Paleolake Deposits in Central Valles Marineris: A Unique Opportunity for 2001

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

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Mars Surveyor 2001 Mission, Landing Sites, Site Selection, Mars Surface, Beds (Geology), Mars Photographs, Planetary Geology

Scientific paper

Paleolake deposits have been mapped in Central Valles Marineris since Manner 9 and Viking. Accordingly, the region has been proposed as a priority target for landed payloads intended to detect diagnostic mineral evidence of a permanent lake environment, and, especially, biogenic signatures that could have survived from such promising candidate Martian habitats. Just-released MOLA data strongly buttress the hydrological case for long duration ice-covered lakes there during Hesperian times at least. And terrestrial discoveries within the last decade have extended the known subsurface distribution and seemingly ancient character of terrestrial chemotrophic microbes. These results, combined with the ground-water biogenic signature inferred by some from the Allen Hills meteorite, have strengthened significantly the scientific case for Central Valles Marineris. Until now, the difficulty has been the absence of a technical means within the Surveyor or New Millenium DS-2 capabilities for landing upon outcrops of interior layered deposits. Now the improved 2001 lander design brings exposures of interior paleolake deposits within the Surveyor program targeting capability for the first time. It is my purpose to argue here that several candidate paleolake deposits within the Central Vallis Marineris should be included as candidate landing sites pending definitive high-resolution MGS and Surveyor'98 observations.

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