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Characterization of the Candidate Landing Region for Tianwen-1—China's First Mission to Mars

Liu, Wai Chung; Wu, Bo; Li, Yuan +7 more

This paper presents our efforts to characterize the candidate landing region (109°-133°E, 23°-30°N) for Tianwen-1, China's first mission to Mars, in terms of engineering safety and scientific significance. Topographic analysis reveals that the region has a low elevation around −4,230 m, and 98% of the region have slopes smaller than 8°. The geomor…

Model Age Derivation of Large Martian Impact Craters, Using Automatic Crater Counting Methods

Norman, C.; Lagain, A.; Servis, K. +3 more

Determining when an impact crater formed is a complex and tedious task. However, this knowledge is crucial to understanding the geological history of planetary bodies and, more specifically, gives information on erosion rate measurements, meteorite ejection location, impact flux evolution and the loss of a magnetic field. The derivation of an indi…

Subsurface Reflectors Detected by SHARAD Reveal Stratigraphy and Buried Channels Over Central Elysium Planitia, Mars

Tao, Yu; Muller, Jan-Peter; Xiong, Siting +3 more

The Central Elysium Planitia (CEP) is one of the youngest geological units on Mars and displays evidence of volcanic and fluvial activities on the surface. The origin of the CEP material has long been debated with a range of hypotheses from purely fluvial to solely volcanic origins. This study presents a comprehensive investigation of SHAllow RADa…

Finding SEIS North on Mars: Comparisons Between SEIS Sundial, Inertial and Imaging Measurements and Consequences for Seismic Analysis

Lognonné, P.; Banerdt, W. B.; Golombek, M. P. +10 more

In this paper, we present the results obtained in the determination of the true north direction on Mars by using a gnomon on the InSight mission and compare the measurements with either the North determination from the Inertial Measurement Unit and imaging analysis. The obtained measurement has been used to populate the SEIS orientation informatio…

Making an Onboard Reference Map From MRO/CTX Imagery for Mars 2020 Lander Vision System

Johnson, Andrew; Cheng, Yang; Ansar, Adnan

The Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance, landed in Jezero crater (18.4663°N, 77.4298°E) on February 18, 2021 to collect samples from Mars that could be returned to Earth by a future Mars Sample Return campaign. While providing a rich sampling opportunity, Jezero also contains numerous landing hazards including scarps, canyons, mesas, dune fields, rock f…