Mars Pathfinder Landing Site Workshop 2: Characteristics of the Ares Vallis Region and Field Trips in the Channeled Scabland, Washington

Mars Pathfinder will place a single lander on the surface of Mars on July 4, 1997, following a December 1996 launch. As a result of the very successful first Mars Pathfinder Landing Site Workshop, the project has selected the Ares Vallis outflow channel in Chryse Planitia as the landing site. This location is where a large catastrophic outflow channel debouches into the northern lowlands. A second workshop and series of field trips, entitled Mars Pathfinder Landing Site Workshop 2: Characteristics of the Ares Vallis Region and Field Trips in the Channeled Scabland, Washington, were held in Spokane and Moses Lake, Washington. The purpose of the workshop was to provide a focus for learning as much as possible about the Ares Vallis region on Mars before landing there. The rationale is that the more that can be learned about the general area prior to landing, the better scientists will be able interpret the observations made by the lander and rover and place them in the proper geologic context. The field trip included overflights and surface investigations of the Channeled Scabland (an Earth analog for the martian catastrophic outflow channels), focusing on areas particularly analogous to Ares Vallis and the landing site. The overflights were essential for placing the enormous erosional and depositional features of the Channeled Scabland into proper three-dimensional context. The field trips were a joint educational outreach activity involving K-12 science educators, Mars Pathfinder scientists and engineers, and interested scientists from the Mars scientific community. Part 1 of the technical report on this workshop includes a description of the Mars Pathfinder mission, abstracts accepted for presentation at the workshop, an introduction to the Channeled Scabland, and field trip guides for the overflight and two field trips. This part, Part 2, includes the program for the workshop, summaries of the workshop technical sessions, a summary of the field trips and ensuing discussions, late abstracts of workshop presentations, reports on the education and public outreach activities carried out by the educators, and a list of the workshop and field trip participants

Mars Pathfinder Landing Site Workshop 2

Part 1 of the technical report on this workshop includes a description of the Mars Pathfinder mission, abstracts accepted for presentation at the workshop, an introduction to the Channeled Scabland, and field trip guides for the overflight and two field trips.sponsored by Arizona State University ... [and others].edited by M.P. Golombek, K.S. Edgett, and J.W. Rice Jr

Mars Pathfinder landing site workshop

The Mars Pathfinder Landing Site Workshop was designed to allow the Mars scientific community to provide input as to where to land Pathfinder on Mars. Over 20 landing sites were proposed at the workshop, and the scientific questions and problems concerning each were addressed. The workshop and the discussion that occurred during and afterward have significantly improved the ability to select a scientifically exciting but safe landing site on Mars.sponsored by Lunar and Planetary Institute.edited by M. GolombekClimatological targets for Mars Pathfinder / Zent, Aaron P. -- Melas Chasma: A Mars Pathfinder view of Valles Marineris / Treiman, Allan H.; Murchie, Scott -- Surface science capabilities from IMP spectral imaging / Singer, Robert B. -- Marte Valles site / Rice, Jim W. -- Cerberus Plains: A most excellent Pathfinder landing site / Plescia, Jeff

Mars Pathfinder Landing Site Workshop

The Mars Pathfinder Project is an approved Discovery-class mission that will place a lander and rover on the surface of the Red Planet in July 1997. The Mars Pathfinder Landing Site Workshop was designed to allow the Mars scientific community to provide input as to where to land Pathfinder on Mars. The workshop was attended by over 60 people from around the United States and from Europe. Over 20 landing sites were proposed at the workshop, and the scientific questions and problems concerning each were addressed. The workshop and the discussion that occured during and afterward have significantly improved the ability to select a scientifically exciting but safe landing site on Mars

Conference on Early Mars: Geologic and Hydrologic Evolution, Physical and Chemical Environments, and the Implications for Life

Topics considered include: Geology alteration and life in an extreme environment; developing a chemical code to identify magnetic biominerals; effect of impacts on early Martin geologic evolution; spectroscopic identification of minerals in Hematite-bearing soils and sediments; exopaleontology and the search for a Fossil record on Mars; geochemical evolution of the crust of Mars; geological evolution of the early earth;solar-wind-induced erosion of the Mars atmosphere. Also included geological evolution of the crust of Mars

First Landing Site/Exploration Zone Workshop for Human Mission to the Surface of Mars : October 27–30, 2015, Houston, Texas

The purpose of this workshop is to identify and discuss candidate locations where humans could land, live, and work on the martian surface.Organizer, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, National Aeronautics and Space Administration ; Co-Chairs, Human Landing Sites Study Steering Committee, Benjamin Bussey, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Richard Davis, National Aeronautics and Space Administratio

Chronology of KSC and KSC Related Events for 1996

The document is intended to serve as a record of KSC events and is a reference source for historians and other researchers. Arrangement is by day and month and individual articles are attributed to published sources. Materials were researched and described by the KSC Library Archivist for KSC Library Services Contractor Sherikon Space Systems, Inc

Lasers And Landing Sites: The Geomorphology, Stratigraphy, And Composition Of Mars

With each new mission to Mars, the amount of available data increases dramatically. This drastic increase in data volume requires new approaches to take advantage of the available information. The goal of the work presented here is to maximize the science return from existing and future datasets. Chapter 2 uses multiple orbital datasets to characterize Gale Crater, with a focus on the northwestern crater floor and lower mound. This work played a role in the selection of Gale Crater as the landing site for Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). It was not possible to conclusively determine the origin of the lower mound, but we interpret features on the upper mound as aeolian cross-beds. Chapters 3 and 4 investigate methods for improving the accuracy of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). In Chapter 3, the accuracy of partial least squares (PLS) and two types of neural network are compared, using several pre-processing methods including automated feature selection. We find that partial least squares without averaging typically gives the best results. Chapter 3 also investigates the influence of grain size on the accuracy of analyses, showing that >20 analysis spots may be required for heterogeneous targets. In Chapter 4, we test the hypothesis that clustering the dataset before analysis leads to improved accuracy. We observe modest improvements for five k-means clusters and with iterative application of clustering and PLS. In Chapter 5, we use several methods to relate Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Panoramic camera multispectral observations to alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and Mӧssbauer spectrometer results. The correlation between the Gusev datasets is often poor although there is some improvement when only data from drilled spots is considered. The performance is better for the Meridiani data, but Meridiani PLS models are not generalizable to Gusev data. MSL ChemCam analyses and MastCam spectra may show higher correlations because the instruments have a similar information depth. Clustering and classification methods can be used on any dataset, and as the volume of data from planetary missions continues to increase, synthesis of multiple datasets using multivariate methods such as those in this work will become increasingly important