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An Analysis of Proposed Future Martian Science Targets and Implications for Required Architecture

Laura Kerber,A. Fraeman,R. C. Anderson,L. Matthies

Published 2025 in IEEE Aerospace Conference

ABSTRACT

Over the last 50 years, orbital missions have collected a wealth of data across the Martian surface, and landers and rovers have visited a handful of specific places to conduct in-depth analyses. As orbital imagery has improved, it has become clear that Mars has significant compositional and geomorphological diversity well beyond that sampled by in-situ missions. Deliberate exploration of end-member terrains with surface assets is critical for furthering our understanding of Martian history. However, designing an architecture that is appropriate for anywhere on the Martian surface is difficult from a practical perspective. This study presents several examples of how the diversity of the Martian surface can be abstracted from orbital data and plots the previous and proposed landing sites in this framework. Starting with a range of proposed landing sites derived from community workshops and reports, we explore the implications of popular science targets on required engineering architecture, including (1) landing site elevation (driving landing architecture), (2) local climate (driving power and thermal architectures), and (3) surface dust environment (driving landing and power architectures).

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