# Presentation: 252037

## Guiding Principles:(Unchanged Since Start of Site Selection Process)

- Landing site selection is critical to all aspects of mission and program success
- Final site recommendation, selection, and approval is the job of the Project, the Project Science Group (PSG), and NASA HQ, respectively.
***The broad expertise of the science community is crucial to the identification of optimal sites.***
- Process is open to all and has no predetermined outcome

## Avenues for Community Involvement:

- NASA-Appointed Steering Comm.
- Add. Members and HQ Ex-Officios
- Blend Experience and Mission Involvement
- Provides for Feed-back on Process
- Mars Characterization Investigators
- New Insight into Landing Site Issues
- Broader Science Community

## Landing Site Steering Committee Members:

## MER Landing Site Selection Process:(Events to Date)

- 9/00 Prelim. Engin. Constraints
- 9/00 185 Potential Sites Identified
- 1/01 1st Landing Site Workshop
- 7 ROTO/17 Nadir (Multiple Ellipses)
- 3/01 Update Thermal/Albedo
- Eliminates Elysium ROTO Site
- Eliminates Several Nadir Sites
- 6/01 Ganges and Candor Eliminated
- Based on Safety Concerns
- 8/01 Consider TCM-5/DeltaDOR
- 9 New Ellipses Including Elysium
- 9/01 Official Ellipses Grow a Bit
- Eliminates three of the 8/01 Ellipses
- 10/01 2nd Landing Site Workshop
- Select 4 Evaluation Ellipses/Regions
- Small Number (~4) Alternates

## MER Landing Site Selection Process:(Future Events)(Dates are Tentative)

- 3/02 3rd Landing Site Workshop
- Science Prioritization of  4 Regions
- Start Process of Site Selection for ‘07
- 4/02 Target Region Certification
- Selection of Two Landing Regions
- Project and NASA HQ
- 2/03 4th Landing Site Workshop
- Prioritize Ellipses in Target Regions
- 4/03 Site Certification
- Project and NASA HQ

## Outcomes of Pasadena Workshop:

- Select Four Target Ellipses
- Small Number of Alternates
- Consider/Discuss Following:
- ROTO Sites -
- Hematite Region, Isidis Basin, Gale Crater, Gusev Crater, Melas Chasma, Eos Chasma
- Nadir Sites
- TCM-5/DeltaDOR Sites (e.g., Athabasca Vallis, Ares Vallis Trib.)
- Based on Community Consensus
- Steering Comm. Mediates/Resolves

## Pasadena Landing SiteWorkshop Format:

- _Day 1_
- Introduction and Overview
- Presentation of Sites
- Emphasize science potential
- Comprehensive Discussion
- _Day 2_
- Presentation of Sites (Cont’d)
- General Discussion of All Sites
- Landing Site Safety
- Supporting Data Sets/Discussion
- Prioritization of Landing Sites
- Steering Committee Meets

## Basis for Site Selection:

- Sites Must Meet _**All**__ _Engineering Requirements
- Sites Best Suited to MER Mission Science Objectives:
- Relate to definition of the history of water and climate on Mars in locations where conditions may have been favorable for life. More specifically, the goal of each MER is to determine the aqueous, climatic, and geologic history of a site on Mars where conditions may have been favorable to the preservation of evidence of possible pre-biotic or biotic processes.
- Scientific criteria used in identification and selection of landing sites include locations possessing clear evidence for surface processes involving ancient water.
- Selection will be based in part on provision of clear examples of how the Rover's scientific instruments can be used to read the geologic record at a site, to investigate what role water played there, and to determine how suitable the conditions would have been for life. ”