it is so old and degraded, and we cannot land in the vaguely interesting part anyway.

Nonetheless, ANY Mars mission is welcome and the results will add value and diversity to our understanding of Mars. For example, both landing sites are in the older highland terrains which have never been successfully visited.

The Haematitie site ion Meridani is also likely to tell us some important things about mineralisation processes on Mars, if the Rover lands in reach of the right pieces.

WHo klnows, we may have some nice Christmas presents from Mars this year...