Mission concept: Hit Mars with a kinetic energy impactor (a very fast, very large iron wrecking ball type object for instance), powerful enough to create the equivilent of a small atomic blast. Train every camera and science device we have in Mars orbit on the impact, and follow it several hours later with advanced MER type rover(s) to inspect the fresh crater and material ejected. It seems to me such a mission could be done for not much more than what the current mission costs are since the impactor itself would be inexpensive, and it would not require any major new technology development. The impactor could probably even launch on the same spacecraft as the rover(s). This could yield some spectacular science results. Comments?
Let's hit Mars with a kinetic energy impactor
