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Moscow, November 12 (IANS) The Red Earth Joint Venture of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia Roscosmos, to be created in 2020, will probably land on the equator of Mars, called Oxia Planum, the media
The Oxia Planum had housed a huge pool in prehistoric times. Scientists will search for "biosignatures," the Sputnik news agency reported Sunday.
The rover will explore the surface of the red planet in search of traces of ancient life after landing in 2021.
The teams had to confirm the site in mid-2019, just before the big planned for 2020 but it has been pre-configured.
ExoMars with a tiny embedded robot would be taking samples for future studies on the watery past of Mars, the report says.
"With ExoMars, we are looking for biosignatures", adding that the two selected sites offer "valuable scientific opportunities to explore ancient environments rich in water and which could have been colonized by microorganisms", quoted Jorge Vago, quoted by Sputnik. The project scientist said
Another site that was also considered a likely landing site was Mawrth Vallis, which literally means "a valley on Mars". It lies just north of Oxia Planum, says the report.
The two sites are badociated with rich evidence of Mars' ancient water reserves, which, if finally proven, would directly indicate the type of life that could have flourished there.
However, the researchers turned to Oxia Planum, which has great scientific potential and is home to several layers of clay-rich minerals, left behind by numerous streams that drained the large aqueous mbad of the site, Vago said.
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