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#1 2004-09-16 12:27:37
- Julius Caeser
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- From: Malta
- Registered: 2004-03-25
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Re: New Destinations for the next Mars landers /rovers - discuss potential future landing sites
I would bet that Nasa may be considering as Mariner valley as a potential future landing site for the Mars lab due to launch in 2009...i know its still early considering that next years Mars orbiter could reveal new sites for landing! ???
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#2 2004-09-16 13:35:01
- djellison
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Re: New Destinations for the next Mars landers /rovers - discuss potential future landing sites
I would not be at all suprised to see MSL targetted to Meridiani.
Doug
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#3 2004-09-26 15:40:00
- Julius Caeser
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Re: New Destinations for the next Mars landers /rovers - discuss potential future landing sites
Given the new findings from Mars express that methane and water vapour concentrations seem to overlap in regions such as Arabia,Elysium and Arcadia,,would it be logical to send probes to investigate these areas from the surface..what i see most fit are seismic probes and perhaps life detectors,provided that infrared studies of these sites render such landing areas low risk compared with the great scientific value of landing in these areas!
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#4 2004-09-26 17:25:59
- Shaun Barrett
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- From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
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Re: New Destinations for the next Mars landers /rovers - discuss potential future landing sites
The Mars Science Lab (MSL) is supposed to be nuclear powered, I think, and should be able to cover a lot of territory compared to anything sent so far.
That in itself places some constraints on where to land it. We don't want to put it down inside a branch of Mariner Valley it can't get out of and have all that capability wasted. Imagine the MSL driving round and round in circles in a blandly uninteresting sandy hollow for a year! 
The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down. - Rita Rudner
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#5 2004-09-30 03:23:31
- Stephen
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- Registered: 2004-01-16
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Re: New Destinations for the next Mars landers /rovers - discuss potential future landing sites
The Mars Science Lab (MSL) is supposed to be nuclear powered, I think, and should be able to cover a lot of territory compared to anything sent so far.
Perhaps, but from the descriptions I have read it will not be going places with a speed that much in advance of the MERs.
Although the MSL is intended to last at least a full martian year, in that time the expectation is that it will "only" cover about 3 to 16 miles. Much better than the few hundred yards the MERs were designed to cover. But then the MERs were only designed to cover that over a period of 90 days. 3 miles in 2 Earth years becomes rather less impressive given the reality of the MERs' performance, especially were the MERs to manage to last a full martian year themselves. Spirit has already gone 2 miles, while Opportunity's next target (after a trip to its heat shield) is http://www.floridatoday.com/news/space/ … 0.htm]said to be Victoria crater, 3 miles away.
That in itself places some constraints on where to land it. We don't want to put it down inside a branch of Mariner Valley it can't get out of and have all that capability wasted. Imagine the MSL driving round and round in circles in a blandly uninteresting sandy hollow for a year!
On the other hand, would you want it to set down on a "blandly uninteresting" parking lot like Meridani for a year? Lots of wide open space, but also miles from the more photogenic parts of Mars. 
======
Stephen
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#6 2004-09-30 06:26:03
- djellison
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Re: New Destinations for the next Mars landers /rovers - discuss potential future landing sites
blandly uninteresting" parking lot like Meridani
On a scientific basis - that's FAR from true.
Doug
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#7 2004-10-02 11:31:02
- Julius Caeser
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Re: New Destinations for the next Mars landers /rovers - discuss potential future landing sites
I dont know if anyone knows exactly where the water relaterd minerals have been found inside Mariner valley...the valley is huge so a rover lander would have a lot of space where to move and far from being trapped as someone suggested!Anyways,probably Meridiani remains the easiest target and perhaps the most accessible site for MSL to land..there's a lot of area in the region that Opportunity wont be able to cover..i'm sure.JPL would have better control to land MSL at a precise site due to the use of scramjet rather then airbags!
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#8 2004-10-02 14:45:43
Re: New Destinations for the next Mars landers /rovers - discuss potential future landing sites
I think there are spots inside Marineris known to have hematite. Aram crater, also. Marineris is enormous; plenty to see. It has chaotic terrain, if it can be explored (it may be too rough). A high magnification camera could study layering in the escarpments that is hard to see from overhead. Poking around at the escarpment base, one could examine rocks in detail and match them spectroscopically to layers above. The escarpments are up to 10,000 meters high; billions of years of deposition and crustal formation to study, maybe back close to the formation of Mars. The floors have been swept by floods in some places, too.
-- RobS
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#9 2004-10-02 16:06:24
- Shaun Barrett
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- From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
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Re: New Destinations for the next Mars landers /rovers - discuss potential future landing sites
Hmmm.
Maybe I have been overestimating the MSL's capabilities or intended range somewhat. But the chances of it being "trapped" in some of the chaotic terrain RobS mentions must surely be greater in Mariner Valley than the chances at, say, Meridiani.
Not that I have anything against setting it down in Marineris; in fact, I think it would be a great spot for science and I'm sure it must be possible to find relatively safe landing ellipses there. After all, it's a fairly big valley .. !
The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down. - Rita Rudner
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