Mars Photo of the Day - May 8 2012

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Today's Image of Mars shows a potential landing site for future missions to Mars in Trouvelot Crater. Trouvelot Crater is 154.7km in diameter and located in Oxia Palus Quadrangle, which is known for an abundance of chaos terrain, like Aram Chaos, and numerous outflow channels, most prominently Ares Valles.

Trouvelot Crater is being considered as a possible landing site for the the 2018 joint ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Rover. One of the features that intrigues scientists are the sedimentary deposits on the crater floor, that many believe could only have been deposited by an abundance of water. On the ground study of these sediments would be able to determine when and how long there was water on the surface and could even provide insight as to where the water went.

Click on this image to see all the other potential landing sites for the ExoMars Rover showcased by Mars Travel.

Credit: HiRISE

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Mars Photo of the Day - Apr 10 2012

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Today's Image of Mars shows a potential 2018 landing site for the joint ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Rover. This candidate site is in Cerberus Palus, but it is one of many potential landing sites for the ExoMars rover.

The original HiRISE image has no caption yet, so this will direct to other potential landing sites for the ExoMars rover.

NASA was recently forced to back out of its obligation to provide material support for the mission worth more than $2 Billion. Russia's Roscosmos recently agreed to take over the portion of mission abandoned by NASA, quelling fears that most or all of the ExoMars missions would have to be scrapped.

While Roscosmos has agreed to increase their participation in the joint Mars mission, they have yet to formalize the agreement and cement out the specifics. The ESA and Roscosmos plan to finalize the agreement at some point in November. The important things for now is that the mission is still on schedule to launch the Trace Gas Orbiter in 2016 and the rover in 2018!

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Mars Photo of the Day - Apr 3 2012

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Today's Image of Mars shows a potential landing site in Holden Crater for the 2018 joint ExoMars rover, as taken by HiRISE. Holden Crater is 140km in diameter and numerous clays and sediments that could only have formed in the presence of water.

Holden Crater was one of the top four candidate landing sites for the Mars Science Laboratory, which is landing in August 2012. The crater holds some of the best exposed lake deposits yet discovered on Mars, which makes it a prime landing site for any and all future missions to Mars that hope to determine whether Mars once did, or still does support life.

NASA recently backed out of the ExoMars mission due to budgetary cuts, which forced the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) to take a much larger role in the mission. The joint ESA-Roscosmos mission appears to be going ahead on schedule with an orbiter expected to launch in 2016 and the rover expected to launch in 2018, but at this point anything could happen.

It remains to be determined where on Mars the ExoMars rover will be sent, but we can be sure that Holden Crater is among the top candidates! Clicking on this image will take you to all Mars Travel posts related to Holden Crater because the original HiRISE image is not yet captioned.

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