Road to Oxia Planum
Road to Oxia Planum
This is the place recommended for the landing of ExoMars.
Days ago we had confirmation that the crater Jezero it is the preferred option by the members of the mission Mars 2020, what offers to this option the maximum possibilities of success when the moment of the final election arrives. And while this is happening, on this side of the Atlantic a similar process is being carried out, since that same year will also take off the great bet of the ESA and Russia, the rover ExoMars, that like your colleague the POT, will come to the planet with the aim of trying to give a definitive answer to the big question: Does there exist or was life on the red planet?
And we already have the proposal of the Working Group for the selection of landing sites, which had to choose which is the most favorable area to send it. And that is Oxia Planum, located just north of the equator, and which is on the border where many channels flowed into the vast plains of the lowlands. Observations from orbit show that the region exhibits layers of clay-rich minerals that formed in wet conditions about four billion years ago, probably in a large pool of stagnant water. The layers of material have recently been exposed through erosion and are accessible from any of the contact points, which gives a window to the early history of this area.
Everything indicates that several watery episodes were followed by a late volcanic activity, which covered the deposits rich in clay. Some lava materials have resisted erosion until today, so the underlying materials could only have been exposed recently, initially protecting them from space radiation and then making them accessible to the rover and its analytical tools. In summary, a perfect area, as well as the other great candidate, Mawrth Vallis, but with better safety conditions that make it preferable to try a soft landing.
"With ExoMars we are on a search to find biological signatures. While both sites offer valuable scientific opportunities to explore ancient water-rich environments that could have been colonized by microorganisms, Oxia Planum received the most votes"Explains ESA's ExoMars project scientist, Jorge Vago."A lot of work has been done to characterize the proposed sites, which shows that they meet the scientific requirements for the mission's objectives. Mawrth Vallis is a scientifically unique site, but Oxia Planum offers an additional safety margin for entry, descent and landing, and to cross the terrain to reach scientifically interesting sites that have been identified from orbit"
We still have to wait to see the final election, in which both the THAT like the Roscosmos will analyze this proposal and will surely give confirmation to this option. At the latest, it should arrive in mid-2019.
Map of the region, where topographic data and colors are added to images from the orbit, representing the variety of identified surface terrains, such as plains, channels, impact craters and characteristics formed by the wind. The narrow ellipses with the black outline mark the most likely landing areas in case the ExoMars launch occurs at the beginning and at the end of the launch window respectively. The central point of contact in Oxia Planum is the same, regardless of the launch date.
Oxia Planum and his "rival", Mawrth Vallis, who lost due to having less safe conditions for landing. Along the way, many other options have been left, eliminated by measures that made different filters.
The size of the ExoMars 2020 mission.
Oxia Planum favored for ExoMars surface mission
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