Hypanis Valles
Hypanis Vallis is a 270 km valley in Xanthe Terra on Mars at 11° N, 314° E. It appears to have been carved by long-lived flowing water, and a significant river delta exists at its outlet into the lowlands.[1]
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Hypanis Vallis, as seen by HiRISE. Scale bar is 500 meters long.
Exploration
Hypanis Vallis was one of the sites proposed as a landing site for the Curiosity rover of the Mars Science Laboratory mission,[1] to assess the past habitability potential of that zone. However, it did not make the final cut.
Hypanis Vallis is also one of the four semifinalist candidate landing sites for the ExoMars rover mission,[2][3] due to launch in 2018. The goal of ExoMars is search for signs of any past or present life on Mars. The rover would land on the distal deposits adjacent to the Hypanis river delta and the nearby Sabrina delta. These deposits are likely to be composed of fine grained sediment, having been laid down in a low energy environment, where any potential biosignatures could be preserved.
References
- ^ a b Sites of Potential Long Term Sub-surface Water, Mineral-rich Environments, and Deposition in South Elysium Planitia, Hellas-Dao Vallis, Isidis Basin, and Xanthe-Hypanis Vallis: Candidate Mars Science Laboratory Landing Sites. L. S. Crumpler.
- ^ The Hypanis fluvial deltaic system in Xanthe Terra: a candidate ExoMars 2018 Rover landing site. Sefton-Nash, E.; Fawdon, P.; Gupta, S.; Balme, M.; Davis, J.; Grindrod, P.; Sidiropoulos, P.; Yershov, V. and Muller, J.-P. (2015). 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, 16-20th March 2015, Houston, TX.
- ^ Recommendation for the Narrowing of ExoMars 2018 Landing Sites. 1 October 2014. ESA.
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