Example of Surface Composition Maps:TES, CRISM and HiRISE and research for 2021 landing site

TES: Hematite

Notice that there is only one area with a large concentration of Hematite.

Current Research Results using HiRISE and CRISM:

The USA rover, Perseverance, landed in Jezero Crater, Mars on 2/18/2021. One mission goal is to find signs of past life. Many of the instruments you have been learning about were used to determine where these signs of life might be as illustrated below from two recent research projects by research scientists. These scientists knew which type of surface materials would be the most likely to show signs of past life. They use JMARS to find them!

Jezero Crater

Goudge, Timothy A., et al. “Assessing the Mineralogy of the Watershed and Fan Deposits of the Jezero Crater Paleolake System, Mars.” AGU Journals, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 28 Apr. 2015, agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2014JE004782

Horgan, Briony H.N., et al. “The Mineral Diversity of Jezero Crater: Evidence for Possible Lacustrine Carbonates on Mars.” Icarus, vol. 339, 2020, p. 113526., doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2019.113526.

These minerals and groups are formed on earth in a wet environment where life possibly could have existed or where evidence of life could be found.