Where To Land?

The Mars One project talks of sending an unmanned rover to Mars in 2018 to seek out a suitable landing site for a colony. I am not entirely sure how much scope for choice of site this will provide. None of the rovers sent to Mars so far have had high speed capabilities. They have been slow, partly because of power constraints but also because of the need to proceed cautiously when any intervention by controllers on Earth is subject to a long time lag caused by the light speed limit on communications. So it follows that Mars One will need to pre-determine a landing site within tight limits before sending its rover to conduct a detailed survey. Even a relatively fast vehicle will probably only be able to cover a few square miles before colonists  need to set out (2022 is the suggested launch target).

What features would a target area possess? Well, first it would help if it were relatively close to the equator of Mars. On such a cold planet, the more that can be done to reduce heating requirements and maximise solar energy for naturally generated photosynthesis in crops, and for solar panel produced electricity, then the better. Secondly, it will be necessary to find somewhere with quantities of water ice relatively close to the land surface, so that the ice can be drilled, melted and extracted to support the colony's water usage requirements. Thirdly, there may be useful mineral resources to be sought and detected within reasonably easy reach of the colony base. Fourthly, if geothermal energy is to be tapped, whatever can be done to assess the potential of a specific site both in terms of heat sources and drilling requirements, will be a priority.

More than this, a colony will hope to use local materials for building and most particularly for cut and cover work to provide solar radiation protection. A landing site will also need stable surface characteristics. Deep dust cover will be something to avoid. Relatively limited loose rock coverage of a site will reduce the work effort in land clearance and enhance the prospects of a safe landing. Any heavy duty leveling of the surface will be out of the question early on in settlement activity and it will remain something to avoid if possible in the longer-term, if only because of its resource implications. So a largely flat and level site must be sought, preferably with a broad expanse of even surface around it to make as easy as possible the future development and expansion of the colony.

Quite a lot of considerations to ponder. There is a lot of data already available from orbital surveys, together with quite detailed photography of the surface. This all needs careful analysis beyond the largely scientific study that has gone on so far, to determine candidate sites for any dedicated rover that may be sent on a colony survey mission.