Now that Curiosity is safely on Mars, what’s next for NASA?
This undated true color image by the Cassini spacecraft released
by NASA shows Saturn's largest moon, Titan, passing …I was
pretty excited about the Mars Curiosity landing.  By the time
the night of the landing finally rolled around, I'd already
watched NASA's "7 minutes of terror" video about a dozen times,
and as the minutes ticked down, I was watching the live feed
from the control room at Jet Propulsion Laboratories. I shared
their tension as they received word that the rover's capsule had
entered the Martian atmosphere, knowing that by the time that
word arrived here, the rover had already been on the planet's
surface (one way or the other) for seven minutes, and I shared
in their elation as Curiosity reported in that it was safe and
sound.  So, believe me when I say that I wasn't thinking "Fine.
You've done that now. What's next?"  Honestly, though... what IS
next?  [ Related: Planetary lander project to continue after
latest fiery crash ]  Ov