It means that MSL could be the last American surface mission to the Red Planet for many years.

BBC: ��Six minutes of terror��

"We want to be sure that what we are testing is Mars, and not Earth contaminants, " said MSL mission operations manager Michael Watkins.

WSJ: Mars Mission Seeks a Happy Landing

Considered the workhorse of MSL, SAM is one of the main reasons the mission came about in the first place, mission planners say.

MSN: New Mars rover hunts for life by 'cooking' rocks

Nasa will send a robotic rover, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), to the planet in September 2009 to look for signs of past or present life.

BBC: Water 'widespread' on early Mars

MSL-DC-00000621 - 622 (emphasis in original) (ellipsis in original).

CNN

The company made a surprise acquisition last month, by taking a 16.6% stake in Martha Stewart Living (NYSE: MSO) and announcing that it would open small MSL kiosks throughout its stores.

FORBES: Is JC Penney Following its Cost Cutting Rivals?

It will be hard for NASA to definitively say if an organic is of biological origin or not, but they say the research they do with MSL will help guide future missions.

MSN: New Mars rover hunts for life by 'cooking' rocks

MSL-DC-00001052 (spelling and punctuation corrected).

CNN