A team of European scientists have published the most detailed geologic map of Oxia Planum – the landing site for ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover on Mars. This thorough look at the geography and geological history of the area will help the rover scout the once water-rich terrain, in the search for signs of past and present life.

The map gives scientists a head start before Rosalind Franklin lands there in 2030. Four years in the making, this map identifies 15 geological units with characteristic features that can help decide how the rover explores the area, interprets its surroundings, and tries to collect evidence of primitive life.

Oxia Planum is located near the martian equator and contains sedimentary deposits that are nearly four billion years old.

The map includes the main types of bedrock, and structures with distinct shapes like ridges and craters. It even features the material that rests on top, for example blown by the wind, or thrown long distances when meteorites impacted the surface. The shape model of the surface on which the map is shown here was generated from orbital images by a painstaking process. In some places, long and straight ‘stripes’ can be seen as a result of this processing.

Data came from the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and several instruments on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), including the HiRISE camera, which returns images from Mars orbit at 25 cm per pixel.

For more information, visit the ExoMars website: www.esa.int/exomars.