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Landing Site Selections for the Mars Science Laboratory And LANDING SITE Miyamoto SELECTION FOR THE Landing MARS SCIENCE Site LABORATORY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR MARS SAMPLE RETURN Horton Newsom, Ann Ollila, Nina Lanza, Institute of Meteoritics and Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Univ. of New Mexico ROLE OF MSL LANDING SITES AND MARS SAMPLE RETURN The current search for landing sites for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) raises important questions about selection of the site for the Mars sample return and the ability to return the sample cache that is planned for MSL. This contribution describes some of the current work on the Miyamoto landing site by our group and implications regarding MSR for some of the other proposed landing sites. Miyamoto Crater landing site Spectroscopy (Wiseman, Arvidson, Roush, Marzo) 5 new CRISM cubes Phyllosilicates (Fe-Mg phyllosilicates, e.g. saponite) Olivine, Low calcium pyroxene, high calcium pyroxene, variability of indices identified. Detailed spectral analysis underway Geology (Newsom, Wiseman, Tornabene, Crumpler) 5 HiRISE images in ellipse, no useful CTX images Noachian – ancient cratered crust, buried and later exhumed with deltaic deposits north edge of ellipse (Newsom and others) High correlation between geology and CRISM mineral signatures (Crumpler, Wiseman) Evidence for habitable environments from geological setting (low area along extensive channel network) Engineering (Wiseman, Ollila, Golombek, Dobrea) – Not a go-to site Latitude near equator – no thermal issues! Larger safe-haven site available (-1800 m elevation) Locations in Miyamoto Crater (newly assigned name) Site in SW Meridiani Opportunity Phyllosilicates, sedimentary geology, This crater was recently Miyamoto named for Shotaro crater Miyamoto (1912-1992), an expert observer of Mars, professor of astrophysics at Kyoto University, and Landing director of the Kwasan Site and Hida Observatories. Miyamoto crater new sites Evaporite or chlorides high Meridiani thermal inertia? Planum – Higher TI sulfates and hematite Night Lower TI THEMIS IR Eastern area- — Safe Haven site Proxy for Thermal Prime site – CRISM Inertia (TI) hi res phyllosilicates Regional geological history 1. Early crust and impact Landing structures Site 2. Fluvial and lacustrine period 3. Deposition in landing site of Opportunity layered sediments (with phyllosilicates) and river channel deposits 4. Deposition of Meridiani Planum materials 5. Exhumation revealing inverted channel deposits, and phyllosilicates in landing site HRSC perspective view looking West, 8X vertical exaggeration Flat area with complex geology Floor of 150 km Sinuous diam. inverted crater channel deposit? Inverted channel deposits Stereo anaglyph – ―Channel deposit‖ HiRISE images Note the linear positive relief feature near the bottom of the image that continues to the NE as a negative relief feature (see next figure for a full resolution close up. HiRISE Image, image width 6 km. Portion of HiRISE image Close up of inverted channel. Note the fracturing at the top of the channel. HiRISE image, 27.3 cm/pixel, image width 435 m. Comparison with Eberswalde delta Eberswalde crater deltaic inverted channel . Miyamoto crater floor positive relief deposits. HiRISE remnant. HiRISE image, 27.3 image, 26.8 m/pixel, cm/pixel, 350 m across image. 260 m across image. Relationship to Mars Sample Return Types of landing sites for MSL Landing sites with prime targets in the landing site ellipse Go-to landing sites with prime targets in terrains surrounding the landing site ellipse. For go-to sites the rover must travel to reach the prime sites Go-to landing sites with prime targets in terrains outside the landing site ellipse, but only on restricted azimuths from the center of the ellipse The much smaller proposed ellipse for the Mars Sample return (~3 km diameter) can alleviate some of the constraints from MSL go-to sites, but not all MSR Nili Landing Fossae ellipse size ―go to MSL Landing site‖ ellipse size Miyamoto crater (SW Meridiani) - geomorphology Width 12 km Exhumed crater floor deposits MSR Landing Inverted ellipse channel size deposits Bedrock materials with phyllosilicates MSR implications Some Go-to sites are problematic for sample cache on MSL or sampling as part of the MSR mission, depending on the size of the MSR landing ellipse MSL will have to drive back to a safe MSR landing area if the cache is to be returned Precision landing for MSR may allow access to a go-to site and/or to recover the MSL cache However, some of the current MSL go-to sites (e.g., Nili and Holden) may not have large enough MSR landing areas.
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