HiRISE plays an important role in finding suitable landing sites for future rover missions. Scientists have narrowed down the candidate landing sites for the upcoming European ExoMars rover mission to two regions: the plains of Oxia and Mawrth Vallis. (This particular area is slightly north-east of the landing ellipse in Oxia Planum.)

Images covering these areas aid scientists in picking a location that will be both scientifically interesting and a safe place to land and operate. HiRISE pictures help to assess the risk for each particular location so that a final landing site can be selected.

If you look very closely, the image may appear hazy. This is due to additional dust lingering in the atmosphere from the massive summer global dust storm at the time we acquired this observation. ExoMars is due to launch to Mars in 2028.

ID: ESP_056916_1990
date: 17 September 2018
altitude: 283 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_056916_1990
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
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