Dear Colleague:
As a reminder, the 4th Landing Site Workshop for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers will be held next week, January 8-10, 2003, at the Embassy Suites Hotel on Huntington Avenue in Arcadia, CA. A block of rooms have been reserved at the Embassy Suites at the government rate of $99 under the name of "JPL MER Landing". Additional information is available at the hotel website: http://www.embassysuites.com/en/es/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=LAXHDES.
The workshop will consider the four sites remaining under consideration: Hematite, Gusev Crater, Isidis Basin, and the Elysium "Wind Safe" Site. More specifically, presentations will focus on scientific hypotheses that can be tested at a site using the Athena Science Payload or focus on issues related to landing safety and/or rover mobility or instrument operability. Therefore, talks related to the general geologic setting of the proposed landing sites will emphasize distinguishing between various testable hypotheses using the Athena Science Package It is expected that a compilation of these testable hypotheses will comprise the outcome of the workshop. An agenda for the workshop is attached.
A complete description of the mission/science objectives of the Mars Exploration Rovers, all related engineering constraints, and all activities related to the landing site selection process to date can be reviewed at: http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/landingsites/ and http://webgis.wr.usgs.gov/. Attendees are encouraged to review this material prior to the workshop.
This will be the final community workshop related to selection of the landing sites for the Mars Exploration Rovers. Following the workshop, the Project and Science Team will formulate a recommendation to NASA Headquarters for final landing site selection and approval.
Your continued participation is critical to the selection of the optimum landing sites for the Mars Exploration Rovers and we hope to see you at the workshop next week!
Sincerely,
John Grant and Matt Golombek
Co-Chairs, Landing Site Steering Committee