In the NASA press release, Michael Meyer, NASA program scientist for Curiosity, stated,
This was not a difficult choice for the science team...Many of us and millions of other readers were inspired in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the possibility of life on Mars.
I think this quote from Mr. Bradbury applies to many things, but certainly our latest adventure with curiosity:
Americans
are far more remarkable than we give ourselves credit for. We've been
so busy damning ourselves for years. We've done it all, and yet we don't
take credit for it.