Today is the day for the launch of the 2nd workshop dedicated to the choice of a landing site for the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory.

While the participants are preparing to listen and to be listened at the meeting, here, at spacEurope, I continue to publish the contributions that are still arriving from those presenting the surviving proposals.
While our guest for today, Victoria Hamilton, doesn’t make her presentation tomorrow at Pasadena, consisting on an updated scientific justification for the possible landing site, as well as an assessment of how well it meets the engineering constraints that have been established for the MSL mission, spacEurope follows her steps through Eos Chasma, the destiny proposed by the Associate Researcher at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (University of Hawai'i).

Eos Chasma is where Hamilton wishes to see MSL landing and the original reason for her choice is its mineralogy, the researcher tells us more...her thoughts are that, with all of the mineralogy data now available from the fleet of martian orbiters, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, it would be a travesty not to select a site where scientists have some idea of what kind of mineralogy (and thus, geology) they will find when MSL lands on martian ground. In the particular case of Eos Chasma, Vicky Hamilton started out studying the area for one reason: infrared data has shown that this region has enrichments in the igneous minerals olivine and pyroxene. Then, as Hamilton tells us, in the course of looking at the data, she discovered some small, brighter-toned deposits of completely different mineralogy...

The infrared spectral signatures from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) revealed that this material may be enriched in silica, which attributes to this site a different nature from the other proposals.

OK, the difference exists, but in which way turns Eos Chasma a tempting destination for MSL?

Our guest gives us the explanation…silica forms in many kinds of geologic environments as marine environments or hydrothermal/hot spring environments among others, the interesting part of it, and a must for MSL is that almost all of them require significant amounts of water.
Additionally, according to what Vicky Hamilton tells us, on our planet, silica deposits in rocks called cherts commonly preserve signatures of plant and animal life what lead us to the hypothesis of similar deposits on the Red Planet are very tempting places to search for signs of previously habitable environments. Hamilton’s analysis reveal another enticing fact…this special mineralogy, where may rest, waiting for a close look, the vestiges of martian life, makes up to 35% of the material making up the deposits, what take us to the conclusion that it is not just a trace component.

As if this opportunity to study such a deposit was not engaging enough, there are in the vicinity of the landing site, according to Hamilton, rocks enriched in olivine and these can provide us an insight into the igneous history of Mars and, of course, landing MSL into one of the canyons forming the incredible, abysmal, Valles Marineris system is, by its own right, something to dream of and scientifically, as the researcher enhances, that would provide us access to understand the formation and history of the canyon system.

A common aspect to all the proposals seems to be not the “Follow the water” mantra, but a more refined version…Follow the rocks, search the water, seek life…
Hamilton puts things in a perspective that I personally believe to be the best one…no intentional priority is given to any particular area, the researcher approach is to follow the problems that interest her, otherwise, as she remarks, It wouldn't be fun.



Not funny but indispensable is a look into financial questions vs science…what opinion has Hamilton in what concerns to the mission’s costs capping? First she makes a personal correction, in her opinion these are not, as formulated in the question I made, “budget cuts”, this would imply that less money is being provided than was originally promised, which is, according to Hamilton, not the case, still following her impression, the MSL mission is projected to overrun the budget it was given by a significant amount, and the project is asking for more money and, of this money, not growing in a tree outside, has to come from somewhere…in the scientist’s opinion, with the MSL descopes, NASA is trying to avoid cutting research funds, or prematurely terminating a successful currently operating mission such as Mars Odyssey or the Mars Exploration Rovers.

But this doesn’t prevent her from saying that it would have been nice to have the MARDI images, although, in her personal view, some of that loss will be accommodated by the HiRISE imager on MRO.
Regarding ChemCam, Vicky Hamilton remains optimistic that the necessary funds will, eventually, appear but, if this does not happen and ChemCam will not make part of the Mars Science Laboratory payload, there will be significant scientific loss and where will that be more significant in our guest personal opinion? In measuring light elements and getting chemical analyses from underneath any coatings that are present on the rocks at the landing site.

A major loss will occur operationally if, has put by Hamilton, MSL lacks the ability to do chemical remote sensing, as this will mean that the team has to decide where to go and which rocks to analyze based only on images, with little ability to target a route based on the differences in composition between rocks and soils in the area.
A special reference is made to the Mini-TES on the MER mission…this has demonstrated how important it is, fo a mission like MSL, to have this capability for operations as well as science.
In spite of this dark scenario Vicky Hamilton is able to return to a positive mood, and tells us that the amount of money required to complete ChemCam, relative to its total cost and the total cost of the mission, is quite small, therefore the scientist is hopeful that this dollars will appear and ChemCam, will make its journey towards Mars onboard MSL.

I hope to return to this post in a couple of years from now, when ChemCam is among the set of instruments that permitted us to celebrate amazing martian discoveries.