Soar Over the Likely Mars Landing Site of Europe's ExoMars Rover in This 3D Animation

Feel like going for a spin around Mars? A new video shows a 3D view of where the European-Russian ExoMars rover may land, in a region that was likely filled with water billions of years ago.

The video shows the terrain that the rover, named Rosalind Franklin, will likely drive upon after its scheduled landing in 2021. In the middle of the view is an eroded crater, luckily with flat terrain toward the center, which would give Rosalind Franklin a safe area in which to touch down and wander. The crater is located in Oxia Planum, a plain located in Mars' northern hemisphere, just southwest of Mawrth Vallis, one of the biggest valleys on Mars.

The European Space Agency explained that this region could be rich with signs of past life. Rosalind Franklin is optimized to look for signs of biosignatures, including detecting organic molecules that could have arisen from life processes.

Related: ExoMars Will Land in 1 of These 2 Spots on Mars in 2021
Video: See the ExoMars Rover's Proposed Landing Site in 3D

A close-up view of Oxia Planum on Mars from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

"Oxia Planum lies at the boundary where many channels emptied into the vast lowland plains," ESA said in a statement. "Observations from orbit show that the region exhibits layers of clay-rich minerals that were formed in wet conditions some four billion years ago, likely in a large body of standing water."

The video is based on high-resolution images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, using the close-up views available from the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera on board. Technicians took a few steps to translate the single-dimensional pictures into a 3D-rich video.

A 3D rendition of a crater at Oxia Planum on Mars. The European Space Agency's ExoMars 2020 rover may land here in 2021. (Image credit: ESA)

First, they took the raw images and combined them to form "stereo" images, which are a combination of two images that were taken of the same region but from slightly different angles. This produces an interim, 3D image. In flat regions such as Oxia Planum, however, the result is not very three dimensional.

So scientists at TU Dortmund University in Germany used a technique called "shape from shading," which involves translating the intensity of light reflected off the Martian surface into information about the surface slopes, ESA explained. The resulting 3D image provides a better estimate of the landing zone, even showing off small terrain differences in dune ripples.

These models were presented at the European Planetary Science Congress-Division for Planetary Sciences joint meeting in Geneva on Monday (Sept. 16).

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Elizabeth Howell
Staff Writer, Spaceflight

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace