Landing Site Requirements EE XX OO MM AA RR SS Final landing site workshop to take place on 8–9 Nov 2018, in Leicester (UK) Credit: ESA/Medialab !1 What the Rules of the Road Say EE XX OO MM AA RR SS What the LSSWG is asked to do: - Recommend a main and backup landing sites taking into account that we need to achieve the mission’s science objectives, and that without safe landing and rover egress there is no science for either rover or surface platform. In case the above is not clear: 1. Safe landing and rover egress are paramount; 2. A site that preserves possible biosignatures that we can search with the rover’s drill is paramount. - 1 is not more important than 2, and 2 is not more important than 1. - The mission succeeds if we achieve 1 AND 2. !2 Candidate Landing Sites EE XX OO MM AA RR SS Candidate landing sites: " Oxia Planum" Mawrth Vallis capping unit 0 m ~10 m ~3.7 Ga water table lowers, ~3.8 Ga cations ~50 m precipitate mineralised as sulphates fractures Fe/Mg smectite unit ~200 m ~4.0 Ga" or more ? Oldest terrains to be targeted !3 Credit: THEMIS/MOLA/Peter Grindrod Candidate Landing Sites EE XX OO MM AA RR SS Start of conditions" Surface conditions" compatible with life become less habitable 4.1 3.7 MARS Pre-Noachian Noachian Hesperian Clays Oxia Planum Clays Mawrth Vallis Early heavy" Late heavy" bombardment bombardment EARTH Hadean Archaean Ga 4.568 4.4 3.9 3.5 Beginning of terrestrial" Oldest preserved" planetary accretion traces of life !4 Kasei Valles, MEX / HRSC Reference Surface Mission EE XX OO MM AA RR SS The rover reference surface mission includes:" 2 a) EXIT LANDING AREA: 1 Get away from any rocket organic contamination before 3 avg. opening the analytical laboratory to the martian environment." 500 m b) BLANK ANALYSIS RUNS: 0 Science Locations 4 Demonstrate that the rover’s sample pathway is free from organic contamination." c) 6 EXPERIMENT CYCLES: 5 Combined surface and subsurface exploration." 6 surface and 6 subsurface samples." Assumed Rover position at the beginning of an EC: 6 d) 2 VERTICAL SURVEYS: At one location, collect and analyse samples " 20 m at depths of 0, 50, 100, 150, and 200-cm." 20 m 10 additional subsurface samples. Rover is at a distance d = 20 m from the intended exploration location. The quality of the landing site is fundamental for achieving the mission’s science objectives. !5 Dust devil tracks, MRO / HiRISE.