4.3 Article

The science process for selecting the landing site for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory

Journal

PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE
Volume 59, Issue 11-12, Pages 1114-1127

Publisher

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.pss.2010.06.016

Keywords

Mars; Landing sites

Funding

  1. NASA MDAP [NNX09AI65G]
  2. NASA [114181, NNX09AI65G] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER

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The process of identifying the landing site for NASA's 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) began in 2005 by defining science objectives, related to evaluating the potential habitability of a location on Mars, and engineering parameters, such as elevation, latitude, winds, and rock abundance, to determine acceptable surface and atmospheric characteristics. Nearly 60 candidate sites were considered at a series of open workshops in the years leading up to the launch. During that period, iteration between evolving engineering constraints and the relative science potential of candidate sites led to consensus on four final sites. The final site will be selected in the Spring of 2011 by NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. This paper serves as a record of landing site selection activities related primarily to science, an inventory of the number and variety of sites proposed, and a summary of the science potential of the highest ranking sites. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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