5 Top Landing Sites For A Manned Mission To Mars

If the European Space Agency (ESA) can put a probe on a reckless comet out beyond the orbit of Mars, suddenly sending humans to the Red Planet seems altogether doable. Coupled with last weeks successful test launch of NASAs Orion spacecraft, talk of astronaut encampments on Mars now actually appears credible.

If so, where would the first manned mission to Mars choose to set up shop?

There are three basic criteria for picking a Mars manned landing site a spot thats sustainable in terms of water, energy generation and building materials. One thats scientifically interesting for a lengthy mission. And, most importantly, one that is safe to land. Thus far, most researchers remain wary of committing themselves to any given site. But theres no time thats too early to get [the site selection process] started, John Grant, a planetary scientist at the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., told Forbes. The more imaging and radar data youre able to collect about a site; the better your odds of satisfying all the constraints.

Grant, who was co-chair of NASAs Mars Curiosity Rover landing site steering committee, doesnt think a human landing site selection process would look a whole lot different from that for the Mars rovers. Engineering, science and resource criteria would drive the process forward, with the overarching idea, he says, being that if you dont land safely, you dont get anything.

West of Valles Marineris lies a checkerboard named Noctis Labyrinthus, which formed when the Martian crust stretched and fractured. As faults opened, they released subsurface ice and water, causing the ground to collapse. This westward view combines images taken during the period from April 2003 to September 2005 by the Thermal Emission Imaging System instrument on NASAs Mars Odyssey orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Here is a countdown of five top possibilities as suggested by Brian Hynek, a planetary scientist and Director of the Center for Astrobiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

5) Martian lava tubes and caves.

These equatorial lava caves were only discovered in the last few years by images that identified skylights, or breaks in the top of a buried lava tube, Hynek told Forbes. He says that a potential landing site near the large shield volcano Pavonis Mons in the Tharsis region hosts a number of lava caves which could shelter astronauts shelter from deadly cosmic and solar radiation as well as provide a constant ambient temperature.

Hynek also notes that the proximity to such volcanic sites would offer astronauts a scientific boon. Thats because understanding Mars volcanic history would constrain models of the planets interior and climate, and determine when its volcanoes were actually active.

Pros: The astronauts wouldnt get cancer in three months, which may be a possibility if they are sitting on the surface for that long, said Hynek.