Elevation of the Meridiani Planum
Date: 05 October 2011
Depicts: Elevation of the Meridiani Planum
Copyright: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
A close-up elevation map of the Meridiani Planum at the northern edge of the southern highlands of Mars is shown here. The region lies is situated about 2°N / 352°E and lies between the volcanic Tharsis Region to the west and the low-lying Hellas Planitia impact basin to the southeast. It extends 127 km by 63 km and covers an area of roughly 8000 km², which is about the size of the island of Cyprus.
This image was created using a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) obtained from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. Elevation data from the DTM is colour-coded: purple indicates the lowest-lying regions and beige the higher elevations. The scale, at the bottom right of the image, is in metres.
ESA has identified the primary landing site for the ExoMars Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM) in a flat and rock-free area of the Meridiani Planum region. The EDM is scheduled for launch in March 2016, arriving at the Red Planet approximately nine months later.
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