Do you want to live in New England (hills, valleys, waterfalls, lakes, forests, etc.) or in Kansas/Nebraska?
Quote from: DOCinCT on 12/03/2016 07:28 pmQuote from: MickQ on 11/27/2016 10:28 amUtopia Planitia may be boring BUT it has a basically unlimited water supply. IMO, the ideal place to set up the solar and ISRU plants needed. Plenty of area to build an initial base to establish a foothold. Plenty of room to locate landing zones far enough away from other structures. So what if you have to drive 10klm from the ITS to the base. It's not hard with the right vehicles.Land, get set up safe and comfortable and then worry about science and exploration.Do you want to live in New England (hills, valleys, waterfalls, lakes, forests, etc.) or in Kansas/Nebraska?Do you want to live, full stop?
Quote from: MickQ on 11/27/2016 10:28 amUtopia Planitia may be boring BUT it has a basically unlimited water supply. IMO, the ideal place to set up the solar and ISRU plants needed. Plenty of area to build an initial base to establish a foothold. Plenty of room to locate landing zones far enough away from other structures. So what if you have to drive 10klm from the ITS to the base. It's not hard with the right vehicles.Land, get set up safe and comfortable and then worry about science and exploration.Do you want to live in New England (hills, valleys, waterfalls, lakes, forests, etc.) or in Kansas/Nebraska?
Utopia Planitia may be boring BUT it has a basically unlimited water supply. IMO, the ideal place to set up the solar and ISRU plants needed. Plenty of area to build an initial base to establish a foothold. Plenty of room to locate landing zones far enough away from other structures. So what if you have to drive 10klm from the ITS to the base. It's not hard with the right vehicles.Land, get set up safe and comfortable and then worry about science and exploration.
Wanted to draw attention to this:A possibly interesting site for large payload landing is Hadriacus Palus, which is just east of Terby crater on the very northern edge of Hellas Planitia.
Paul Wooster, SpaceX, on Mars landing site selection: looking at sites at latitudes < 40˚, elevation as low as possible. #LPSC2017
Wooster: identified several candidate sites, but many likely too rocky. Arcadia region looks promising. #LPSC2017
Wanted to draw attention to this:A possibly interesting site for large payload landing is Hadriacus Palus, which is just east of Terby crater on the very northern edge of Hellas Planitia. It has a latitude of 27.25 South which is within the 30S cutoff for solar power considerations - it also has probable water ice deposits, nearby mineral deposits, and generally high scientific value - leading to it being ranked 16th out of all the landing sites in the 2020 workshop:Evaluation paper here:http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/explorationzone2015/pdf/1052.pdf
Amazonis Planitia. < 40˚ latitude, low elevation, not too rocky, and highest water ice concentrations at that latitude.
But if there's lots of water in other forms, then focus should be on power.
Here's Jeff Foust's write-up of Paul's Woosters comments:http://spacenews.com/spacex-studying-landing-sites-for-mars-missions/
Quote from: Dao Angkan on 03/20/2017 02:45 amAmazonis Planitia. < 40˚ latitude, low elevation, not too rocky, and highest water ice concentrations at that latitude.That's pretty sweet to learn. If the priority is ice not a bad choice. It looks like a mix of both Amazonis and Arcadia technically; then again most of the northern plains may as well just be counted as one giant extension of Vastis Boreallis. As I stated in the Red Dragon thread, other regions could just as easily suffice if this is just an engineering test but I have to admit if the priority is ice (and eventually setting up a colony) the region is a very fair choice.That map you posted also show a surprising number of southerly sites. What is known about them?
Not good for solar power in winter. Not exactly exciting topography for settlers. The "fun" factor Elon oft mentions.Perhaps SpaceX wants earliest RD missions to have easiest ice access to validate ISRU tech and then proceed to base selection forays.Also NASA landing site priority criteria are not likely SpaceX's priorities.
Isn't it "easy" to tip the solar panels making higher latitude almost as good. I would think dust on the panels or in the air might be a more important power consideration.