The HiRISE Scale Map of the Proposed Landing Site for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover in Oxia Planum

Abstract

Oxia Planum (OP) [1] is the selected landing site for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin (RF) Rover. The goal of the reformulated ExoMars Rosalind Franklin mission, now in planning for launch in 2028, is to search for signs of past and present life and to characterize the water and geochemical environment in the subsurface as a function of depth. RF will accomplish this with its ‘Pasteur’ suite of scientific instruments, and a drilling and sampling subsystem to retrieve samples for analysis from up to 2 m depth [2]. In preparation for the 2022 mission, The ExoMars science team undertook a geological mapping exercise of the landing site [3] prioritizing the 1-sigma area of the 2022 landing ellipses (Fig 1). The goal of this map is to develop a thorough understanding prior to rover operations of the OP landing site’s geography, stratigraphy, and geological history, and to provide testable hypotheses to facilitate interpretation of results and address the mission’s science objectives. Here we present the completed map of Oxia Planum, our interpretations of the major geological units, the leading hypotheses for some major units and implications for astrobiology goals of the mission.