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Date Entered: 6 September 1988
The surface characteristics vary from smooth to rough at meter scale. The material at landing site consists of alluvial materials with possible eolian cover. Landing site is on the head of an alluvial fan at mouth of a gorge. The basement material is Noachian material of the Xanthe Terra highlands and ridged plains of Chryse Planitia. Once a site of pronounced erosion, the site was later subjected to deposition by waning flood waters. The local relief is probably dominated by late stage gullying in alluvial materials; hence, it may be both a bouldery and channelled surface. It may be blanketed with later aeolian material. Ridged plains materials are probably not exposed in the immediate vicinity.
Scientific Rationale
To be determined.
Objectives
1 km traverse: Would allow sampling materials of the fan. If an eolian cover is not present, a traverse would be able to examine the local vicinity for fan dissection. The possibility exists that this region is a wind gap of higher wind velocity and that the area is swept clear of eolian debris. Bedding in the fan could reveal part of the flow history in Maja. Sampling of fan sediments would provide materials for analysis from the canyon section of Maja. It is doubtful that material from beyond Xanthe Terra would be present.
5 km traverse: Would place a rover at the nearest edge of the gorge with the possibility of sampling the oldest rocks (Noachian basement materials) either in place or as colluvial material not far removed from its source.
10 km traverse: To the west would allow inspection of the north wall of the gorge and dissected Noachian materials. A traverse to the southern wall would allow inspection of the tributary/distributary gorge on the south wall.
25 km traverse: Up the canyon (west) would allow inspection of the wall of the canyon (Noachian materials), sediments in smooth deposits of the floor, and possible bedrock materials in hummocky floor material. Alternately, the traverse could proceed eastward onto the fan proper.
50 km traverse: Covering a larger area would offer little new. If the rover moved westward, it would essentially be trapped within the canyon and not be able to explore the plains on either side. If the rover moved eastward, the most common terrain would be materials of the alluvial fan/delta.
Comments: Ambitious in terms of safety, with all the good and bad points of working a fan/delta type deposit. An on-board seismic experiment could investigate the Xanthe Terra/Chryse Planitia boundary and/or the fan configuration.
Potential Problems
To be determined.
Trafficability
To be determined.
Estimated Traverse Distance
1-50 km
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