A GEOSCIENCE-BASED DIGITAL MAPPING APPROACH FOR MSL LANDING-SITE SELECTION K.L. Tanaka, J.A. Skinner, Jr., and T.M. Hare Astrogeology Team, U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ A digital tool to help with evaluating and precisely locating the MSL landing site

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA2 Meeting the challenges for MSL landing-site selection and locating Our GIS tool is being developed to :  Incorporate engineering requirements  Address science criteria  Access multiple data sets  Determine targetable regions  Assess characteristics of potential landing ellipses  Optimize safety, science, roving ability  Achieve user friendliness for community use

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA3 Engineering constraints  60° N to 60°S  MOLA elevation <2000 and m  <3° slope at 2 to 5 km lengths (MOLA altimetry; we used 5° for 460 m DEM), <15° at 20 to 40 m (MOLA point-to-point altimetry and pulse-spread data) and 5 m (hi-res stereo topography or photoclinometry)  Rock abundance <10% (rocks <0.6 m tall; Viking)  Wind <30 m/s horizontal and <10 m/s vertical (Rafkin)  Radar backscatter cross section >-20 db at Ka band  Thermal inertia <100 J m -2 s -0.5  Albedo >0.25  Temperature: 145°K < T <310°K, diurnal range <145K

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA4 MSL science objectives: General  Potential past or present habitat  Access to possible organic material  Indicators of climate history, particularly during Noachian

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA5 Potential past or present habitat and access to possible organic material (i.e., geologic evidence for liquid water and hydrothermal activity)  Present/recent –Gullies –Youngest volcanic rocks, including vents, fluvial channels, superposed craters  Past (Noachian) –Valleys –Paleolakes –Noachian surfaces –Oldest volcanic rocks, including vents and fluvial features –Old, dissected impact craters –Mineralogic signatures (phyllosilicates, sulfates, hematite)

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA6 Indicators of climate history, particularly during Noachian  Noachian –Layered sediments in Noachian terrain (especially associated with fluvial valleys and lake basins) –Altered, hydrated minerals  Present/recent –Gullies; mid-latitude mantle; mass-wasting, periglacial, and glacial features –Hydrogen in near surface

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA7 Science data compiled in map form  Geologic epoch (Tanaka et al.)  Channels (Carr and Chuang)  Gullies (Edgett and Malin; Balme et al.)  Mantles (Milliken et al.)  Craters >5 km (Barlow)  Graben and wrinkle ridges (Scott et al.)  TES mineral maps (Bandfield)  GRS H 2 O (Boynton et al.)  Crater paleolakes (Cabrol and Grin)  Dunes (Titus et al.)  Noachian layered deposits (Arabia Terra; Tanaka et al.)

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA8 MSL landing-site GIS Model  Uses ArcMap model builder software –Can be built into a user-friendly Internet GUI tool –Assisted by JPL and ESRI personnel  Accesses many data sets in gridded formats  User inputs permitted for most parameters –Weighting –Buffering  Output maps –Engineering and landing circle-based “targetability” (circle has to fit) –Science and proximity-based “quality” (based on user inputs) –Statistics for given landing circles

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA9 MSL GIS Science Interest Model

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA10 MSL GIS Engineering Model

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA11 MSL GIS Targetability Model

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA12 sample MSL GIS science criteria map

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA13 sample MSL GIS science interest model

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA14 sample MSL GIS engineering/targetability model (incomplete data)

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA15 sample MSL GIS combined science/engineering model

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA16 Example of Tabulated Science Interest Model Data for Proposed Sties

May 31, 2006 MSL Site Selection Workshop, Pasadena CA17 Future work  Update engineering constraints –TES rock abundance, slopes, radar backscatter, temperature  Improve science feature maps –More complete mapping –More accurate positioning –New features  GIS model improvements –More accurate calculations –Web interface for users