NASA is preparing to choose a landing site for its mission to detect life on Mars

The SETI Institute scientist, John Roma (J.R.) Skok, is working with NASA to help decide where the March 2020 rover could collect samples.

On October 16th, the scientific community of Mars meets for a three-day meeting near Los Angeles to determine where the next generation of Mars NASA missions will explore. They will gather for the 4th Landing Site Workshop to rover back samples March 2020. After decades of landers, rovers and orbits probing Mars, NASA has decided that the only way to advance our understanding of Mars was to bring back a handful of samples to study in the best labs on Earth.

March 2020 will be the first step of a three-mission plan to return samples of the red planet. The mobile will collect approximately 100 grams of carefully selected samples and cache them in a protected container. The March mission following March 2020 will land near these samples, collect the cache and launch it into orbit around the planet. The third and final mission will then meet with these samples around Mars and bring them back to Earth for study. These last two missions will depend on a successful and useful collection of samples by March 2020. This will entice many to choose the ideal landing point to explore the deepest secrets of the world. Martian history.

The number one goal of the entire mission is to gather potential evidence from ancient life, or biosignatures, as scientists call it. After three workshops on previous landing sites for March 2020, the Martian community has narrowed the options to three potential sites representing different ideas for biosignature research on Mars and a fourth hybrid site combining two of these regions. Each of these sites has been determined to be safe for the mission to land and operate, and they all have the potential to retain traces of ancient life.

Finalist sites on the exam include the Columbia Hills Exploration Exploration Rover Spirit Exploration Site, which explored the area from 2004 to 2010 and highlighted hot spring agglomeration deposits, ideal for biosignatures when they were active. at least 3 billion years ago. The delta of the Jezero River, a sedimentary lacustrine lake capable of enveloping potential biosignatures in layers of clay. Or Northeast Syrtis, a deep exposed bedrock area that could have been a flourishing underground old life. A fourth potential site, called Midway, is located between the Northeast Sytris and Jezero sites and could be used to visit the lands of both regions during an extended mission.

I will present at the meeting for Northeast Syrtis, a site I have been researching for 8 years. Northeast Syrtis represents rocks from the ancient Noachian, the most Earth-like and most dynamic period on Mars, and a type of environment that previous Mars missions could not explore because they are usually too rocky or mountainous to land nearby. My other research focuses on the detection of biosignatures in hot silica field deposits, which would be directly related to a mission at Columbia Hills.

As we begin the final selection of the landing site, NASA will have to determine the very nature of its mission to explore the solar system. The three types of landing sites have entire scientific communities that consider it the best place to find biological signatures. One of the main differences between them will be the philosophical motivation to explore. Columbia Hills is a place we've already visited with the Spirit Rover. It's a fascinating site, with much more to explore with new instruments and samples back. In addition, after having already imaged the main outcrops, we can plan exactly which rocks we want to sample before we even go there. However, this mission would always go to a place we have seen before. Mars has the same arid land area to explore as the Earth and we landed only on 7 points. All chosen to be flat and safe. The most rugged and scientifically interesting places that formed in the earliest time on Mars have not yet been explored in depth. March 2020 is the first mission with landing technology that actually explores the ancient and steep rocks of Mars. Should NASA use this technology to travel to an attractive and scientifically safe place in the Columbia Hills, or to explore fundamentally new terrains that we know are in the north-east of Syrtis, in Midway and are sampled in the Jezero delta?

This is the fundamental debate for the mission and the choice of the landing site. Should we give priority to guaranteed scientific success or risk exploring a new place that could revolutionize our understanding of the old Mars or may not have any worthwhile samples? to be returned? NASA must decide if it wants to explore Mars or analyze it.

On a planet as diverse and mysterious as Mars continues to be, I think we are still in the exploration stage and we need to discover new lands and the secrets they offer before doubling our experiences on past sites. Mars is big and we are just starting to get started, with luck and a lot of work, we can explore the deep history of this fascinating world.

The workshop will be broadcast live on Adobe Connect. You can listen to all the science as it happens on the website of the workshop:

https://marsnext.jpl.nasa.gov/

In the weeks following the meeting, NASA officials will take into account all contributions from scientists, engineers and community members and make a final decision.