Scientists rank landing sites for rover March 2020: a possible "mega-mission"

AAfter three days of heated debate last week in Glendale, California, 158 scientists and Mars enthusiasts voted for the best search and landing site for the March 2020 rover, virtually setting off on a tie.

Sarah Milkovich, head of NASA's scientific operations team, summed up the room in a tweet this way:

"On a slightly confusing note, we're done!"

The fourth and final workshop closed a four-year process recommending a single landing site for the March 2020 rover at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC. On an original list of 30 sites, four candidates qualified for this three-day cycle. of the exam: Columbia Hills, Jezero Crater, Northeast Syrtis and Midway.

The mission Mars 2020 aims to better understand the history of the environment of Mars, to look for evidence of past life (which will indicate if the future life could reside there), to take samples that could someday be sent back on Earth and take steps towards a crewed mission.

Why a mega-mission is more likely than ever

Workshop participants voted online and rated each potential site on a scale of one to five (one indicating low potential and five indicating high potential) based on three criteria. Voters met this criterion based on the main mission for the first 1.25 years of March, as well as for the next extended mission, for a total of six criteria per site. Votes were averaged on each site by criterion.

The first criterion evaluated the potential to uncover fundamental scientific discoveries about the formation or potential life of Mars. The second evaluated the potential utility of the first recoverable cache of Martian soil of humanity. Finally, the third assessed the confidence that various research and evidence supported criteria 1 and 2.

According to the figures, NE Syrtis has barely advanced the crater Jezero for its main mission. But for the expanded mission, #teamJezero scientists will be happy to know that Jezero Crater and Midway are tied, which is much more promising than NE Syrtis' vanguard. For the moment, we do not know which site the rover will claim as a place of welcome (although we probably would not go to Columbia Hills, since Spirit has already defined it).

But as Midway, as its name indicates, lies between the 37 kilometers separating evidence from the mineral springs of Syrtis and the tempting delta of Jezero crater, the rovers team may consider a mission who visits Midway and one of the other sites to capture the best of both worlds. .

In addition, the prospect of rendering samples (with tubes small enough to be confused with a laser pointer at the workshop) has been an issue of concern to the National Research Council for 30 years. These would be the first samples returned to Earth, but in the ultimate game of deferred gratification, the process of their restitution covers several missions. Scientists must strike a balance between optimizing the return of the sample and maximizing the surface science that the rover can perform.

Shannon Cofield, seductor of Old Dominion University and #teamJezero, notes that NE Syrtis and Midway are quite similar. Bethany Ehlmann, a Jet Propulsion Lab researcher, says Midway and NE Syrtis are the only sites that fit the goals of the 10-year National Academy of Sciences survey.

What happens after

After sending the results to NASA headquarters, the March 2020 team and Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, will make the final decision, which is expected to be announced soon. here the end of the year.