Sedimentation and Proposed Algorithms to Detect the Possible Existence of Vegetation and Humidity in the Landing Area of the Mars Exploration Rover-B (Opportunity)

Opportunity was launched in 2004 and has been providing interesting data from Mars till 2018. Meridiani Planum was the landing site for the robot. This crater has numerous rock outcrops, which are considered a valuable geological resource that contains keys to the Martian past. In this work, several algorithms have been developed for detecting the possible presence of humidity and vegetation on Mars through the images sent by the Mars Exploration Rover - B Opportunity and by the Viking Orbiter between 1976 and 1980. For this, it was carried out a sedimentary simulation of the study area, as well as an analysis of all the images from the spectral signatures extracted. The results show the existence of three types of water on the surface, as well as concentrations of Neoxanthin, also on landing area surface, that suggest the possible existence of microalgae.

Martian outflow channels: How did their source aquifers form and why did they drain so rapidly?

Catastrophic floods generated ~3.2 Ga by rapid groundwater evacuation scoured the Solar System’s most voluminous channels, the southern circum-Chryse outflow channels. Based on Viking Orbiter data analysis, it was hypothesized that these outflows emanated from a global Hesperian cryosphere-confined aquifer that was infused by south polar meltwater infiltration into the planet’s upper crust. In this model, the outflow channels formed along zones of superlithostatic pressure generated by pronounced elevation differences around the Highland-Lowland Dichotomy Boundary. However, the restricted geographic location of the channels indicates that these conditions were not uniform. Furthermore, some outflow channel sources are too high to have been fed by south polar basal melting. Using more recent mission data, we argue that during the Late Noachian fluvial and glacial sediments were deposited into a clastic wedge within a paleo-basin located in the southern circum-Chryse region, which at the time was completely submerged under a primordial northern plains ocean. Subsequent Late Hesperian outflow channels were sourced from within these geologic materials and formed by gigantic groundwater outbursts driven by an elevated hydraulic head from the Valles Marineris region. Thus, our findings link the formation of the southern circum-Chryse outflow channels to ancient marine, glacial and fluvial erosion and sedimentation.

Advances in Understanding of the Martian Climate

Data collected by the Viking mission to Mars resulted in a picture of the Martian climate which stood largely unmodified for over a decade. When a challenge did come in the mid-1990’s it resulted from ground-based and HST observations which suggested lower global-average temperatures and dust opacities, and more atmospheric water ice than inferred from Viking. These observations prompted suggestions of climate change orders of magnitude larger and faster than anything contemplated for the Earth. A combination of new data from the Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) and reanalysis of Viking-era data have resulted in a new picture of the Martian climate. It is now clear that no significant climate change has occurred and that the “cooler and cloudier” conditions observed in the 1990’s for northern summer applied equally well to the Viking era. TES observations have provided detailed information on the cycle of air temperature and water ice clouds which support and extend the ground-based and HST observations. The disagreement with Viking observations has been found to result from faults in the Viking Orbiter Infrared Thermal Mapper (IRTM) 15µm channel, the lack of analysis of IRTM data applicable to water ice, and the misinterpretation of Viking Lander opacity measurements. The TES observations provide a rich data base which is now allowing a new picture of the Martian climate to be constructed in which water vapour and water ice clouds may play a significant role in modulating the annual cycles of dust and air temperature.