Illustration of the ExoMars rover, Rosalind Franklin.Credit: ESA
Oxia Planum lies at the boundary where water channels emptied into Mars' lowland. Observations show that the region has layers of clay-rich minerals that were formed in wet conditions some four billion years ago, likely in standing water.ESA
The two candidates for the landing site of the ESA-Roscosmos rover and surface science platform that will launch to the Red Planet. Both landing site candidates – Oxia Planum and Mawrth Vallis – preserve a rich record of geological history from the planet’s wetter past billions of years ago. They lie just north of the equator, separated by a few hundred kilometres, in a region with many channels cutting through from the southern highlands to the northern lowlands.The background used in this image is from NASA’s Viking orbiters.NASA/JPL/USGS
Mission name: Exobiology on Mars (ExoMars) Rover
Rosalind Franklin ExoMars Rover
Establishing if life ever existed on Mars
Mission news and discoveries
