The science process for selecting the landing site for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory

Geological features and evolution history of Sinus Iridum, the Moon

“…On the basis of topography analyses results and the experiences of landing sites selection of previous lunar and martian landing exploration missions (Arvidson et al, 2008;Bridges, 2003;Golombek et al, 1997;Grant et al, 2011;Kirk et al, 2008;Quaide and Oberbeck, 1969;Wilhelms, 1985), we proposed two specific candidate landing sites for the future Chinese missions. These landing sites should have relatively low topographic slope (o1.01), small surface roughness (r1.0 m, LOLA RMS height), low rock abundance (o 0.5%, data from Bandfield et al, 2011), and low crater density (few large craters exist).…”

Gypsum, opal, and fluvial channels within a trough of Noctis Labyrinthus, Mars: Implications for aqueous activity during the Late Hesperian to Amazonian

“…1b). This location has been proposed as a future landing site on Mars due to a relatively flat region along the trough floor that could accommodate a MSL-class rover (20 Â 25 km landing ellipse size, Grant et al, 2010), and also a diversity of hydrated minerals identified from orbit within the trough . Because this region was targeted as a potential landing site, a wealth of data covers the deposits within the trough.…”

The chances of detecting life on Mars

“…Mars Sample Return f 1 À 0.2496 À 0.0424 f 2 0.1904 0.3976 Table 9 Abridged data for landing sites on Mars (Grant et al, 2011;Kereszturi, 2012 To compare two actual landing sites we chose Gale Crater and Eberswalde Crater (Fig. 2).…”

“…2). These locations were part of the four shortlisted candidates for Mars Science Laboratory (Grant et al, 2011). Although there are some features common to both sites each has different altitudes, latitudes, geology and dune coverage (Kereszturi, 2012).…”