Aram Dorsum

Aram Dorsum is one of four candidate landing sites under consideration for the ExoMars 2018 mission. The Aram Dorsum site receives its name from the Aram Dorsum channel, curving from northeast to west across the landing location. The sedimentary rocks around the channel are interpreted to be alluvial sediments deposited much like those around Earth’s River Nile.

The image combines HRSC images from ESA Mars Express with MOLA topography data from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor. The landing ellipses under evaluation for site selection are indicated, and cover an area of 104 x 19 km. The orientation of the landing ellipse depends on when the launch takes place within a given launch window – the sites have to be compliant with launch opportunities in both 2018 and 2020, as indicated.

Full story: Four candidate landing sites for ExoMars 2018