Attached are two JPEGs showing the two low wind landing sites under consideration in Elysium (on MOLA and MDIM base maps). On careful mapping of the ellipse sizes onto MDIMs, MOLA topography and rock abundance pixels, we had to move the ellipses slightly by a few tenths of a degree (EP80B2 south and EP78B2 north). The location of the two sites in MDIM2 and MOLA coordinates are:

Elysium_Planitia.jpg   (2.8 Mbytes)
Elysium_Planitia_ellipses.jpg   (1.1 Mbytes)

The center of the EP80B2 ellipse is:

• 14.50N, 244.63W (MDIM2);
• 14.32N, 115.20E (MOLA)
• The ellipse size is 165 km by 15 km oriented at 95 degrees
• Elevation: -2.6 km center, Low -2.9 km, High -2.5 km
• Average Rock abundance 8.7% (3 pixels from east to west are 3, 11, 12%)

• 11.91N, 236.10W (MDIM2);
• 11.73N, 123.72E (MOLA)
• The ellipse size is 155 km by 16 km oriented at 94 degrees
• Elevation: -2.9 km center, Low -3.2 km, High -2.7 km
• Average Rock Abundance 6.3% (7 pixels are 1, 6, 6, 11, 6, 8, 6%)

Two activities are now occurring. The first is targeting MOC and THEMIS images of these locations. The second is evaluating existing THEMIS data in the region to be sure that we have located the optimal site in the low wind region. These activities will converge to a single low wind site in Elysium to carry forward for detailed evaluation in the next several months.