August 20, 2015 Dr. Michael Meyer Mars Exploration Program Lead Scientist Planetary Science Division Science Mission Directorate NASA Headquarters 300 E Street SW Washington, DC 20546 Dear Michael: The purpose of this letter is to summarize the outcome of the joint Mars 2020 Project, Mars 2020 Project Science Group, Mars Exploration Program, and Mars 2020 Landing Site Steering Committee meeting held in Monrovia, CA, on the afternoon of August 6, 2015. This meeting was held immediately following the 2nd Mars 2020 Landing Site Workshop, also held in Monrovia, CA, on August 4-6, 2015. The purpose of the post-landing site workshop joint meeting was to discuss the Mars 2020 landing site inputs from the science community and select eight sites for further engineering and science evaluation ahead of the next planned landing site workshop, scheduled for January 2017. The eight sites selected are (in alphabetical order): Columbia Hills/Gusev Eberswalde Holden Jezero Mawrth NE Syrtis Nili Fossae SW Melas These sites are also shown on the map in Figure 1. Of the eight sites selected for further investigation, there is only one difference versus the landing site rankings based on scientific criteria produced at the landing site workshop: the Nili Carbonate site was not selected. Instead, the 9th ranked site from the landing site workshop was selected. Nili Carbonate was not selected for further work due to a high risk engineering assessment and scientific overlap with other selected sites. The engineering viability of the Nili Carbonate site depends on a significant reduction in landing
August 20, 2015 Dr. Michael Meyer Mars Exploration Program Lead Scientist Planetary Science Division Science Mission Directorate NASA Headquarters 300 E Street SW Washington, DC 20546 Dear Michael: The purpose of this letter is to summarize the outcome of the joint Mars 2020 Project, Mars 2020 Project Science Group, Mars Exploration Program, and Mars 2020 Landing Site Steering Committee meeting held in Monrovia, CA, on the afternoon of August 6, 2015. This meeting was held immediately following the 2nd Mars 2020 Landing Site Workshop, also held in Monrovia, CA, on August 4-6, 2015. The purpose of the post-landing site workshop joint meeting was to discuss the Mars 2020 landing site inputs from the science community and select eight sites for further engineering and science evaluation ahead of the next planned landing site workshop, scheduled for January 2017. The eight sites selected are (in alphabetical order): Columbia Hills/Gusev Eberswalde Holden Jezero Mawrth NE Syrtis Nili Fossae SW Melas These sites are also shown on the map in Figure 1. Of the eight sites selected for further investigation, there is only one difference versus the landing site rankings based on scientific criteria produced at the landing site workshop: the Nili Carbonate site was not selected. Instead, the 9th ranked site from the landing site workshop was selected. Nili Carbonate was not selected for further work due to a high risk engineering assessment and scientific overlap with other selected sites. The engineering viability of the Nili Carbonate site depends on a significant reduction in landing