Aug 30, 2001 Memorandum
MARS EXPLORATION ROVER LANDING SITE MEMORANDUM
August 30, 2002
To: Landing Site Community
From: M. Golombek
Re: Final 4 Landing Ellipses
The MER Project with the concurrence of the Landing Site Steering Committee has selected a single low-wind ellipse in Elysium Planitia for further analysis. The ellipse is EP78B2.
- Elysium Planitia
- EP78B2 ellipse is located at:
- 11.91N, 236.10W MDIM2
- 11.73N, 123.72E MOLA
- The ellipse size is 155 km by 16 km oriented at 94 degrees
This location is unchanged from our last communication dated 6/12/02. The other low-wind ellipse (EP80B2) in Elysium has been dropped from further consideration.
With this down selection, four ellipses remain under consideration for landing the two MER: Hematite, Gusev, Isidis and this Elysium ellipse. The location of the Hematite, Gusev and Isidis ellipses remain unchanged. These 4 ellipses will be evaluated in detail at the 4th MER Landing Site Workshop, January 8-10, 2003 in Pasadena, CA and two will be selected as the MER landing sites afterward.
For reference, the location of the Hematite, Gusev and Isidis ellipses are as follows.
- Hematite in Terra Meridiani
- TM20B2 and TM10A2 are both centered at
- 2.07S, 6.08W MDIM2
- 2.06S, 353.77E MOLA
- TM10A2 ellipse 119 km by 17 km oriented at 84 deg
- TM20B2 ellipse 117 km by 18 km oriented at 86 deg
- Gusev Crater
- EP55A2
- 14.82S, 184.85W MDIM2
- 14.64S, 175.06E MOLA
- EP55A2 ellipse 96 km by 19 km oriented at 76 deg
- Isidis Planitia
- IP84A2 and IP96B2 are both centered at:
- 4.31N, 271.97W MDIM2
- 4.22N, 87.91E MOLA
- IP84A2 ellipse 132 km by 16 km oriented at 88 deg
- IP96B2 ellipse 135 km by 16 km oriented at 91 deg