Muslim contribution to NASA?
This probably reflects the influence of the astrobiology cult in NASA. They really, really want to find something that suggests that life evolved on Mars.
SETI has turned out to be a dry hole for the astrobiologists, so their focus is set on Mars. If there’s any evidence of such, the rover has to move frequently to find it.
Your tax dollars support this: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/. Astrobiology uses the highest of technologies developed by science, but it is not science. It is a pathetic grasping for sketchy evidence to support an inherently unprovable hypothesis.