“The landing site in Jezero Crater offers geologically rich terrain, with landforms reaching as far back as 3.6 billion years old, that could potentially answer important questions in planetary evolution and astrobiology,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Getting samples from this unique area
“Nothing has been more difficult in robotic planetary exploration than landing on Mars.”
Jezero Crater, a potential landing site for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission to look for signs of past life, is one of 24 paleolakes that held vast amounts of water across the Red Planet featured in a new study by NASA scientists and University of Texas researchers. The mission is designed to search for evidence of possible ancient life on Mars and to gather and store geological samples that a future NASA mission could one day bring back to Earth laboratories.
