Mawrth Vallis, Mars: a fascinating place for future in situ exploration

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the Mawrth Vallis region on Mars as a promising site for future in situ exploration, highlighting its past wet environments and potential for discovering biosignatures and understanding Mars' climate history.

Contribution

It provides a detailed assessment of Mawrth Vallis as a candidate landing site, emphasizing its scientific value for astrobiology and future human exploration.

Findings

Contains multiple past wet environments on Mars

Suitable for probing past climate and habitability

Offers opportunities for biosignature discovery

Abstract

After the successful landing of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, both NASA and ESA initiated a selection process for potential landing sites for the Mars2020 and ExoMars missions, respectively. Two ellipses located in the Mawrth Vallis region were proposed and evaluated during a series of meetings (3 for Mars2020 mission and 5 for ExoMars). We describe here the regional context of the two proposed ellipses as well as the framework of the objectives of these two missions. Key science targets of the ellipses and their astrobiological interests are reported. This work confirms the proposed ellipses contain multiple past Martian wet environments of subaerial, subsurface and/or subaqueous character, in which to probe the past climate of Mars, build a broad picture of possible past habitable environments, evaluate their exobiological potentials and search for biosignatures in well-preserved rocks. A mission scenario covering several key investigations during the nominal mission of each rover is also presented, as well as descriptions of how the site fulfills the science requirements and expectations of in situ martian exploration. These serve as a basis for potential future exploration of the Mawrth Vallis region with new missions and describe opportunities for human exploration of Mars in terms of resources and science discoveries.