Oxia Planum: The Landing Site for the ExoMars "Rosalind Franklin" Rover Mission: Geological Context and Prelanding Interpretation.

ABSTRACT: The European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos ExoMars mission will launch the "Rosalind Franklin" rover in 2022 for a landing on Mars in 2023.The goals of the mission are to search for signs of past and present life on Mars, investigate the water/geochemical environment as a function of depth in the shallow subsurface, and characterize the surface environment. To meet these scientific objectives while minimizing the risk for landing, a 5-year-long landing site selection process was conducted by ESA, during which eight candidate sites were down selected to one: Oxia Planum. Oxia Planum is a 200 km-wide low-relief terrain characterized by hydrous clay-bearing bedrock units located at the southwest margin of Arabia Terra. This region exhibits Noachian-aged terrains. We show in this study that

SUBMITTER: Quantin-Nataf C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7987365 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature