Nasa has shortlisted three landing sites for the Mars 2020 rover

Nasa is sending another Rover to Mars on July 2020, on an Atlas V rocket launch from Nasa’s launch facility at Cape Canaveral. The Rover has a number of scientific objectives including geological assessments, determine the habitability of environments and searching for signs of ancient Martian life. The Rover will also be surveying Mars for resources or hazards that could be valuable information for eventual Manned missions to Mars. Considering all the mission objectives of the Rover, participants at a Nasa workshop have identified three potential landing sites for the 2020 rover. A number of mission objectives had to be juggled to identify and shortlist the potential landing sites. For example, the Rover will determine the effect of dust on sensitive engineered systems, and potential resources that pioneers to the red planet could use. Digging the surface and understanding landing hazards on soft and hard surfaces is also an objective, as well as understanding the feasibility of mining the surface for sub surface resources such as buried ice. [caption id=“attachment_362282” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  The Gusev Crater. Image: Nasa.[/caption] The Rover also needs to make an in depth study of the atmosphere of Mars, and collect the data necessary for future manned missions to Mars. The Rover will also collect samples for potential return to Earth on a future mission. Considering all these objectives, the landing sites have been narrowed down to Columbia Hills at the Gusev Crater, the Jezero Crater and the NE Syrtis. all the selected sites have the potential to once be hospitable to life, there are a variety of rocks and soils, and offer high chances of new scientific discoveries. [caption id=“attachment_362283” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  The Jezero Crater. Image: Nasa.[/caption] The Columbia Hills at the Gusev Crater is home to Nasa’s Spirit Rover. One of the important discoveries by Spirit here was that liquid water once flowed in this region, bubbling out of the ground in hot springs. The Rover did not find any other evidence of water for kilometers around, but a detailed analysis of old records showed that the crater may once have had a lake. The Jezero crater is a good candidate for finding signs of microbial life, as the crater has been filled with, and drained of water at least two times. [caption id=“attachment_362284” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Syrtis Major. Image: Nasa.[/caption] Life could have existed in the Jezero crater during one of the wet periods, and if so the evidence can be found in the sediments deposited at the lake bed. Finally, The NE Syrtis had volcanic activity. The underground sources of heat melted the ice on the surface, and allowed for hot springs to flow. All three sites are potentially sites where at least the simplest forms of life could have once existed. The sites have been narrowed down to three, from 8 selected sites in a previous workshop.