ISPRS 1999 Constraints, Approach, and Status of Mars Surveyor '01 Landing Site Selection

There are many similarities between the Mars Surveyor '01 (MS '01) landing site selection process and that of Mars Pathfinder. The selection process includes two parallel activities in which engineers define and refine the capabilities of the spacecraft through design, testing and modeling and scientists define a set of landing site constraints based on the spacecraft design and landing scenario. As for Pathfinder, the safety of the site is without question the single most important factor, for the simple reason that failure to land safely yields no science and exposes the mission and program to considerable risk. The selection process must be thorough and defensible and capable of surviving multiple withering reviews similar to the Pathfinder decision. On Pathfinder, this was accomplished by attempting to understand the surface properties of sites using available remote sensing data sets and models based on them. Science objectives are factored into the selection process only after the safety of the site is validated. Finally, as for Pathfinder, the selection process is being done in an open environment with multiple opportunities for community involvement including open workshops, with education and outreach opportunities.

Mimetype

application/pdf

Filename

6068.pdf

Publisher

ISPRS

Originator

M. Golombek, N. Bridges, G. Briggs, M. Gilmore, A. Haldermann, T. Parker, R. Saunders, K. Spencer, J. Smith, L. A. Soderblom, C. Weitz

Group

Astrogeology

Added to Astropedia

16 May 2012

Modified

9 July 2013

General

Geospatial Data Presentation Form

Document

Keywords

System

Mars

Target

Mars

Theme

Landing sites

Mission

Mars Global Surveyor

Geospatial Information

Quad Name