Near‐surface temperatures at proposed Mars Exploration Rover landing sites

Abstract

Minimum nighttime temperatures at the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) landing sites may limit power available for science activities and thus mission lifetime. Here, 1 m air temperatures at the end of the nominal 90 sol primary mission are derived for the four primary and three previously considered MER landing sites based on Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer thermal inertia and albedo, estimated opacity, and predictions of air temperatures from a one‐dimensional atmospheric model. Taking these results and mapping them onto the probability density distribution of the landing ellipses shows that of the air temperatures of the primary sites, Sinus Meridiani (“Hematite”) is the coldest, with an 8% chance of encountering minimum nighttime temperatures below the 176 K value considered a practical limit for operations. Elysium and Gusev are at 7% and 3%, respectively, whereas Isidis has no computed temperatures below 191 K. For the Hematite site, preliminary observations and interpretations are also made using high‐resolution Odyssey Thermal Imaging System predawn images.