Officially down to four potential landing sites on the surface of Mars, a small group of scientists are gathering this week to make their best case for the location to land the $2.5 billion red planet rover "Curiosity" in early August 2012.
Planned for a November 28, 2011 launch aboard an Atlas-V 541 booster rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Curiosity rover will perform the first-ever precision landing on Mars. The Curiosity rover will help assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's habitability.
Location is everything when it comes to studying whether Mars ever had conditions that could have been favorable for microbial life. Planetary scientists are down to the final four in seeking to identify the scientific merits of the locations and trying to convince the rest of why the exploration vehicle should land at their preferred spot.
A landing site decision is expected to be finalized in late June or early July 2011 from among:
• Eberswalde crater in the southern hemisphere contains remnants of a river delta;
• Holden crater, close to Eberswalde, is the site of water-carved gullies and sediment deposits;
• Mawrth Vallis is an ancient flood channel in the Martian northern highlands that is rich in clay minerals; and,
• Gale crater located near the Martian equator possesses a 3-mile-high mound of layered mineral deposits.
Readers may vote a preference on the top right of the Spaceports Blog over the next week or so.
Planned for a November 28, 2011 launch aboard an Atlas-V 541 booster rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Curiosity rover will perform the first-ever precision landing on Mars. The Curiosity rover will help assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's habitability.
Location is everything when it comes to studying whether Mars ever had conditions that could have been favorable for microbial life. Planetary scientists are down to the final four in seeking to identify the scientific merits of the locations and trying to convince the rest of why the exploration vehicle should land at their preferred spot.
A landing site decision is expected to be finalized in late June or early July 2011 from among:
• Eberswalde crater in the southern hemisphere contains remnants of a river delta;
• Holden crater, close to Eberswalde, is the site of water-carved gullies and sediment deposits;
• Mawrth Vallis is an ancient flood channel in the Martian northern highlands that is rich in clay minerals; and,
• Gale crater located near the Martian equator possesses a 3-mile-high mound of layered mineral deposits.
Readers may vote a preference on the top right of the Spaceports Blog over the next week or so.
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